A particularly good client of mine insisted at the last minute we alter her resume to include the months and years of her employment positions instead of years.
Now, the issue might seem trivial, however, the real problem lied with some of her positions lasting only a couple months and another lasting only 2 weeks.
In this case, this is something you want the client to avoid, making the client appear more reliable and less of a job hopper.
No matter what argument I provided the client wouldn’t budge.
Her argument was she feared potential employers would feel she was hiding the months purposely and it would hurt her candidacy. No matter my logic, I just couldn’t convey rationale to the client in a straightforward manner that swayed her mindset.
Taking a deep breath and giving it some thought, I had to approach this problem carefully to not insult the client’s ability to steadily hold a position.
My first email casually advised her that this might not be a good idea because it made the resume look visually unattractive.
Her response was undeterred by my comments because she was still pushing for the change.
After several emails back and forth, I strongly advised her to omit the months to better accentuate the periods of time and give the resume a bit more of a seamless appearance.
To me, including the dates looked clunky and certainly different present her jobs well to prospective employers.
This strategy would create the impression she had more long-term work experience, as well as, cut off the interviewer’s necessity to scan these smaller, more broken down dates and translate them into a few months or years … which in my opinion, would negatively affect the number of interviews my client received.
After several emails, the client agreed to revert her dates back to the original form (years only) and take her chances — her words, not mine.
I was a bit perplexed on why she hired me to discuss, write, and advise on her resume, however, she fought acceptance of my advice … on a simple matter too.
The client was ultimately satisfied with the finished resume, and I don’t believe I should have counseled her any other way.
I applied my knowledge of hiring practices to her situation, even if she wasn’t in favor of accepting that knowledge. My suggestion was more beneficial to her resume, as well as, her overall job search.
I didn’t necessarily change my policies for the clients, but I did make a mental note for future projects so I could readily have an explanation for what others see as a small — and maybe unimportant change — just in case I came into contact with another “stubborn Sally.”
Rachelle Rhinehart
SuccessfulResumes.com
