Too Many Jobs - Help!
Here is a recent query that came in from one of our users…. Hi Brian: I have been out of the work force since 2/06 and based on some of the reading I have done on your website, I tried to construct my 20 yr work history. But when I did this I was really didn’t like what I saw. In those 20 years were 3 employments with years of longevity of 5+,3 and 2.8.; the other 12 years were 13 employments all less than 12 mos. So when I looked at this broken down I was really discouraged. The positive stream about this was it was all in the mortgage business. To my credit however, the reason for the seemingly constant change was I was continually recruited, and of these 13 employers, 5 are no longer are business.
Can you please advise on what is the best approach to this kind of work history when trying to construct a resume? I’m leaning toward positions that are not necessarily in the mortgage industry for obvious reasons known in today’s market. I’m afraid employers will view my brief work history as a negative and therefore not be considered - I want to avoid this.
Help!
Maria
Yes, I can see where this seems like a difficult challenge. Here are my suggestions…
If the 12 years / 13 jobs were before the longer term jobs, I would put them into the Early Work Summary. But I suspect that that is not the case here. The mortgage industry has been very turbulent over the last few years and I think most people understand that. Since you are looking to transition into another industry, the specific companies are probably less important and it’s more about the skills you learned there (and what you accomplished with those skills) that can be applied to the needs of the hirining manager in the new job you want. So for that span of time, instead of listing the experience as a company, I would do something more generic. Something like
“Mortgage Industry Application Processor” and then discuss those jobs as a group.
Posted by: Brian Briggs