Ask the Experts: Put Temporary Contract Jobs on Your Resume

Question:

How do I add to my resume a contract job that only lasted a few days or for even one day? Most employers are looking for work experience and contract jobs will certainly help with that.

First Answer:

ANY experience is work experience, I suppose, but I wouldn’t consider a one or two-day job as work experience. I’d only add a contract job like
this to my resume if it was for something very specialized. If your type
of work requires you to do very small jobs, constantly, I would perhaps
consider selecting a few of the best, and mention that you’ve worked for
these companies in your cover letter.

— Alison Blackman Dunham, life & career expert, columnist, personal public relations consultant, half of THE ADVICE SISTERS®, and the author of the ASK ALISON career advice column

Second Answer:

Focus on what ‘added value’ you contributed to each department or organization – and not how long you were there. This is where functional
resumes win over chronological ones – the latter being overly ‘dated
focused’, in my opinion. Ensure you draw attention to the skills you
displayed and what specific contribution you made. Remember, this doesn’t
just have to be quantitative – if your boss or a co-worker remarked on how
helpful, creative or hardworking you were during that contract engagement,
that’s something a future employer will want to know. The key thing to
remember is you need to demonstrate how what you did in the past for someone
else can be translated into what a prospective employer needs now. And the
beauty of contract jobs is that – to be successful – you have to show that
you can hit the ground running and really achieve the goals of the
department or organization in a short space of time. Don’t forget that
successful contractors also have to have consummate interpersonal skills
because you’re meeting and having to work with people that you don’t know –
how do you stack up with regard to your ability to seamlessly blend into an
existing team?

In fact, I’m lobbying for a drastic re-think to the way resumes are scripted these days – the environment has changed but the way we present our
backgrounds has not, and to my mind candidates and hiring managers suffer as
a consequence. If you feel comfortable breaking the mould and really
standing out from the crowd, find a resume coach who can help you
incorporate all your experience – whether one day, one month or one year –
into a compelling document that will show you in your best light.

— Elizabeth Barnes, motivational speaker, workshop leader, author, journalist, and forum panelist.

Third Answer:

It’s true that employers want work experience and that contract jobs will help. If you have just one contract job of very short duration,
however, I’m not sure I’d add that to your resume. On the other hand, if you
have several very short projects, you could use a format suggested by
Deb Dib, president, of Advantage Resumes of New York. Dib offers the example
below (note that the projects in her example are of longer duration
than what you’re talking about, but there’s no reason the same format
couldn’t be used for shorter-term contracts):

Systems Design:
Jobs through (list temp company or companies), including work as
(list titles) with companies including (list companies). Fourteen months,
2000 to Present

Y2K Remediation:
Jobs through (list temp company or companies), including work as
(list titles) with companies including (list companies).
Fifteen months, 1998 to 2000

Project Management:
Jobs through (list temp company or companies), including work as
(list titles) with companies including (list companies). Twenty months,
1998 to Present

You may find other ideas in the article from which the above example
comes, Life After Temping: How to Portray Your Temping Experience When You Seek a Permanent Career .

— Katharine Hansen, former speechwriter and college instructor who provides content for the Web site, Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and prepares job-search correspondence as chief writer for Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters

Fourth Answer:

One approach you may wish to consider is how you categorize your experience. Most resumes include the work under a category called “Employment History” or something like that. In today’s economy, we are all free agents to one degree or another. I recommend including your work and the relevant experience (rather than focusing on the time, accentuate the project and the results you created). Then, include it with your employment information, but categorize it as “Service History.” This is much more inclusive of other work besides traditional, full-time employment.

— Keith F. Luscher, Creative Director with Goettler Associates, Inc., a fund-raising consulting firm serving non-profit organizations nationwide, and author of Don’t Wait Until You Graduate!

Fifth Answer:

There are several ways to handle this situation depending on if you were contracted as an individual consultant or through an agency. If you were
contracted through an agency, then you can list the agency as the employer
— often many short term assignments are receive as a result of agency
employment. If you were an contracted without the help of an agency, then
I would list the employment as Independent Consultant and the period of
time you did that. Depending on the length of your resume, the job you are
applying for and what you did on a contract basis you can list names of
companies under that.

If you are writing a skills based resume, be sure to include the skills used in these contracted positions. Examples might be:

• Contracted to conduct a two day training for 1,000 employees on divesity issues for a major national corporation
• Developed web site for international marketing firm.

This issue can also be addressed in the cover letter. An example might be: As you will note on my resume, I have spend the last six months working as
an independent consultant. Some of the companies I have provided services
for during this time are ——————————. Not only as this
provided me with some hands on experinece in ________________ but it has
allowed me to develop a broad based knowledge of _______________________ as
it applies to (kinds of industries.)

Remember, that in a resume you do not need to list every job/contract you had. You need only to include the ones that directly relate to the type of
position you are applying for.

— Linda Wyatt, Career Center Director, Kansas City Kansas Community College

Sixth Answer:

You are correct in that employers do look for relevant work experience. The idea of a resume is to convey by example why you are the correct candidate for the current position.

If you worked for a firm that placed you on various/numerous short-term assignments list the placement firm’s name rather than listing each company. If a firm or agency did not represent you then list it like this:

Use the start date you began the work and the date you completed your last assignment. Under this list the achievements/goals/objectives you met.

Another approach is a skill/achievement style resume. Here you list your accomplishments, the value you brought to the job/company and then list the names of the employers at the end with the date range.

Everyone agrees that the RIGHT person in the RIGHT job is an indisputable success story, and every business manager wants to make that happen. Help your potential employer see the valuable skills you bring to the table and the value that you bring by having diversified experiences.

If you are still wondering, work with a professional coach who can guide you through the process easier and faster. I am offering a 20% discount on one month of coaching to anyone who mentions this article.

— Janine A. Schindler, Professional Coach and owner of the Jas Coaching Company

Originally posted by alwin