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mba12tech
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 14 Jul 2009, 11:00
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I have worked for Government Agency XYZ for the last 2 years, but as a contractor and for 3 different companies along the way (whoever has held the contract). For all intensive purposes, I am an XYZ employee; my work email is through XYZ, I'm on-site 100% of the time at XYZ, and a good percentage of my co-workers are also contractors. If you were to ask me who I work for, I would say XYZ without hesitation. The only association I've had with these companies has been payroll and benefits.

Until now, on my resume, I have just specified Government Agency XYZ. Showing the 3 different contractors/companies would give the message that I've changed jobs (which realistically, I haven't) or that I'm just assigned by those companies to their XYZ project (which doesn't convey my true role). However, lately I've been doing some extra work for the contractor that signs my checks (we'll call it Company C), working on proposals, etc. I want to include this on my resume, but that kinda screws up my whole format.

Any suggestions?
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 14 Jul 2009, 13:23
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How about:

Company: Location
Contract Company - Title, Time Period


Example:

XYZ Corporation: New York, NY
Company A - Consultant, Jan 2009 - Current
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mba12tech
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 20 Jul 2009, 12:43
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Yeah, I suppose I'll have to do something like that. Ideally I wouldn't even mention the previous 2 contractors since there isn't anything distinct about my duties with them during those time periods. I've seen other co-workers in a similar position only include the current contractor on their resumes - something like:

U.S. Government Agency XYZ via Contractor C ________________________ City, ST
Senior Consultant ________________________________________________ Jan 2000 - Present
...
..


I think this could work, as it wouldn't look awkward for me to include tasks that I've done for Contractor C. The problem would be that most apps that I've seen ask for your previous 3 or 4 employers, so I would have to include Contractors A and B there. If I noted that the contract A was taken over by B and then C, would that suffice? I don't want AdCom looking at that info (in the submitted app) and my resume and be confused.
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 25 Jul 2009, 07:02
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I am a little confused. You worked for the Govt, were paid by the Govt, and it was on goverment projects...why would you put anything about contractors? If you worked for someone like IBM/Delloitte/Accenture on a contract for another company then you would put IBM, etc. as your employer and then who you did the contract work for. But if you just happened to have a bunch of contractors in your office that doesn't really belong on the resume if the employer and whose project you were working on. It would be highly uncommon to have any US government position listed as doing work for a private employer...probably would be more confusing than anything.

I would just write who you worked for. In your bullet points you could put something about leadingemployees of a contractor or whatever it was you did.
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 27 Jul 2009, 06:14
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Yeah, I know it's confusing, which is why I want to straighten this out on my resume. Unlike working for IBM/Accenture/etc., where as an employee you may be assigned to work on site for their project with Government Agency XYZ, my situation is much different.

Imagine that Government Agency XYZ needs 100 employees for their IT department. XYZ can fill 50 spots with federal workers, but needs to fill the remaining 50 spots (the reason for this gap is largely because the market salary of IT workers is higher than that which they would receive via the standard Federal Government pay scale). To fill these spots, several contracts are made with local companies to provide the [50] employees.

Effectively, these 50 contractor employees (of which I am one) are day-to-day exactly the same as the federal workers at XYZ. They have XYZ email accounts, they are on-site with XYZ 100% of the time, and usually they are with XYZ for multiple years. The only tangible difference is payroll; at times I'll joke "I work for XYZ but my check comes from Company C".

The reason I want to highlight Agency XYZ on my resume over Company C, is because:
1) Agency XYZ looks a bit more sexy IMO
2) While working for XYZ I've been associated with Companies A, B, and now C - focusing on the companies rather than XYZ would imply [on paper] that I've switched jobs twice.

However, as I mentioned, I'm now doing some extra work for Company C that I'd like to highlight, and as riverripper stated, it would be "highly uncommon to have any US government position listed as doing work for a private employer". I think what I'll end up doing is using a heading of "Government Agency XYZ via Company C, Inc." and then having a small sub-section after my XYZ accomplishments that highlights my additional Company C accomplishments. Companies A and B will just not be on there for sake of simplicity.
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Employer Format on Resume for Contractors 04 Sep 2009, 16:56
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riverripper
I am a little confused. You worked for the Govt, were paid by the Govt, and it was on goverment projects...why would you put anything about contractors? If you worked for someone like IBM/Delloitte/Accenture on a contract for another company then you would put IBM, etc. as your employer and then who you did the contract work for. But if you just happened to have a bunch of contractors in your office that doesn't really belong on the resume if the employer and whose project you were working on. It would be highly uncommon to have any US government position listed as doing work for a private employer...probably would be more confusing than anything.

I would just write who you worked for. In your bullet points you could put something about leadingemployees of a contractor or whatever it was you did.
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I disagree. You are employed by the contracting agency and they are the company that sends you your paycheck. Adcoms will understand what you mean when you specify what agency you worked through.