How to improve a short resume + how to leverage leaving a job

I must have had this argument over a hundred times by now. It goes something like this:

Me: “If you feel like you’re not getting what you want from this job why don’t you quit?

Friend: “Quit? I can’t quit, I’ve only been here for 7 months.”

Me: “So?”

Friend: “So that’s going to look terrible on a resume. I need to stay at least a year or two, otherwise I’ll seem like a flake you know?”

No, I don’t know. I had and left more jobs by age 26 than most people have had by age 40. I’ve been through all sorts of hiring processes and I’ve never been asked, “So why did you stay so briefly at your previous job?”

I have been asked, “why did you leave your last job?” which is one of my favorite questions to answer. How an interviewer responds to my answer tells me more about that company than any tail-chasing on LinkedIn ever can.

My response might go something like this:

“I felt that I had outgrown the position and there was no more room for growth because the company was so much smaller and narrow-minded than what you guys have here (subtle compliment ftw!). They would ask me to do X and I felt I could do X, Y, Z. I want to contribute in bigger ways.”

But why quit? It’s just an extra year…

In this post I’ll show you my one simple hack for dealing with short-term jobs on your resume and how you can leverage your short-term jobs to create a standout resume.

If you want more tips like this, be sure to sign up for my email list, which I’ll link further below.

Short term jobs on your resume: Why and how to deal with them

Your time is your most precious resource on earth and nothing, I repeat, nothing is more important than your time.

Okay so that’s true, but what can you get by quitting a job?

Experience.

Yes, you can get just as much experience from quitting a job as you can by staying at it (often you get way more from quitting a job actually) it’s just about how you leverage your time.

How to leverage your time between jobs

Use this time to level up.

Sign up for some online classes. Online education has come a long way recently and you can get an amazing education (often for free). I enjoy using Creative Live or One Month but there are many others. Just because you’re out of college doesn’t mean you should start slacking and falling behind on the latest & greatest. While your ex-colleagues are stuck in the doldrums of repetitive 9–5 work you can be leveling up your skills to overtake them in the future.

Take a trip worth taking

Not a trip just for fun, but a meaningful trip. Use the time to make yourself more interesting. This is described at length in the Filling the Void Chapter of the 4-Hour Workweek so I won’t go into length about it here. But use this time to gain perspective, crazy stories, and most importantly, life experience. The stories and experience you gain from your travels should be something you proudly show off, especially when…

Be proud when you’re interviewing

Practice interviewing

Interviewing is one of the most black box activities we do. Have you ever sat in on a friend’s interview? I certainly haven’t. It’s hard to get better at something when you can’t watch other people do it.

It’s like if you never learn to swim and you come across a river, you’ll be reduced to either doggy paddling across or, as most people who sit at their jobs do, you’ll just stand there saying, “I wish I could get to the other side.”

Interviewing can get better over time, trust me I’ve done plenty. By practicing interviewing more often you’ll gain long-term freedom.

You can download my free guide “5 STEPS TO PREP FOR THAT INTERVIEW” here. It has scripts, questions, and manipulations that will teach you how to rock your next interview.

Going through the interviewing process a few times teaches you the Do’s & Dont’s and you’ll be able to wow your interviewees on command. This will earn you so much more freedom in the long-term than you can possibly imagine. Just picture being able to get a job on the first try, anytime you want!

How to deal with the short-term resume problem easily

Want to know how I avoid being asked why I quit my job so quickly? Here’s the hack I use… I delete the dates.

There’s no grand jury out there that will convict you. You can make your resume however you want to. I deleted the dates, or just put the years (for example: Project Manager 2013–2014) and no one has ever asked for the specific months. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. This is the easiest way to solve the short-term resume problem.

You can see a free preview of what my actual resume looks like in the Growth Hack Your Career course here.

Jobs are like travel, the more places you go, the better you become.

Every company is different. But sometimes, when we’re working at a company for a long time, we can forget that there are other possibilities out there.

We can get stuck in our micro-world of office politics, backwards processes, and petty conflicts.

Switching to a new job can not only improve our career, but it can also expand our perspective of what’s possible.

I’ve been working since I was 13 years old, my jobs list includes: (chronologically)

• Dog walker
• Laser Tag attendant
• Teacher (science camps)
• Barista
• Late-night cook
• Bodyshop mechanic
• Video game design teacher
• Production Assistant for reality TV
• Social Media coordinator
• Camera-op
• Director of Photography
• Creative Director
• Content Marketer
• TBD

That’s 12 jobs in 13 years. Some of which I stayed at for 4 years, some of which I did for 4 months. It all depended on the value I was getting from the job.

And that’s what this post is all about. How much value are you getting on a daily basis from your job? A lot? A little? None? Your answer will determine the urgency with which you need to take action.

If you’re ready to see what other possibilities are out there, the first step is dusting off your resume and making it show off who you are.

You can download pre-approved resume templates that I’ve vetted in-person with hiring managers, see my color-coding method for writing bullet points, and more in my ecourse. You can watch a free preview of the resume course by clicking the link below.