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e.g. If I have worked for XYZ Company in NY. I can write like following:

XYZ Company, NY date from..to My title What have I done 1 What have I done 2 What have I done 3

I want to know if I have work for a person (his personal project, has nothing to do with his company), his name is Tim for instance. and he is an employer of XYZ company.

What should I put in first line? Tim, XYZ Company, NY? (I think this is not proper).

Thank you!

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  • So it was a private individual as an employer? ie. You got paid and taxed and everything else appropriate with being employed?
    – pdr
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 21:32
  • 1
    So you were essentially free lancing or doing contract work?
    – Roddy of the Frozen Peas
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 22:02
  • I am doing contract work
    – MPvaliantboy
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 22:55
  • It's complicated. I work for him, and our school pays me. I got paid and taxed.
    – MPvaliantboy
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 22:57
  • So you were employed by a school, to work for a private individual, while studying at that school?
    – pdr
    Commented Sep 22, 2012 at 5:09

3 Answers 3

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Actually, personal stuff like that (part-time gigs, off the clock activity) should not feature under your achievements and projects for company XYZ. Might look tacky because

  1. Looks to a prospective employer like your attention was divided while you were in the previous employment.

  2. You were using your position/placement in that company to enrich yourself.

Such projects/activity deserves it's own section on your resume. Call it Other Projects. And don't associate it with an employer that you have in your employment section. I've done things on the side in my career, not related to my then-current employers, and I just dump them in the Other Projects section

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  • Not a good answer, since, even in his original post, he does not state that he is currently employed by XYZ Company or any other company. In his replies to comments, he clarifies that he is a full-time student.
    – David Navarre
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 17:09
  • @DavidNavarre , 1) My answer came before his comments, 2)You think that will matter to the next employer? Because he's currently unemployed by the firm, it was okay for him to be two timing them while he was employed by them and also list that under that employer in his resume?
    – kolossus
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 20:22
  • He was never employed by XYZ Company. He was doing work for Tim, who is an employee of XYZ Company. In his comments, he clarifies that he was being paid by his university. He was never two-timing anyone as he was never employed by any company, only by his university for work at that company. My suggestion is that you revise your answer to acknowledge his actual situation.
    – David Navarre
    Commented Sep 25, 2012 at 14:09
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Sorry, but I can't agree with @kolossus' answer.
In fact I prefer working with people who have various interests. If someone is only focused on a single thing, this may mean that:

  • They are unable to spend their time effectively;
  • When they feel frustrated (everyone has such moments), they will be unable to switch to another activity;
  • They will be unable to re-use their expertise from another activity, since the most prominent ideas usually appear on the edge between two areas of knowledge;

And yes, one of my favorite questions during an interview is "what are your other interests?"

I recall when I had a junior developer who was also a prominent video operator and video engineer. He used to be a student in cinematography academia. He worked less hours a day than the others because he needed to attend his cinematography classes, but his real output was much better than the others'.

Assuming that the project you participated in was relevant to a position you're applying to, you should not hesitate mentioning it in your résumé.
You may simply skip the employer's company name, but you should be ready to provide with references when asked.
Alternatively, you may have two sections in your résumé:

  • Projects, where you list all necessary technical details (development tools, platforms, your role in very this project, etc.)
  • Career, where all employers and formal positions listed.
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6
  • It's definitely a desirable quality for an employee to diversify his interests. But tell me this, would you be happy with that junior developer you had, if you somehow got to realize that he was editing footage and shooting videos on your time? Or even better still, was busy marketing himself to your other staff during office hours? His resume lists Your company: Reverse engineered an application, also edited Mr John Doe's College Reunion footage
    – kolossus
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 15:22
  • @kolossus That's why it would be listed separately, not as a line item in his employment at the current company.
    – David Navarre
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 17:06
  • @kolossus He ended up with cinematography career. I'm happy for him: nowadays he's a lead video engineer in a broadcasting company. As per his résumé, he used to have two different ones (before he decided to go with video career). The video résumé has ".NET project in my company" as other interest, and vice versa.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 18:50
  • @bytebuster, now I'm confused. On what exactly are we disagreeing then? Looks to me like we're on the same page as to separation of resume concerns. Remember the issue is not that he has other interests, but that he was pursuing them on an employer's time and also wants to include it on his resume under that employer's section
    – kolossus
    Commented Sep 24, 2012 at 20:25
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    @kolossus The issue is that your answer both fails to address the OP's actual situation and that your answer indicates having outside interests is a flaw, not an advantage.
    – David Navarre
    Commented Sep 25, 2012 at 14:11
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If you are paid by the school to do this work, you should list the school as your employer. Whether the work is for XYZ Company or for Tim personally, explain the project and the client in the description of the work. Such as,

Big Time University New York, NY March-June 2012

Designed and implemented widget-tracking system for XYZ Company using MS Excel.

Then, in references, you can list Tim. If the work was not for his company, but for him personally, I wouldn't name him in the description, but use a description, like "for telecommunications engineer" if it was an engineering project. If the person's job is not relevant to the work you did, don't describe them by their job title, just a more generic term.

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