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(first of all, a 3 month gap on your resume in this economy would not be tragic.)
you don?t provide any information about what you did or what happened at the two 4-6ers, but i would suggest that you simply look for the right way to spin it. what did you do in each case? did you complete anything of importance? instead of framing it as a ?5 month contract,? try framing it in terms of an accomplished project.
just brainstorming here, but something like:
hired to write 160-page xyz manual; completed it 1 month ahead of schedule
or.... i don?t know because i don?t know what you did. rethink what you did in each case and frame it in a way that shows you came, you saw, you accomplished, and you moved on. next!
-diotima
jim wrote:
Since 1999, I have exclusively worked contract positions. Most of the
time these contracts are listed as 4-6 months, but were eventually
extended to 1-3 years.
The last two positions that I took were contracts that were billed as
5+ months, but in reality were closer to 5+ weeks.
The problem that I am experiencing now, when I am dealing with a
recruiting agency, is that these recruiters pause when they see the
length of my last two contracts. Two separate agencies have said the
same thing: "XYZ company is probably not going to ask you to interview
because of the last two contracts. It doesn't look good."
After a few questions on my part, what these recruiters were trying to
say is that they had assumed that I had been fired from these
positions. Each has ended our conversation by saying, "I've never
heard of a 4-6 week contract." As an aside, after the last
conversation, I immediately found a 4-6 week position listed on Dice
and emailed that to the recruiter. She didn't respond.
I'm not quite sure what to do about this. I do not want to omit these
short contracts from my resume, as that would leave a three month gap
in time. Any suggestions?
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