Résumé Advice When Full Time and Contract Work Overlap

Question

I am working on updating my résumé. I am employed full time (and have been for over a decade), but the last three years I've also done some contract work on the side. I am very careful to keep the two separate. When I am at my full-time job, it has all of my focus and I make sure the job is getting done. The contract work is limited to nights and weekends.

I would like to list the contract work on my résumé. The work allowed me to gain experience and skills in areas that wasn't possible at my full-time job. I feel like that experience makes me more valuable as an employee, but I am concerned that it might be seen as having "split loyalty", even if the work was done on my own time.

Is there any advice on how to handle this situation? Perhaps an explanation/wording I should put on the résumé or something I should say in a potential interview?

Answer 1

I've seen this done two ways:

• Create a section of your résumé which includes all consulting work/positions after your job history.
• Include a "consulting position" job in the job history.

In your case, I personally think the latter is likely the better approach as it will allow you to better highlight the skills in parallel. Be sure to include the dates and a note that the work is part-time. My résumé at one point had something like:

Jan. 2009-Present
part-time Consultant (Or Company name, consultant)

• Reticulated splines
• RegEx'd HTML (not really)

For an interview, you can highlight the techniques and technologies you learned in a temp/part-time job in the same way that you highlight them in a standard job.

Answer 2

feel like that experience makes me more valuable as an employee, but I am concerned that it might be seen as having "split loyalty"

This impression would occur if you are not competent enough with the projects and/or the technologies used in your current job.

However, consultant positions are considered with importance, by the recruiters. But, please include enough details about the work, project (if any), skills learned and takeaways.

If the descriptions are vague, then there is a high probability of the recruiter doubting your commitment.

(If both are in the same domain, then even better Else, do a nice job with the details of the job in the resume)