Rejected because of too many contract positions

I got laid off in 2009 and worked on 2 temp (contract) assignments since then. One for 15 months, one for 4 months which just ended. Several perm positions came up along with another 'temp to perm' position. The feedback the recruiters received was that the hiring managers felt I 'jumped around' too much and would not consider me. Prior to 2009, I worked at 3 perm positions since 2000 each at least 2 years.

This is making me very scared. I have been hearing from recruiters and others that there is no way to 'dress up' an unstable work history or being unemployed for an extended period which would be over three months.

Well I am sure that many people are jumping around in the past few years. If one is lucky to get a temp assignment is it not long term or temp to hire like many of the staffing firms tell you. What is a person to do? They are just using anything just to reject people. When the job market gets better, and I am hearing later this year, then they will not be soo picky. Right now it is an employers market, hoping it will change if not this year next year.

Kim in Chicago, Illinois said: Well I am sure that many people are jumping around in the past few years. If one is lucky to get a temp assignment is it not long term or temp to hire like many of the staffing firms tell you. What is a person to do? They are just using anything just to reject people. When the job market gets better, and I am hearing later this year, then they will not be soo picky. Right now it is an employers market, hoping it will change if not this year next year.

You are right. Temp agencies also mislead or aren't 100% accurate on the temp assignment. My last temp assignment ended after three months and I still haven't gotten paid for the last week because the agency hasn't gotten the clients 'signature' yet on the hours.

The problem is that these 3rd party recruiters probably control about 90% of all listed positions so they are a necessary evil.

Nick L in Medford, Massachusetts said: I got laid off in 2009 and worked on 2 temp (contract) assignments since then. One for 15 months, one for 4 months which just ended. Several perm positions came up along with another 'temp to perm' position. The feedback the recruiters received was that the hiring managers felt I 'jumped around' too much and would not consider me. Prior to 2009, I worked at 3 perm positions since 2000 each at least 2 years.

This is making me very scared. I have been hearing from recruiters and others that there is no way to 'dress up' an unstable work history or being unemployed for an extended period which would be over three months.

Nick L,

Having several temp jobs on your resume doesn't have to be a negative on your resume, especially in this market where people are doing what they need to do to stay employed. For example, you might want try putting "ABC Widget Company through a Temporary Employment Agency" as the title of the employer in your work history. As an interviewer, I understand that people work for temp agencies while they are working on getting to the next step in their career. The most important part of any resume, in my opinion, is not necessarily the tasks you did, but the results you generated, even if the job is a temp one. I hope this is helpful.

Nick,

I deal with this all the time as I write a fair amount of resumes and cover letters for engineers that work as contract workers. Lots of job changes.

The key in your situation is to highlight your skills. The fact you moved from job to job is a function of being a contractor. The advantage you have is that you probably worked in similar type jobs and have developed great strength in key areas.

So can you do? Customize the resume for the job posting and open strongly with a summary and a rich list of skills that meet the employer's needs. You can remove the emphasis on the job history and make your resume about what you can do more than about where you have been and how long. It works.

Good luck to you.

I too have been unemployed for the past three years due to my past work history reflecting a multitude of temporary contract positions rather than "Stable Positions". I've been told from five interviewers that they did not believe I was looking for stability. I've given up because I don't know what to tell them other than, I never looked at contracting for two different temporary agencies as a lack of job stability.

What do you do in an employers market, where the economy can put you in a position to be locked out of employment, like a person that has served prison time. It seems as though I've committed a crime for desiring to consistently work, although the work I sought was through a temporary means.

Recruiters are liars. Don't believe anything they tell you.

I too have been questioned about my job history, but I tell them the truth. Most of the jobs that I've held since 1983 have been in these telemarketing service agencies and market research firms who are hired by other companies to do their various sales, marketing, and research projects. And you only work when the work is there. If they don't have any projects, we don't work; and that's the bottom line.

It's not your fault Nick. You're doing everything you possibly can to get a job. Hey! Temporary is better than nothing.

These recruiters and hiring managers are living in a dream world. They are out of touch with reality. People get laid off for various reasons. The company reorganizes. They shut down. They ship their jobs overseas. They decide to go in a different direction. They decide to cut labor costs.

In this day and age, nobody stays employed forever.

I have a lot of job lay offs, temp jobs and gaps in my employment since 2002. It was solid before that since the '80s. At least 2 of the job lay offs aren't on my resume and I'm working on getting another off of there. Probably by the next time I update my resume. At least for most of the gaps I was a student. I can't say that about the last gap, but like you all are saying, you do what you have to do to survive. Employers need to stop making such harsh judgements on those that are truly trying. We can only control so much on our end.

What an employer will get from me is hard work and doing the best that I can. I will do extra things if I can. My work is neat and pretty accurate. I'm reliable as they get. I'm on time. I get along with co-workers. What more do they want??

I don't have a steady work experience history either, mainly because I was in school, I interview for professional jobs before too but didn't have luck. I think alot of hiring managers choose candidates that they like the most, not candidate who can do the best job.

They can't expect a stable work history, anymore. Very few of us have one, especially among the applicants.

I got asked about my gap on a phone interview, today. I said, "I wish I could say that I was travelling Europe, but the fact is my luck at landing a permanent position has not been good." She laughed. They know that this is how it is now...I'm hoping it helps to tell the truth, instead of feeding them some bs.

I think employers do expect a stable work history despite the economy and what people are going through. With the enormous pool of potential applicants, they expect the moon.

Yes, bitter, employers so sometimes choose the candidate they like the most rather than the one who can do the best job.

Sometimes it makes me wonder if they are just looking for faults to weed out people. They sure take their sweet time in selecting someone, just try to get the most out of what they got, and if they complain they will be out the door as well, nobody cares about you anymore, they figure once you are gone, they will never see you again.

I think its so hard to find a job as you'd said. Employers think that you are not good in working that's why you'd have a lot of temporary jobs instead of being a permanent employee.