Minimize impact of recent employment unrelated to career goal
Dear Sam: I worked in the financial services field for a company that shut down.
At that time, I was in the middle of finishing my degree in a course of study that was somewhat related to the financial industry. To pay bills and support my family while I went to school, I took a job that was not related to my experience or education.
Early on, having been at this unrelated job for just a month, my résumé still worked well, as it started with my related experience.
Now, after five months in this position, I am forced to add this role to the top of my Professional Experience section, which not only takes away from the other strong experience but also causes employers to ask why I didn’t pick up something that was related to what I’d been doing.
How do I minimize this period of time on my resume? — Bob
Dear Bob: To minimize the impact of a segue from the industry, you could approach your resume in two ways.
1. You could use a combination résumé format to present your experience.
This resume format begins with a qualifications summary that showcases only related experience and education (not making any mention of your brief hiatus from your chosen field).
Next, instead of a Professional Experience section, you can present a Selected Highlights section. In this section, explore your past experience that positions you for what you want to do next in your career. Organize these highlights either by employer or by functional skill area. If the employers you worked for were notable, you might want to organize this section by employer; present the names of select employers with highlights underneath. If you think highlighting your skills in key areas would be better, then simply present the content underneath functional subheadings.
Next comes the Professional Experience section. Hopefully, your highlights section will fill the remainder of Page 1 after the qualifications summary, strategically dropping your most recent, unrelated experience to the top of Page 2 — and, most importantly, minimizing its impact during the screening process.
2. Do not include the most recent five-month role at all. Because your prior employment ended in 2014, it is not critical to show employment “to present.”
You can easily justify this omission during an interview by explaining that you were completing your degree when your employer shut down, and in order to focus on your professional-development objectives, you took a job that allowed you to have a more effective work/life/ school balance until you neared graduation. Now, you are ready to re-enter the financial services industry equipped with both experience and a degree. This strategy is not all that uncommon, so it will not be seen as untoward.
A few months down the road, you might consider adding your latest employment history to minimize the gap in employment. Right now, however, if you only present years on your resume, there really isn’t a gap of any significance.
If you do choose to present your current experience, try to translate the skills gained in this position to your current career target, making sure to communicate why this experience is valuable, regardless of whether it is related to your chosen field.