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Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

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Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#1

Post by foggyToads »

I was holding down 2 part-time jobs at the same location, one of which was a sysadmin position.

Once a full-time sysadmin was found, I handed over that position but continued to work (unpaid) to assist in the transition and, later on, to help with high workloads and major outages.

In total, I did paid work for about 8 months, and unpaid work on the side for 2.5 years.

How do you put that down in your resume? Do you change the from-to dates to the full period of paid + unpaid work? Or do you separate the two? Add an N.B.?

I'm sure others have been in this position before. I'd be very grateful if you could share your experiences.

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#2

Post by Delmania »

You didn't work since you weren't paid. You volunteered your time to aid in a transition period, help reduce workloads, and keep your skills sharp. However I'd probably not mention that as that could throw up warning signs that would attract the DoL as there are strict rules on what constitutes volunteer work.

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#3

Post by mopeloi »

There's no need to mention it was unpaid, unless it was infrequent enough that you think the company would deny you worked there at all. If the other part-time job was at the same company, I think your CV would look like this (newest role first - so, reverse chronological order):

Other Job, CORP: Other job's responsibilities, and additional sysadmin work (specific technologies or routine tasks)

Sysadmin + Other Job, CORP: Job responsibilities

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#4

Post by bsvalley »

Since you generally don't mention your salary on your Resume, simply put it as a regular work experience. You may want to specify "full-time" versus "part-time" but it doesn't really help. This is only if someone asks you about this specific experience that you can give more details.

Remember, a Resume is a showcase of things you've done and would like to share with the world. We don't mention everything on a Resume. As long as everything is legit, you're good to go. Avoid going into too many details as it makes it confusing for a recruiter and you may get penalized for that. Show case what you've done during your part time experience under the same employer (when you were full time).

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#5

Post by kolinko »

Delmania wrote: post #2

You didn't work since you weren't paid. You volunteered your time to aid in a transition period, help reduce workloads, and keep your skills sharp. However I'd probably not mention that as that could throw up warning signs that would attract the DoL as there are strict rules on what constitutes volunteer work.

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.

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#8

Post by Delmania »

kolinko wrote: post #5
Delmania wrote: post #2

You didn't work since you weren't paid. You volunteered your time to aid in a transition period, help reduce workloads, and keep your skills sharp. However I'd probably not mention that as that could throw up warning signs that would attract the DoL as there are strict rules on what constitutes volunteer work.

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 done by a volunteer, chief of which is the volunteer's work must not be crucial to the operations of the business. Otherwise the DoL will classify it as work, and force the business to pay the social security and unemployment tax for your time.

The free software project is not run by a for-profit entity and as such is not bound by those laws.

> What matters more than the payment is the scope/amount of such work.

That's fairly idealistic. This tells me you value your time (and by extension, yourself) very low. Also, the Dept Of Labor would disagree with you.

Re: Ask HN: How to say “I continued working for free” in your resume?

#9

Post by snowwrestler »

Delmania wrote: post #8
kolinko wrote: post #5

Earlier 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…

While this might be a problem for the business, it has no bearing on what the employee can or should put on their resume.
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