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A close friend of mine has been working late shifts as a delivery driver for a local takeaway to earn some extra money to make ends meet. He has been working here for about a year and a half. No skills or experience are required to do this job apart from have a clean drivers license.

During the day however he is a junior developer who has been working at his current job for around 4 years. He is looking to progress and delve into something new so has been brushing up his resume and is currently unsure of whether or not to include the night time delivery driving on his resume, due to the professional jobs he is applying for.

Is a unprofessional part time job such as this something that should be included on a professional resume and if so how should it be displayed?

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Is a unprofessional part time job such as this something that should be included on a professional resume and if so how should it be displayed?

I would leave it off. Other than conveying "I need extra money to make ends meet, and I chose a non-professional way to get the cash", it doesn't add any value.

Your resume should present your skills and accomplishments in the best light possible, in order to attract attention and ultimately get you an interview from potential employers. I'm assuming your friend is looking for a professional position, and not one involving manual labor, night work, or lots of driving.

I suppose you could stretch it to imagine that someone would be impressed by how hard working your friend might be. But in general adding unskilled side jobs doesn't make your friend more appealing to someone looking to hire a professional developer.

Important Note: As Juha Untinen points out - in some cases, your locale may imply different expectations, and may potentially result in a different recommendation.

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    Joe - completely agree. Resumes/CVs should be tailored to the role you are applying for and as such, I think the part-time job adds nothing at all to someone applying for a developer role. I would certainly bring it up in the interview as part of the "outside of work" discussions though to convey the work ethic required. Be prepared to answer the "well will you give that up if you start with us?" question though! – Mike Mar 12 '14 at 11:06
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    I would add that in some countries, including Germany, they expect to see your complete CV including non-professional side jobs, unrelated jobs, and all education/courses from childhood to date. – Juha Untinen Mar 12 '14 at 11:55
  • Would you still suggest this if it helps describe a time-gap within the career related field? Like, I was not able to make enough money software developing so worked unrelated job X for the year to make ends meet – Jeremy Mar 31 '14 at 6:40
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That is going to depend on the job he wants to apply.

In case he wants to apply to a developer position, that experience is not relevant and might make the human resources agent not take the resume seriously.

Of course, in case he wants to apply to similar delivery jobs, he must leave it as previous experience in the field.

However I must add that, as you say he's working as junior developer, if he had no other professional experiences - at all - then it might be interesting to put it, as it shows experience in other working environments.

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Only include it as past work experience if you choose to include it at all, don't bother to elaborate on it if it's not relevant to the position being applied for.

The only reason I can see for including it on a resume would be to explain what your friend has been doing with his time - do of course include the day job on their resume, since that is very relevant to his position, but only include the delivery job if they want to explain how they've been using their time more throughly.

Honestly if he's been working a day job more relevant to his field, it's not necessary to include the job at all, as it could be considered a side-job. In fact, not including it could be a good idea since it suggests he is the kind of person who takes side jobs and, therefore, might not be completely dedicated to his day job that he's applying for.

If he must include it as a job, there's no need for him to elaborate about it on his resume - but of course you should never lie about your past experience either. If he wants to use his boss from that job as a reference he absolutely must include it, but he doesn't have to do that either. And only if the employer finds out about this side-job should he elaborate on it at all (but again, be honest, because employers can find out if you're lying).

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I, and probably some hiring managers would also, feel that working a part-time job at night might have hurt his career. He is probably not dedicating himself enough having that extra job.

Of course I don't know the specifics, but working as a delivery guy will hinder his available time for self improvement.

For that reason I would not include in in my resume.

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