Should I List That Short-Term Job On My Resume?

Remember that short-term gig you had last year with the company down the street? It wasn’t a great job, and it didn’t last too long. Should you even bother including on your resume?

At the end of the day, decisions like these aren’t easy. They’re judgement calls, which by nature can be difficult to navigate.

In situations like this, I tend to encourage including the job on the resume. In general, honesty is a good policy. You might think that it’s a no-brainer to leave a stinky, short-term job off your resume. Who cares? But here’s the thing – there will always be people who know about that job, and it could raise questions about personal integrity. Keep in mind, your resume is a marketing brochure – and the product is you. At the same time, that job application you have to fill out is a legal document subject to background checks; even if you do not include a job on your resume, you should include it on a job application. Wherever you list it, be prepared to talk about it.

And consider your reader. Recruiters and hiring managers have read so many resumes that informed professional formulations are made at a glance. If you leave a job off your resume and it’s on your application (which it is!), there will be questions and perhaps the perception may be that you are hiding something. If you include a short-term job, it’s just as true that it should mean something, otherwise the perception may be that you’re padding your resume.

Also, keep in mind, very few situations are black and white. Let’s say you worked for four months at a prestigious financial services company on a high visibility project that was successfully completed and you were singled out as being instrumental to its completion. Maybe the company name has marquee value, and in the brief time you worked there you made the kind of impact that is fantastic when you’re telling your professional story through your resume.

Other factors to consider:

• Although the average worker’s tenure in a role is steadily decreasing, it’s usually in your favor not to appear like a job hopper. Unless you’re in a career that is expected to have many short-term positions for different companies (such as an IT consultant), or have a highly specialized skill, a resume that is a laundry list of jobs packed into a brief time-frame, employers can get nervous that the investment they will make to recruit and hire you will quickly become the most recent line item on your resume. Also, if inclusion of a job seems incongruent with the rest of your professional experience, it may send up red flags.

• Closing a gap can help. For example, perhaps you were terminated from Impressive Job #1 for reasons beyond your control but before you were hired for Impressive Job #2 you did a four month stretch at a job for which you were overqualified. If it’s temporary, label it such. If it was a permanent role you left quickly, try to have the resume set up the story accordingly and be prepared to talk about it in the interview.

• It can help to consolidate individual freelance roles during a period of time under a single job heading, such as “Freelance Consultant,” followed by bullets describing the roles and/or company names.

• Your career universe needs to be consistent. People can find out about you via your resume, LinkedIn profile, online portfolio, and job application. It seems exhausting because it is, and this judgement call is no different. An inconsistency will raise questions.

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.