How to Put Flexible Work Experience on Your Resume

How to Put Flexible Work Experience on Your ResumeHow to Put Flexible Work Experience on Your Resume44The biggest obstacle you face is that the hiring manager will see all of the short-term positions youve held and assume there is a problem with your work ethic thats prohibiting you from maintaining long-term employment.For most of you, that isnt the case at all.The job market has been increasingly tough, and with a slow economy, a lot of employers resorted to hiring employees for short contracts. In other cases, temporary jobs may have been a better fit for your lifestyle- whether you were caring for family members or traveling the world.To ease your resume-writing pain, we are going to let you in on a few industry tricks to help portray your flexible work experience on your resume in a positive light.Temporary Placements Have you been hired for multiple roles through a temporary staffing agency? When listing these roles on your resume, you should not list the agency as your employe r. Instead, list each role on its own with the position title you held, the name of the company, and your start and end date. We also recommend removing any roles that were less than six months in duration, as they are too short to keep on the resume.The trick here is to release yourself from the stigma of working as a temporary employee, and instead outline your resume as a candidate who has progressed through various roles in the last five to ten years.Small Independent Projects If youve spent the last few years taking on various projects and odd jobs for individuals and companies, you should list your work experience under the title Freelancer, and put the full time period from when you received your first project to your last.List the different types of projects you completed and include any notable companies that the hiring manager may recognize. The hiring manager will see that you gained valuable work experience and will understand your freelance experience as a time period w here you were self-employed.Sporadic Contracts with the Same Companies Were you called back to work with the same companies when assistance welches required, but never brought on board as a full-time team member? Then you should list your work experience as a Consultant. This way you can list your full time period, from the first short-term contract you obtained to the last.Then list each company you worked for as a consultant under Notable Clients and outline the projects and tasks you completed for each.There are three key points to remember1) You need to make your timeline as easy to follow as possible. Do not leave large gaps in your work experience, and avoid showing multiple overlaps between roles. You want a clean and easy-to-follow timeline, particularly in your work experience section, so the hiring manager has a clear view of what youve been doing in the last five to ten years.2) Include company names and quantifiable achievements wherever possible. Although you may have b een hired through an employment agency, include the names of the companies you were placed with. If you were technically self-employed, still include the names of the companies you completed work for. The more details you can provide, the more viable your experience becomes.3) Be honest. If you took time off to stay home or to travel, just be honest about it. Include this as a note in your titel letter so the hiring manager isnt left questioning why there is a gap or a period of time where you held many short-term positions.Are you unsure of how to portray your flexible work experience on your resume? Tell us your situation in the comments and well be happy to help.ResumeTarget.com provides professional resume writing services for clients of all career levels across North America. We are the only resume writing company that offers a professionally written resume coupled with the guidance of recruiters, to guarantee that your resume will get results. Tweet us with any resume question s you have at www.twitter.com/ResumeTarget, were here to help