How can you sell yourself if your resume is chock full of contract jobs? 3

[Tunalover]

I'm in a bind because no one wants to hire me because my work history includes a bunch of contract jobs. Recruiters seem to love my skills and experience but the employers are another story.

I've got a resume where I actually dropped off four contract jobs of six months or less and rounded the rest of the dates to the year. This eliminated gaps between jobs and shortened the resume.

But employers inevitably require you to complete an application with a Work History section needing Mo/Yr of employment. When I complete the application I normally show ALL the contract jobs to eliminate gaps (they never allow you to just write "See Resume" in the Work History section). Then I've got the problem that the application doesn't match the resume and the employer then suspects I was trying to "pull a fast one."

I got into contract jobs reluctantly when I was laid off a few times from direct positions; they were the first jobs available at the time and a man has got to take the first thing that comes along unless he's got a spouse that can cover all expenses with her income alone.

TIA for any advice on how to handle this.





Tunalover

 

[JMirisola]

When I was in a position to hire people, a history of contract jobs wouldn't have dissuaded me from hiring someone. It may have caused me to ask why s/he had so many, but their skillset is what I'd look at first. Perhaps you should address your contract positions in your cover letter, with a short explanation as to why there have been so many positions. This may help the hiring manager to get past them and see you for your potential as a permanent employee.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

 

[SNORGY]

Or change your resume to reflect one position in which you have been "...self-employed doing contract work for various clients; projects among which include:...". Might make it a bit more difficult for evaluators to discretize your work history without at least a phone interview or personal interview for clarification. Then at least you get the interview, occasionally anyway.

Personally, I think filling work gaps with contract work whenever you could is a good thing; certainly better than the alternative. I wouldn't drop a thing out of your resume unless you need to do so.

 

[IRstuff]

Seems odd to me that "chock full of contract jobs" would be a problem. "Sparsely" sprinkled with contract jobs and huge gaps in employment would seem to be a problem. The former says that you are sufficiently agile and in high demand, and that you are a go-getter that can land jobs quickly and often, as contrasted with the latter, where you might just be a lump on a log, passively waiting for jobs to find you.

As usual, you need to make lemonade, and you need to view and sell your contract history as a positive and not as a negative. Seems to me that you should showcase your history of finding and keeping contract jobs with satisfied customers who are also willing to rehire you for other contract jobs to show that you have self-initiative and can-do attitude, etc., blah, blah, blah. On time delivery, customer satisfaction, etc. are all POSITIVES.

TTFN
faq731-376

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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

 

[Tunalover]

IRStuff,
I've been doing consulting work privately but the clients have been far and few between. I really haven't built much of a network over the years but I do have a decent string of satisfied customers. The fact remains that I haven't had steady work since May 2013! The feedback I've received from employers is that my work history is too long, filled with contract positions, includes what looks like job hopping early in my career, and, yes, has some gaps lasting more than a few months due to layoffs or contracts coming to an end with nowhere to go. It all adds up to poor marketability!



Tunalover

 

[TheTick]

Maybe keep slugging away at contracts until one turns into direct work?

 

[MacGyverS2000]

I see no reason why placing "Contract" in parentheses before or after the dates for each (or some other similar tactic, such as Snorgy's cover letter suggestion) would not allay the fears of any (sane/reasonable) hiring agent.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[1gibson]

If it's true, just say you're tired of contract work and want to be in the same place for at least a few years. Keeping people around is usually a top concern, right behind having the skills to do the job, and fitting in with the culture.

 

[TheTick]

I think you may need to take some more risks in your interviews (since they don't pan out anyway). Have a frank discussion about the realities of the job market and what it takes to hustle for a living.

 

[KENAT]

Picking up on MacGyverS2000 comment, is it clear these were contract/temporary (or whatever the situation was) positions?

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[rotw]

I think there is a tendancy nowadays for recruiter to look for the weak spot in a resume instead of the strengths. Probably it has always been the case but I beleive it is becoming more accute in this current economy. I dont know if it is due to some madness or simply because it is hard to find a recruiter who really thinks differently and by his own, i.e. look for the best interest of his company ; In fact they have an attitude made of stereotype which at the end leads to a culture of scarcity attitude.
The bad news here is that this is a given and there is no point complaining about it: you need to workaround it and move on.

So I think you need to pick up a contracting job and work hard through this one to excel until you revert it to a direct job;
In other words the quantum jump you build it through the contract job itself and NOT rely too much on doing it via massive interviewing;

Anyhow this is just my perspective;





"If you want to acquire a knowledge or skill, read a book and practice the skill".

 

[Tunalover]

Each contract position has a job title of "Contract Engineer" and in the Duties/Responsibilities section I write something along the lines of "Assigned to ACME Co., Timbuktu, HI" so it's clear with each position that it is indeed a contract position and also indicates where I worked.


Tunalover

 

[Tunalover]

I think every technical employee has the hurdle of HR who screen resumes without knowing how to read between the lines and reading everything in black and white. For example, anybody who does "design" inevitably does some kind of "analysis" even if only a tolerance stack. If your resume doesn't have the word "analysis" but has "design" all over it, the HR robots will round file your resume if told to look for the word "analysis".


Tunalover

 

[2dye4]

Easy, If the employer is soo dmded concerned a person will leave his company quickly after starting ask
why that is so.

Companies preoccupied with job hopping with regard to experienced professionals are admitting something seriously sucks about
working there.

 

[MintJulep]

Recruiters seem to love my skills and experience

Reformat your resume to a skills and experience based format rather than a chronological work history format.

The feedback I've received from employers is that my work history is too long, filled with contract positions, includes what looks like job hopping

How do you reply when you get this feedback?

How about: "Why is it a problem that I have a long work history? That history has given me this experience that is directly relevant to the job I want to do for you now. I believe my skills and experience match your need. Please explain to me what skill I am lacking."

 

[berkshire]

The problem Tunalover is hitting, is the employment form which asks you to list all of your jobs in chronological order.
Sometime you can get around that by attaching your resume to the form and putting " See attached Resume", at other times you will hit the Nazi type Hr., person who insists you fill out the entire form.
I worked as a Job shopper for about 10 years, however I always worked through the same agency, so when I ran into one of those idiots who wanted a string of dates, I would just put the agency's name and address down.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[Tunalover]

@MintJulep-
Remember I'm usually dealing mostly with HR automatons who screen people out so I never get a chance to respond to their concerns. When I DO get to respond my response to them is along the lines of "it is what it is and I can't change it; you can focus on what I can bring to the table or you can focus on my job history." at which time the conversation shortly comes to an end. I even went into one 2nd interview where the VP made me go through every job from beginning to end to describe the duties of each job (going back 28yrs!) and explain why I left it. Since I had some early job hopping he was not satisfied with my reasons (i.e. one contract I left because it had a 1.25hr commute each way in heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic. I left to get an easier commute. He didn't like that reason.) I didn't get an offer.

At each interview and on each cover letter I state that I'm committed to stay until retirement and that I'm no longer interested in contract work. But it doesn't help. I've applied to more than 275 employers online since I started looking. I did get some interviews but inevitably found myself defending my work history.

Also, a functional resume was not recommended by any of the many resume experts I consulted.

BTW, contract jobs don't pay well anymore! The last contract I worked I made $7.50 an hour less than in my most recent direct position with full benefits.




Tunalover

 

[tygerdawg]

Group the many contract jobs into manageable blocks of time:

2012-2014: Various Contract Engineering positions (ACME Engineering Services) involving Advanced Basket Weaving, Sheep Shearing, and Ditch Digging. Significant accomplishments included achievement of a 380-foot ditch in 12 hours, 4,000 sheep sheared, and being awarded the The Basket Award. Pertinent skills developed include high dexterity, calloused hands, and resistance to lanolin allergies.

...or something similar. Do this for as many blocks of time as necessary. Summarize into something readable. They might be rejecting you because they have to sort through 10,000 resumes and yours takes too much time. I doubt they want to know the extreme pedantic detail of every short-duration assignment. At least I wouldn't. I'd be more interested in knowing what skills you can bring to my party.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[Tunalover]

@tygerdawg-
Your suggestion about grouping the contract positions together might work but the first thing people want to see are start and stop dates so they can look for gaps. I tried showing time periods in just years but, again, people want to see Mo/Yr anyway when you fill out their job application. I have a summary at the beginning and a skills section at the end and each describe what I bring to the table (summary is kind of general, skills section is detailed).


Tunalover

 

[Tunalover]

@IRStuff-
Here's some verbiage from my general cover letter, just to show you that I am trying to sell what these jobs have given me (and that's a potent set of skills and versatility that I can take anywhere):

"The contract positions I've held have allowed me the breadth and versatility of a diverse career and have taught me to easily adapt to new settings. At this stage in my life, however, the time has come to settle in with my next employer until retirement in 15-20yrs.

I’m excited to expand my search outside of the Timbuktu area for the right opportunity. I think you will agree, that my experience is broad yet in-depth and I have earned a skill set that will prove very useful for this position."




Tunalover