Advice for Job Hoppers: How to Leverage Gaps in Your Resume??

With today’s way of work, people often change their job positions. In the past when someone would get hired by one company, used to stay loyal until the end, and retiring with a pension and gold watch. These days we don’t have the same situation. With all the struggles in finding the dream job, people usually make mistakes while they create their CV. The CV should be accurate, reliable and contain all the needed information for the employer, so he/she can easily make the decision whether to hire someone or not. But, there some gaps in every resume since it can make you as a job hopper. The employers do not want the job hoppers to be part of their company, so if you want to avoid this in the future, you need to follow some tips and advices. If you have recently moved from the company where you have been working for longer period, and you use some tactics and change different job positions, while working there for shorter period, in order to add more in your resume, you are definitely having the label of job hopper.

1. Make sure that your resume represents you as loyal and reliable candidate

This means that if you want to boost your career and work in one company for longer period, then you have to stop changing jobs and start focusing on staying in one place for certain period. This will give the impression of loyal, reliable and responsible candidate to the employer and you will have greater chances of getting the job.

2. Do not include everything in the resume

If you have changed several jobs in 2 years, do not include each of them. If for example, you have been working for one company for 2 years, then for another the next 2 months, it is acceptable to be added on the CV, but if you have been changing the jobs every few months, the red flag would be immediate alert at the employer while reviews the resume. Also, do not forget to include relevant job positions where you have stayed in some good companies, even for shorter period of time.

3. Make sure that you provide accurate information about the hopping

The hopping can sometimes be involuntary and this can be due to the company going out of business, some layoffs or restructuring, so make sure that you provide this information when you are looking for a job. The job hopping can have very negative effects when you look for a job, so make sure you are accurate.

4. Do not include the dates

Not every resume has the dates included of the job experience. The dates are prominent, so instead of emphasizing the dates in the main part of the resume leave them at the end of the job description. You can also put only the years when you have been working for the company, instead the whole date.

5. Create functional resume

This is another good strategy where you can emphasize the skills and accomplishments in your CV. This is often called hybrid resume or combination resume that merges two formats, so the employment history is highlighted in the right way and chronologically. There are different types of candidates that have created different resumes and still managed to get the wanted job position.

6. Putting the short term assignments in one section

If you have been working as freelancer, had some internship or volunteered in some company, then is recommended to put all these assignments in one section of the resume. The purpose of the resume is to show your skills and accomplishments for some particular company and is not a document where you can list all life events.

7. Excellent cover letter

If your resume is weak and you think that you don’t have the needed experience and skills for a particular job, then make sure that your cover letter is excellent. This way the resume will be outweighed and you will have better chances of being hired by the company. Your cover letter will also add value to the resume and you will be seen as responsible, loyal and reliable candidate.