In this job market having good tenure displayed on your resume is becoming increasingly important. Though having 20 years of experience at one company is no longer commonplace on resumes, especially with a growing number of young professionals entering the workforce, it still throws up red flags for hiring managers when an applicant has spent less than one year—or even less than two—at a company.
Best practice is to spend two to four years at the same company, but tenure has dramatically shifted throughout the years and given rise to more job hoppers. Weak tenure can immediately get job hopper resumes thrown out, but if you’re a hopper you can follow these three resume tips to get through hiring managers and recruiters.
Manipulate the jobs dates
This tip can work for weak tenure positions or to cover small job gaps. When including job position dates on a resume you can either include only the years or the months and the year, whichever method makes it appear that you have more tenure at a company. For example, if you started a position in 2015 and left in 2017, using only the years demonstrates better tenure than saying you started in November, 2015 and left in February, 2017.
Don’t include every position
There’s no requirement to include every job you’ve ever held on a resume. If you want to avoid looking like a job hopper, build out significant content that highlights your industry accomplishments for your three or four most recent positions. If you have a significant accomplishment from an older position, include a select accomplishments section to highlight those achievements. You can either leave your older positions off the resume completely or include a previous experience section that lists what companies you’ve worked for and the positions you’ve held without listing the dates.
Create a functional instead of a chronological resume
Format the resume to highlight your skills by focusing on two to four skill areas that are highly sought after in your industry. Include job accomplishments under the skill sections that are pulled from different positions throughout your career. After building out the main resume content create a separate section for your career history. This way hiring managers will focus on your skills, rather than your job tenure.