Resume Writing to Highlight Temporary Experience

Temporary employment can be a valuable professional tool. You can gain experience, fill gaps in your resume, and provide flexibility for your personal needs. The perceived downside to temporary employment is that it’s difficult to list on your resume or it’s not taken seriously by hiring managers. Fortunately, that is not the case – it just requires some strategy to market it effectively. Use these tips for resume writing for temporary experience:

Format Effectively

Include both the name of the companies you actually worked for, along with the staffing firm that placed you. This will prevent any confusion about your previous employment in the instance of a hiring manager running a background screening for employment verification or calling for references. For the work experience section of your resume, list the name of the staffing firm as your main employer, then list “Assignments” with bullets for each company.

Avoid Appearance of Job Hopping

The main issue with a long list of temporary experience is hiring managers getting the impression that you’re a job hopper with a tendency of changing jobs often. Make it clear that is not the case and that your jobs all had set end dates by using sections titled with positions (such as “Administrative Professional” and a date range), followed by a bulleted list of temporary assignments.  

Emphasize Acquired Traits

An extensive amount of temporary experience has provided you with soft skills required to excel in that particular environment, in which the learning curve is tighter than a full-time position where you can be transitioned more gradually. Use your temporary experience to your advantage by including examples of worthwhile traits you’ve gained because of it, such as problem-solving skills, learning new information quickly, and acclimating within different environments.

Highlight Results

Show hiring managers that you not only performed a lot of jobs, you did them well. Demonstrate a pattern of excellence within various workplaces by writing about the results you achieved. This makes an objective case that you’re a quality candidate because you can perform to high standards in several places within a specific timeframe.

Need help finding a job in Texas that’s the right fit? Turn to staffing firm Professional Alternatives. Since 1998, we have been privileged to partner with top professionals to match them to the opportunities that align with their career goals. Apply online to get started on your job search with Professional Alternatives.