Simply don't mention that it changed to unpaid. It sounds like you were doing real "job-like" work. It's not like you were doing unpaid contributions to a mate's hobby project.
Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
11–20 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#12Call yourself a "sucker" in your CV.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#13You can put whatever you want on your resume!
What do you think will look better to the person reviewing your resume? 8 months of work or 2.5 years? Or put it one way on one resume and another way on another and see which gets a better response.
It’s a resume not a deposition.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
What? Work is work, regardless of whether paid or not. I just spent 4 months, 2 full time, and 2 crunch-time working on an open-source project that I didn't get paid for - according to your definition I shouldn't be able to list it on a resume. What matters more than the payment is the scope/amount of such work. If the remainder of 2.5 years (unpaid) was just ad-hoc, or "once in a while", I would mark it as such.
> What? Work is work, regardless of whether paid or not. Most certainly not; within the context of providing services to a legal business entity within the United States, work is defined be receiving compensation for your time, skills, and knowledge. If you are doing something for a business entity and you are not receiving compensation, then it is defined as volunteer work, and there are strict limits on what can be…
Believe it or not, the Dept of Labor doesn’t oversee what you put on your resume.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#15Doesn't matter how much you got paid, just put it as normal work.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#16Work is work. Just write it as a normal job.
I don't know the details, but don't work for free -- this is called slavery and it is illegal.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#17Can you explain what you mean by working for free?
It sounds like you got a new position at the same organization, but some of your duties were carried over. Were you specifically not paid for the sysadmin work you did after getting that new position? If not I would say that you were paid for that role. On your CV you can list those activities under your new role.
I would certainly never advertise that you did free work for a company(volunteer work is another story.) It makes the work you did seem like it was of low value.
You might get better feedback if you post a link to your resume. That way we could give more specific feedback, about your CV.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#18You don't need to claim your income on your resume. Volunteer work should only be labeled as such to your advantage. Inform your work that you will be doing this, if you will be using them as reference.
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#19Why did you work unpaid for 2.5 years?
Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?
#20The same way you say, "At XYZ Corp, I earned $125,500 per year." --- namely, you don't.
You don't put these numbers into your resume when they are nonzero, so why put them in when they are zero.