How can I make a consulting career at one company stand out on a resume?

Question

I've been a consultant at my firm for six years now and it's time to move on. We're a decently well-known firm and our parent company is definitely a big name. However, this is the only job I've held since college and I feel like having just one position on my resume looks weak compared to others.

I've worked for nine clients on engagements ranging in duration from a few months to over a year and I feel that if each position was a "real" job for the companies itself, I'd have a nice variety of experience and it would look much better.

I know the standard practice for consultants is to break out some of the biggest projects and list them, but this still feels like it'll be seen after a recruiter already counts my number of employers and makes a judgement. What creative ways can I handle this?

As a follow-up question, do any of these rules change on LinkedIn? I'd love to list my clients under employers (with a title of consultant and concurrent employment dates with my firm) so that I actually get the logo on my page and it shows up easier for recruiters.

Answer 1

Beware custom formatting on resumes, you'll be filtered out without a human ever reading it.

Creativity in the formatting and structure can kill you. Most recruiters sit behind scanning software, so they'll never even see your resume if it isn't parsed correctly. Those algorithms are looking for blocks grouped by employer/position, followed by words, usually in bullet points. Deviating from that can render you invisible.

There is no shame in being at one place for long. You had varied responsibilities, external visibility and career growth.

You cannot list that you worked for company those Fortune 100 companies, even as a consultant.

It's misleading. Should someone at company Y receive a call verifying your work, you'll look dishonest.

Since you have permission, you can list that you consulted through company X for company Y on your LinkedIn account. No icons, sorry. :-(

Answer 2

What creative ways can I handle this?

Format accordingly. In a "normal" resume you'd list your work history by company with bullet points to provide relevant details: accomplishments, major achievements, important projects and so on. In that case, the formatting you use would emphasize the title and/or company name as the central object in a single tier structure.

In your case, you'd simply use a two-tier layout: your title / employer would be listed first with a secondary heading level to list your projects, clients or roles, whichever makes sense for you.

Answer 3

You can format your resume however you like. In this case, list your employer and the main responsibilities, then list out the project you were involved in and provide details. This way you can show how your skillset grew and your responsibility increased from project to project.

Regarding confidentiality, check the client websites and your own company websites to see if they publicly announced working together. If so, you should be fine putting it on your resume. I would not recommend doing the same on linkedin, but you could always ask your clients to write a brief blurb for you.