TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
By the way, I forgot to add that I've done a lot of contracting work myself
over the years, and have often wrestled with how to portray my experience on
my resume without making me seem like a job-hopper. I finally settled on a
solution similar to what Gene mentions below. I didn't name my contracting
business, but did collect all of the clients during a certain period under
one "Self Employed - 1994-1999" heading, and briefly described each one
therein. That way, it looks like one single, long employment period, instead
of a bunch of job-hopping from place to place.
And one more note about page length: If a writer submits a long-winded
resume full of unnecessary words, an employer might question whether the
work that such a writer turns in might similarly need a thorough edit. Just
a thought....
-----Original Message-----
From: Gene Kim-Eng [mailto:techwr -at- genek -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 3:32 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: STC Lone Writer SIG
Subject: Re: Updating Resume?
If all your contract work is essentially similar in nature, summarize your
services and achievements for all clients as if they are a single employer
(or better yet, devise a name for your contracting business and list it as
your employer), then provide a list of clients as part of the details.
Most people viewing a resume start to zone out after the second page, and
hardly anyone is going to be interested in what you were doing more than 10
years ago (there will be occaisional exceptions to this, of course). What I
did when I was looking was to create my "complete" resume (about five pages
long), then define categories for each type of work I might be looking for
and ruthlessly delete the least effective three pages worth of material to
create a two-page resume tailored to suit each category.
How does one go about updating a resume after one has started contracting
after a long career as a full time employee without having the resume turn
into resume Godzilla and be about 4 plus pages long? I don't plan on going
back to full time (at least while I am in grad school)and I anticipate I
will be working many short term jobs over the next 2-3 years. Should one
include contractor experience in the original resume or should I start
another new resume that is devoted exclusively to contracting?
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
