One Snarky Chica with Issues

I have had a lot of temporary project positions through staffing agencies. Most of those positions lasted about 3 months. So, that means that if I were to do a typical resume then it would look like I did nothing but change job every three months. Employers do not like people that do not stay one place for too long. With so many employers using staffing agencies for temps, you would think that it would click in their heads as to why you do not stay in one place but it never seems to work that way.

I cannot tell you how many times I have been in job interviews and heard something along the lines of “looks like you’ve moved around a lot” or “is there a reason you can’t seem to stay at one place too long?” Those kinds of questions are a great signal to let you know that you have just wasted your time coming to this interview. When I have that kind of experience in an interview what I really want to do is ask “so, why did you bring me in if that is a problem?”

Here’s the thing - they see all this experience with different types of software and whatnot and get all excited but they just can’t get past the job hopping. Nevermind the fact that the so-called job hopping is what led to all of that experience.

So, what do you do? Easy. You get yourself a functional resume. You probably have never used a resume like this. You see, it takes out things like dates of employment and instead focuses on experience and skill set. It highlights those instead, which is much more likely to get you in the door than a resume with date spans of three months per job.

To download a template for functional resumes, check out A functional resume template. Of course, once you get in the door you will likely end up having to address the three month job spans, so make sure you play that out in your head before the interview!