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----- Original Message -----
From: <eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com>
> James Barrow wrote on 09/15/2004 09:44:13 AM:
> > I'm not quite sure what to do about this. I do not
> > want to omit these short contracts from my resume,
Add "short contract" to your professional jargon vocabulary. It is a
technical term, not a mind game.
I've worked a short contract that yielded real high-grade job satisfaction.
It was a rocket ride of condensed learning and productivity. Maybe it
wasn't a typical short contract, but it was an electrifying 7 weeks that I
would have missed out if I had not been willing to take short-term work. I
suppose someone else would have felt inconsolable in that same situation.
Whether or not you like short contracts is probably a matter of individual
taste. It just depends, right? But tech writing is honorable work, and
short contracts do not make it any less so.
I think that an agency that deprecates short contracts is probably
indicating that they cannot make money on short contracts. I have been told
so by a recruiter, in fact--they won't recover their administrative costs in
the few billables weeks. This is probably why your recruiter dogged you
'round. Next time it happens, let them know that you understand their
aversion to short contracts, and that you will not expect them to get you
short contracts. But don't let them line the bird cage with your resume on
the basis of short contracts. That's bad, and a tad obvious in an election
year.
> Personally, if a recruiter was hesitant about time 'gaps' in employment
> history or short contract lengths, I'd become VERY unpleasant with them.
I think I now understand why labor statistics have a category for workers
who have given up looking for work.
I wish I was kidding,
Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications
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