How to Address Short Stints in Your Résumé
In today’s job market, it’s common for people to have short stints on their résumés, especially after COVID-19 hit. With layoffs, downsizing, and other major changes brought on by the pandemic, workers at all stages of their careers have found themselves spending less time in their positions than they intended.
Most employees spend an average of 5 years or less in every job before they move up the ladder at their company or seek employment elsewhere. Since most people stay at their jobs for an average of 5 years or so, a short stint can be defined as a role you stayed in for anywhere from a couple of years to a few months.
Although short stints may raise red flags for some hiring managers and recruiters, understand that short stints can be advantageous to your career at times. If you quickly moved from one job to another to take advantage of an exciting opportunity, your short stint was a great career stepping stone! Also, if you left a job after realizing it didn’t align with your core values or vision for your career, your short stint helped you to discover what you truly want out of a job and out of your career.
Additionally, you should recognize that gaps in employment are extremely common, too. Three in five workers have gaps in their employment history, so some hiring managers and recruiters are not as put off by employment history gaps as you may think. According to a 2020 study, gaps in employment history of 3 months or less don’t have much of an impact on the success of your job search.
Short stints and employment gaps may seem like major career setbacks to you, but you can mitigate the damage they can do by creating a résumé that highlights what you’ve learned and achieved over the course of your career so that hiring managers and recruiters focus on your strengths instead.
Here are 3 tips to help you address short stints in your résumé.
Before We Dive In
Your résumé does not have to be a comprehensive list of every job you’ve ever held, so there may be times when you don’t have to list a short stint on your résumé at all.
If the short stint was less than six months, determine whether or not the job and the skills you gained from it are worth including in your résumé.
For example, if you were a Digital Marketer laid off when the pandemic hit, and you delivered food with DoorDash for a few months before landing another marketing job, you can leave your stint at DoorDash off your résumé.
On the other hand, if you started doing freelance marketing work for small businesses after being laid off from your Digital Marketer position, you should include your short stint as a freelancer on your résumé because you used and refined your marketing skills while freelancing.
In short, you should include short stints if they gave you an opportunity to use or develop skills that will help you further your career in your chosen field.
3 Tips for Including Short Stints in Your Résumé
1. Use years instead of months in your dates of employment: If your résumé shows that you stayed in a position for only a few months, it may put off some hiring managers and recruiters. Listing the years you stayed at each job instead of the months you spent there can help you make your short stint raise fewer red flags. For example, if you were a Customer Service Representative from January 2020 to April 2020, simply putting 2020 as the date can make employment gaps less noticeable at first glance.
2. Use a skills-based résumé instead of a chronological résumé: Submitting a skills-based résumé (also known as a functional résumé) is a great idea if you’re including short stints on your résumé.
Skills-based résumés are also ideal when you:
have held several short-term positions, like internships and temporary contract roles
have significant gaps in your work history, typically a year or more
are transitioning into a new industry, and your previous titles don’t relate to your new career path
Instead of listing your work experience in reverse chronological order at the beginning of your résumé, start by listing 3 relevant skills that will help you succeed in the new role you’re applying for. Then, list 3 to 5 bullet points under each skill that illustrate how you used those skills in each of your previous roles. If you’re applying to a job in a new industry, make sure you highlight transferable skills you learned at your previous jobs, so hiring managers and recruiters can see you’re a good fit for the role.
For example, if you list customer service as a skill, your bullet points may look like:
greeted and assisted an average of 150 customers per day
answered approximately 50 phone calls per day and directed callers to the appropriate departments
managed the customer service email account and handled an average of 75 emails per day
After listing your relevant skills, list your work experience, education, and any technical skills.
3. Be specific: Because short stints may raise red flags for some hiring managers and recruiters, there’s no guarantee they’ll look at your cover letter after viewing your résumé, so don’t be afraid to add details to your résumé to boost your chances of both enticing them to read your cover letter and call you in for an interview.
List tangible achievements especially if they prove you managed to achieve something incredible during your short stint. For example, if you managed to significantly boost customer retention during your short stint as a Customer Service Representative, you can use stats to demonstrate that you “boosted customer retention by 12% in less than 90 days.”
Additionally, if your short stint was due to a layoff, restructure, or downsizing, you can briefly explain that the reason you left was out of your control. For example, if you were let go due to a restructure, you can say you were “made redundant due to corporate restructure.”
Wrapping Up
If you’re nervous about including short stints on your résumé, these tips will help you successfully show hiring managers and recruiters that you’re a great candidate despite your short stints.
Deciding whether or not to include a short stint on your résumé can be tricky, especially since each short stint has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the thought of both deciding which short stints are relevant and showing them in the best light, that’s totally normal.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to ensure you fully communicate your value and show your short stints in the best light on your résumé! Our extremely qualified staff can update your résumé to showcase your qualifications and achievements, so you grab hiring managers’ and recruiters’ attention and land your dream job.