Too many jobs on your resume: Here are possible solutions
By Ken Pelczarski, Contributing Editor | TLT Career Coach March 2024
Follow these primary goals and suggestions on writing your resume to stimulate employer interest.
There is no specific number of jobs in your career that will deter your success. Seven jobs in 10 years will certainly elicit concerns from most employers. However, seven jobs in 30 years will be deemed acceptable by most employers unless the jobs are not presented properly on your resume.
Your resume will usually get an initial 10-second look by an employer (maybe 30 seconds or more if you come highly recommended), and it may be quickly dismissed if it appears that you have had many more jobs than the average person. Try to avoid giving an employer the impression that you change jobs indiscriminately or that there is no logical progression in your career. Your background should be presented on a resume with honesty, accuracy and an emphasis on information that is relevant to your desired career path.
Below are several ways to design your resume to minimize the appearance of having had too many jobs.
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Omit jobs of short duration. It is acceptable to leave recent jobs off your resume if you only worked at a company for a few months. You may even consider omitting jobs of more than six months duration if you held these jobs over 15 years ago.
Employers will usually understand if jobs of short duration are not on your resume. They will expect, however, that you will be transparent about these omitted jobs during the interview process if the context of the discussion calls for it.
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Omit jobs entirely from many years ago. Jobs that you held 25 to 30 years ago or longer will usually not be a big factor in whether you are hired or not.
To shorten your resume and make it look less cluttered, it is often best to leave jobs from many years ago off your resume. This is especially true if these early career jobs do not provide value or a strong foundation that is pertinent to your current career path.
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Summarize early positions in your career briefly. You may choose to include jobs from 15 to 30 years ago or longer on your resume to display consistent personal growth and success over the long haul. You may decide to include these jobs on your resume to show that you had early success with competitors and/or other respected employers.
Allocate much less space on your resume for older jobs than for more recent jobs. For older jobs, you can either 1.) list only the employer names, 2.) list the employer names and positions held or 3.) list the employer names along with a few lines about primary responsibilities and accomplishments.
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State reasons for leaving jobs. You may be in the unfortunate situation of having had several recent jobs of a year or two in duration. This will certainly raise the eyebrows of most employers.
You cannot simply omit any of these jobs from your resume. In this case, it will be difficult to keep your resume from looking cluttered at first glance. One way of dealing with this problem is to clearly state the reason for leaving next to each short-term job (e.g., downsized, laid off, asked to relocate, company went bankrupt, new company ownership, unsafe work environment, company restructured). Be sure that these reasons stand out.
If you have had a few short-term jobs, another option is to explain reasons for leaving jobs in a cover letter or list these reasons in a resume addendum.
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State clearly that jobs were not full-time permanent positions. This situation is much like the issue of having too many full-time permanent jobs. Employers will certainly be concerned if they see five jobs in the past eight years. However, if four of these five jobs were not full-time permanent positions, this should be explained on the resume.
State clearly on your resume next to each of these jobs that the position was temporary, contract or an interim role.
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Group together all jobs that were not full-time permanent positions. Another way of making clear that certain jobs were intended to be temporary is to group these jobs together.
Use the heading, “Temporary Positions,” and list all jobs that were not meant to be permanent. All temporary jobs can be listed in one grouping, even if they did not occur in the same time sequence. List dates next to each job along with employer name and position held. Include a brief description of job responsibilities next to each role, especially if it is relevant to your career path.
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Group together jobs that are similar in nature. Perhaps you have worked in technical sales for the past 10 years but worked as a chemist for the previous 10 years. Maybe you changed careers 10 years ago.
In either case, you may want to group the jobs you held over 10 years ago. Depending upon how many jobs you had over 10 years ago, you may want to include all employer names, positions held and brief job descriptions. If you worked for more than a few different employers over 10 years ago, an example of another option would be to state, “Worked as a chemist in metalworking fluids formulation for several manufacturers from 1995 to 2010.”
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Use year-to-year instead of month/year to month/year. This method could work in your favor depending upon actual dates of your employment with recent employers.
Perhaps you were out of work from March 2020 to December 2020. Your resume could cover this employment gap by honestly stating that you worked with one employer until 2020 and then started work with another employer in 2020. Presenting employment dates in this way can make a six-month job look like it could be an 18-month job. Of course, you will need to be transparent during the interview process about any employment gaps.
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Consolidate leave of absence activities. You may have left the workforce for several years for either personal or work-related reasons. This time stretch needs to be accounted for on your resume.
Keep leave of absence explanations brief and emphasize activities that were career related. For example, if you spent the better part of two years going back to school full-time, state simply for example, “Went back to school full-time to finish chemistry degree from 2020 to 2022.” If you were a family caregiver during most of two years but also furthered your education, state for example, “Was a family caregiver and also attended chemistry classes and seminars from 2020 to 2022.”
Below are a few of the primary goals to keep in mind when you write a resume:
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Make the resume easy to read.
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Have important information stand out.
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Display a logical career progression.
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Emphasize and quantify accomplishments.
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Minimize the appearance of having had too many jobs.
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Give the resume an uncluttered look.
Being successful with these goals will help you achieve the delicate balance of avoiding saying too much on a resume but saying enough to stimulate employer interest.
You have worked hard and made a lot of smart moves in your career. You owe it to yourself to present your experience in the best possible light on a resume without giving the impression that you are a frequent job changer. No matter what employment gaps or other unexpected events have occurred in your career, the previous resume design ideas should help you achieve the best possible layout.
Ken Pelczarski is owner and founder of Pelichem Associates, a Chicago-area search firm established in 1985 and specializing in the lubricants industry. You can reach Ken at (630) 960-1940 or at pelichem@aol.com.