Smooth the Wrinkles Out of Your Background: The Most Common Resume Dilemmas, and What to Do When:
Your Employment Chronology Works against You
If your current or most recent job is not relevant to your objective, don’t feel you have to put it first. Don’t feel locked in by having to stick to the "reverse-chronology rule" of resume writing.
This was the mistake John Jones made with his first resume (see page 64). His objective was a purchasing position, but he hadn’t been in purchasing since 1989. Yet, because of the reverse-chronology rule, he felt he was supposed to place his most recent job first. In his Bank of Boston job section, John made the dates less prominent, moving them into the body of the resume, downplaying the present nature of his employment situation.
- Finally, John made some style changes that worked to his advantage. He removed the bold style of his title Head Rigger and kept the bold for his title of Senior Buyer/Assistant Purchasing Officer.
You Look Like a Job Hopper
Fortunately, short-term employment is not the stigma it used to be. A generation ago, it was not unusual for one's career to have consisted of one job with one company. Job hoppers were thought of as those "who couldn’t hold down a job." Now statistics show a completely different work world. The average worker under the age of 35 changes jobs every year and a half. The average worker over the age of 35 changes jobs every three years. Clearly job hopping is more common than ever before.
So how do companies interpret this? Obviously they don’t want high turnover, which results in higher costs, such as recruitment and retraining expenses. Certainly companies want the ideal employee, that is, one who is loyal, productive, and stimulating and who stays that way and with them, for a long time. They realize, however, that this can be unrealistic in this day and age. So they also look for value and depth of contribution with each job within each company, whether short or long term.
Astute companies know that valuable employees are often recruited from one company to the next because of their worth. In fact, it's often the companies themselves-and their appealing offers to valuable employees-that can make the valuable employee into a job hopper. So it is just as often worth as it is lack of worth that is the cause of short-term employment in today's market.
This is not to say, however, that you shouldn't downplay the fact that you moved around a lot. In most industries, companies have grown to accept two or three years with one company as acceptable. However, if you've had several one-year stints with companies, it's best to downplay the dates and build on your contributions within each company.
Take a look at job hopper John Bartons first resume on the next page.
It is clear that John's first resume does not make him a hot date! A quick scan of the obvious left-margin dates tell us that John hasn't stuck around more than a year for any of his last four jobs. Further, it doesn't take an astute reader to see that John wasn't recruited to his next jobs; there's a clear gap between positions. Finally, there's no way for the reader to know whether John performed effectively in his positions, because he didn't list any achievements.
Yet John was a good performer. Indeed, it was circumstances outside of his performance-a company takeover, a forced relocation requirement, a difficult and irrational senior Vice President whom no one could get along with-that forced his job changes. John didn't deserve the negative attention his resume gave him. And his rewrite helped him enormously. See John's new resume on page 70.
In John's new resume, he has moved the dates inside the body of the resume, taking the attention away from them. Most importantly, he has removed the months, listing only the years of his employment. This is still accurate and ethical. He hasn't falsified a thing.
The result of using just years and not months has helped in two ways: John's jobs now appear to have the potential of having lasted up to two years each rather than less than one. Further, it now appears possible that John could have been recruited directly into each new position, rather than, as the months would indicate, being 72 / GETTING THE JOB YOU WANT...NOW! Stuck with gaps in his employment history. Finally, John gave some thought to what he accomplished in each position and then listed this on the resume. In addition to beefing up his value, John was able to focus the reader away from the dates and onto his achievements.
Since a resume is objective fact it can’t be subjective or make excuses. The time for that is at the interview. In John’s case, his objective data in his first resume was hurting him, depriving him of the opportunity to explain his job changes. His second resume ethically and persuasively manipulates the data to give him the opportunity he needs.
It Appears That You Stayed Too Long with One Company
Believe it or not, staying too long with one employer in this day and age can be construed as a negative as often as it is a positive. One position with one company for 10 years, for example, can make you appear to be an un-ambitious slider, unmotivated to grow. That may be an injustice and you actually may have been ideally matched to your position, but you need to show that on your resume; otherwise the reader may not see an exciting contributor on paper.
If you’ve spent more than five years in one position with one company, be sure to show your growth and contributions in that position. Don't look stagnant. For an example, see the following resume:
If you've had several jobs with one employer, show this as progressive experience. Don't repeat the company name each time. Instead, place the overall time of company employment in the left margin across from the company name, and list your specific positions in reverse chronological order with the dates of that position after each title. See below for what John Jones, a purchasing professional from the Bank of Boston, did.
Your Current Job Title Looks Like a Step Backward
Ms. Palmer, the Assistant Controller at The Kernsworth Company, had long aspired to a full Controller position. That opportunity actually came with her own employer when the firm's Controller became seriously ill and was forced to retire early. Palmer was given the responsibilities of the Controller position on a temporary basis during the company's thorough search for the old Controller's replacement. And Palmer did a good job. In fact, she did everything that was expected of her. But after the company's search was completed, she was notified that she came in second for the job (it was given to a Kernsworth Controller from another division); she would be returning to her old position of Assistant Controller.
This did not sit well with Palmer, and she resumed her own outside search for a Controller position. When she went to develop her resume, she was optimistic because she felt she could finally put down experience at the Controller, rather than Assistant Controller, level. But she soon realized that one thing stuck out like a sore thumb: She had gone up from Assistant Controller to Controller and back down to Assistant Controller. The results of her first resume depressed her. See what the critical part of her first resume looked like on the next page.
Palmer knew she needed to communicate her effectiveness during her stint as Controller, as well as explain to the reader why she went back to her old job of Assistant Controller. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that what happened to her was logical and all she needed to do was guide the reader through an explanation. She knew she could explain the situation in her cover letter, but she was afraid that relying on the cover letter alone to cover this critical area of information would be risky, since the resume could get separated from the cover letter or the cover letter might not get read. So she went about building a new resume (see the next page) that put her in the best possible light. Notice the summary Palmer built in under the category Qualified By.
In this early section she introduces the title Interim Controller. This title sets the tone for the reader, showing the temporary nature of the position from the very beginning, so the reader is not surprised by her return to Assistant Controller. Further, the summary section qualifies her performance, setting a positive tone by stating that she "effectively" served as Interim Controller and Assistant Controller. Then, in describing her positions in The Kernsworth Company, she lists Interim Controller first and describes her responsibilities and achievements within that position. Despite the fact that her current position is Assistant Controller, she has logically listed her highest level of responsibility first: Interim Controller. Then she goes on to show her effectiveness in the position: "Received excellent performance reviews for accomplishing all objectives as Interim Controller…"
Finally, she even gets in the reason for her not being selected as permanent Controller; "Smoothly facilitated transition for new Controller (a senior ranking Controller from another Kernsworth location)."
Palmer felt confident that, on paper, she'd put herself in the best possible Height, proving that, though she was currently titled Assistant Controller, she could successfully handle the full responsibilities of the Controller position.
Your Resume Sounds Stuck in the Past Tense
Don’t feel you have to write in the past tense. Past tense sounds like a "has-been." Instead use the present participle (the "ing" form). This will give your resume a much more active sound. Vicki Marstons first resume (see page 82), for example, sounded stale and inactive. She'd lost her job when the airline she worked for went under. Now on paper her career looked stuck in the past tense.
Vicki developed a new resume (see next page) that was much more active. She moved the dates away from the prominent left margin to downplay the past tense. Then she broke up the paragraph format into bullets, which accentuated the more active verb form she used to begin each line.
