If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re one of the many professionals who have taken advantage of the rise of temporary, consulting, freelance, and contract jobs over the past decade.
Whether you’ve pursued this type of work for greater flexibility, the opportunity to pick up new skills, or to try out a new industry, you may be wondering just how to highlight these experiences on your resume.
If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place! Our Temporary Staffing team has reviewed a lot of resumes over the years, and they know that different situations call for different resume formats. To help you get started, we’ve outlined the most common temporary roles and the best ways to organize them below:
The One-Off Temp Position: In today’s job market, most employers are fully accepting of candidates who took on temporary work in between full-time jobs. Regardless of your reasons for this type of career move, it can help demonstrate your ability to keep your skills current, or even your commitment to the role or company at hand. To list a single temp position (or two) on your resume, here are some best practices:
Company X, New York, NY
Administrative Assistant; Temporary (October – December 2016)
Conversely, you can choose to use a different word in place of “temporary” that you feel better describes the position. Or, you can choose to drop that part altogether. You’ll just want to ensure you’re being consistent if you are listing more than one temporary role.
Multiple Temporary Assignments: If you are more of a career temp or work in a consulting or freelancing capacity, grouping your work together will make your resume easier to follow. If one staffing firm helped place you in several assignments, for example, begin by listing the staffing firm with a full date range and then list each company they placed you at below.
Staffing Firm, New York, NY (July 2016 – January 2017)
Junior Accountant, Company X (July 2016 – September 2016)
Accounts Payable Coordinator, Company Y (September 2016 – November 2016)
Junior Bookkeeper, Company Z (November 2016 – January 2017)
The Temp To Full-Time Position: If you started at a company as a temporary employee, but were hired full-time at the end of the assignment, this is a great accomplishment to highlight on your resume. Here’s one way to do this:
Company X, New York, NY
Marketing Associate (January 2017 – present)
Temporary placement via staffing firm; hired full time by Company X February 2017
When adding your temporary roles to your resume, remember that the basic rules of resume writing still apply! Ensure you pick a format and stick with it, emphasize accomplishments, and keep your bullet points streamlined and concise.
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