Dear Sam: I need help deciding how to handle some transitions in my career. My employer shut down earlier this year. After an exhausting five years with the company, when they decided to close, I felt I needed to take a break from the rigors of that type of role. Beginning to look for work in the summer, I found gaining any traction in the job market challenging, so I took a short-term assignment through an agent, also one of my past employers.
I don’t know in what order I should list these experiences, given I returned to a previous employer. Should I list the temp agency twice on my resume, or is there a way to demonstrate I have been doing something other than being unemployed for several months? I don’t want to decrease my chances of acquiring gainful permanent employment with a company that may judge me for the employment gap. I need to secure a permanent full-time job with better pay and benefits in 2025. – Stephen
Dear Stephen: Terrific question and not an uncommon situation, believe it or not. You have little to worry about as we do not list months of employment on a resume. List the current agency first, introducing the experience with a phrase such as, “Returned to the agency to provide…”; that way, the hiring manager will understand that this agency was a prior employer. List that experience as “2024-present.” Next, list your employer of five years, which, based on your description above, would be presented as “2019-2024.” Voila! There is no gap evident on your resume. Even if there was, in today’s market, that is not something to be overly concerned about. You only took a few months off work, so your skills didn’t become stale or outdated; charge forward knowing that you did something to benefit your candidacy. You continued to engage in the professional arena, did something related to your career, and demonstrated that a past employer was willing to welcome you back; these all add value to your candidacy.
Now, given I am not sure how your temporary role is related to your career and position of five years, there may be a need to utilize a combination design to your resume. If what you are doing currently is not related to what you did prior, using the combination resume format may be best as it would allow you to focus on relevant instead of recent experience. If using this approach, you would open your resume with a “Qualifications Summary,” which would position you how you want to be seen in today’s market. Next, you will present the key to the combination format, a “Select Highlights” section (or a similarly named section). In this area, you would pull out key points of interest, primarily from the role you held for five years; that way, you still would be able to communicate, upfront, the relevance of your candidacy to your current career targets.
Following the Highlights section, you would present your temporary work, followed by your employer of five years and your earlier engagement with the agency. This will create a resume that is easy to understand, highlights your most relevant qualifications, and does not show evidence of any gaps in your career. When at an interview, there’s no need to worry about talking about the gap; employers understand that companies close and have layoffs, especially these days. The hiring manager has likely been in your shoes. The fact that you picked yourself up, re-engaged, and leveraged a past relationship to secure gainful employment, albeit temporary, shows resilience in the face of adversity. You’re well-prepared for this interview, and your experiences have prepared you to confidently discuss your career transitions.
