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Should I include my 3-month work experience?
 

Souijuro77's picture
IB
(Monkey, 63
 
Points)
 on 1/18/11 at 2:44pm

Hi all,

This thread could belong in a few forums, but thought it might get the most traction here.

I'm currently in the midst of updating my resume for PE positions in the future (am currently a 2nd year at a MM bank, but am looking to finish up my 3rd year). The reason why I'm staying an additional year is because I was an experienced hire and don't just want to leave after one year at my MM. I previously completed my 1st year at a much smaller firm.

The smaller firm blew up during the crisis and laid off a bunch of folks. After 3-4 months of unemployment, I managed to land a legit finance related gig outside banking (think PWM, asset management etc.) Didn't really enjoy myself and ended up making the move to my current job after 3 months or so.

So here are my questions:

1) When updating my resume, should I include my 3-month gig at all? Reasons I can think of including is just due to the fact that I don't want there to be a huge unemployment gap in my resume. Downside to including is that my resume will be quite full (not a good thing actually) after taking into account my current gig, my 1st year gig, and my internship experience at a top tier BB.

2) If including, should I leave it as just a single line item and not elaborate on it?

3) How will firms / recruiters look at my resume? Will they think less of my qualifications since I was laid off and unemployed for a while etc.?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Tags:
zsurf's picture

1. Yes 2. Somewhere in

(Baboon, 100
 
Points)
 on 1/18/11 at 3:16pm

1. Yes

2. Somewhere in between. Don't sell yourself short.

3. A lot of good people got laid off recently. The "story" seems compelling to me -- you spun a bad situation into a much better one (ultimately ending up at a MM bank, which from what you've shared here seems like your best gig to date).

Overall, you've fared a lot better than many have and have been able to turn a potentially ugly situation into a good one. Nothing to be ashamed of here, I wouldn't hesitate to talk about it a bit in your "how did you arrive at this position" conversation when it comes to PE interviews.

Logger54's picture

I would say it depends: --If

CF
 
Points)
 on 1/18/11 at 3:23pm

I would say it depends:

--If it's relevant and gives you a possible edge or you can make it look decent.
--if it covers a gap in employment. This is debatable as we just had a financial crisis and holes in employment cannot directly be attributed to your performance on the job.

Also working somewhere for 3 months and then switching jobs again can work against you in terms of your commitment.

I'd say leave it off probably.

A Personal Example: I had a part-time to full-time gig that was over 5 months that I left, and i don't incude it on my resume, but I can close it up on my resume because i was technically still in school.

vadremc's picture

Logger54 wrote: I would say

HF
(Gorilla, 596
 
Points)
 on 1/18/11 at 3:45pm
Logger54:

I would say it depends:

--If it's relevant and gives you a possible edge or you can make it look decent.
--if it covers a gap in employment. This is debatable as we just had a financial crisis and holes in employment cannot directly be attributed to your performance on the job.

Also working somewhere for 3 months and then switching jobs again can work against you in terms of your commitment.

I'd say leave it off probably.

A Personal Example: I had a part-time to full-time gig that was over 5 months that I left, and i don't incude it on my resume, but I can close it up on my resume because i was technically still in school.

Ditto.

"Cut the burger into thirds, place it on the fries, roll one up homey..." - Epic Meal Time

Souijuro77's picture

Thanks for the replies

IB
(Monkey, 63
 
Points)
 on 1/18/11 at 6:57pm

Thanks for the replies guys!

Logger, it does cover a gap in unemployment ie: I would be unemployed for 7-8 months versus 3-4 months if I did not include that experience. Also, I can definitely spin my experience into something relevant (it is after all finance-related at a well-known fund), but pretty sure they are not going to give me much credit for 3-4 months of work.

I'm leaning more towards including for now, even though it might make me look like a job hopper, for the simple reason that it covers a gap.

Any other thoughts?

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