how to add contract work on resume

How to List Contract Work on a Resume (Guide + Examples)

3 key takeaways

• Listing contract work on your resume is a great way to highlight projects and achievements.
• There are many ways to add contract work to your resume, but amending the job title with “contract” is standard. 
• Formatting contract work on a resume is easy with Teal’s AI Resume Builder .

Maybe you’ve taken on temporary jobs to get by in today’s fluctuating market, or maybe you enjoy the freelance lifestyle. Either way, it’s common to have some contract work experience. The question is, should you add contract work to a resume?

Contract work is legitimate experience, so don’t forgo it on your resume. Just make sure you’re listing it correctly. In this article, you’ll learn how to put contract work on your resume in a way that emphasizes your flexibility, adaptability, professional skills, and achievements.

Struggling to land interviews with your resume? Get started with Teal’s AI Resume Builder for free.

What is contract work?

Contract work is short-term employment. These jobs have a defined work period. They may also have a defined end goal or set of duties to be performed. 

Companies hire contractors as outside employees. Contractors are paid based on a negotiated rate for the project or per hour. 

When you do contract work, you may have been called an independent contractor, a freelancer, or 1099 employee. 

Contract worker vs full-time employee

A full-time employee (FTE) works 40 hours per week for one employer, receives their benefits from the employer, and typically goes to the employer’s office. They can expect raises, promotions, and up-skilling from the same job. 

A contract worker works their own set of hours for one or multiple employers, depending on the contract type. They may work at an office or from home. They will typically build a work portfolio in order to uplevel their job title or pay grade. 

Because contractors are outside employees, these differences may apply:

• Do not typically earn company benefits
• Have to manage their own taxes
• May have to purchase their own equipment 
• Have flexible or set hours 

Types of contract work

Fixed-term contract.

A contract made for a specified period of time. This contract has a start date and end date. As an independent contractor, you may receive some benefits similar to those of an employee during the duration of the contract period, but not all.  

For example, you may be hired to work 40 hours a week as a technical writer to help the IT team at a large company complete a project for a six-month period. 

These contracts may also be called “contract-to-hire” contracts. This means you start as a contract employee with the idea that the company may, depending on performance, hire you as a full-time employee once your original contract ends. 

Freelance contract

A contract made for a specified project. This contract should outline hours, project details, deliverables, salary, payment terms, etc. 

For example, you may be hired by an IT company to help their in-house team complete the code for a new application. You work for them until the application is complete.

If you work in this way, you are considered self-employed. This means it is your responsibility to pay your own NICs and tax contributions. 

Agency workers and temporary staff

A potential employer can hire temporary employees from an agency. As an agency worker, your contract and benefits are agreed upon and managed by the agency. 

Pros and cons of contract work

Freelancers and independent contractors are not entitled to the same rights as FTEs. For example, FTEs are entitled to:

• Receiving the national minimum wage
• Minimum level of paid holiday or maternity pay
• Minimum length of rest breaks
• Protection against unlawful discrimination
• Maternity or paternity pay

As a trade-off, freelancers and contractors enjoy more flexibility over their pay and schedule. This may look like:

• Higher hourly rate 
• Flexible schedule 
• Opportunity to try new things 

Why list contract work on your resume?

Whether you had just one stint with a contract job or you’ve managed a few contract roles under an agency, it’s important to show off this experience. Potential employers don’t look at it as inferior to permanent employment; in fact, it can be seen as a good thing for your career. Here’s why:

• Showcases diverse experience : You learn a lot about various industries when moving from contract to contract which proves you're a versatile worker.
• Demonstrates adaptability : Because contract workers don’t get the same onboarding as FTEs, you must adapt to various industries and environments quickly, which shows you’re a fast learner. 
• Highlights specific skills or expertise : Because many contracts are project-based, they help you highlight specific achievements, which may be more appealing to hiring managers.
• Shows initiative and ownership : You have to manage much of your own time and job progress when working on a contract basis, which shows you are self-motivated.

How to list contract work on your resume

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to list contract work on a resume.

First, decide on a listing method. The below examples are just that—examples, but you can choose a listing method based on the clearest way to arrange all your experience. 

The essential details to include are the company you worked for, the position you had in each contract, and the duration of each contract.

As a FTE at a staffing agency or consultancy

If you worked for an agency that sent you multiple clients or contracts, you can group them together under the agency. This order will look similar to a traditional FTE role and is easy for recruiters to read.

• List an employer. This can be the staffing agency.
• Optionally, add a blurb to provide clarity on the nature of the work. 
• List a job title. You may have a job title that was given to you or you may have to give yourself a standard job title.
• Add "contractor" or "consultant" at the end of your title if necessary. 
• List the dates of your contract.
• List your achievements.

As a full-time self-employed contractor

If you took on a lot of contract and freelance work for a number of months or years, consider creating your own firm (if you haven’t done so already) and listing your experience under that heading. This self-employment resume allows a large number of jobs to go underneath a single heading.

• Give your company a name such as [First Name] [Last Name] Consultancy.
• Add a short blurb describing the nature of your duties as a full-time contractor.
• List a job title per contract work or add the client name per contract.
• Under each contract or client, list the dates.

As a single contract position

If you’ve held a single contract position from a company while in between full-time jobs, placing this experience on your resume is easy. List the job as you would any other, but label the job title clearly with a modifier such as: 

Tips on how to highlight contract work achievements

If you had a lot of short-term contract work (six months or under), the hiring manager may worry you haven’t seen many projects from start to finish. Combat that worry by listing your achievements. Here are some quick tips on how to highlight achievements:

• Use active verbs (e.g., Developed, Implemented, Managed, Designed, Optimized)
• Add numbers to illustrate a point (e.g., Cut expenses by 10% within a fiscal year)
• Discuss completed projects or accomplishments (e.g., Secured five major partnerships for a media campaign). 
• If you’ve written a lot during your contract work, consider learning how to add publications to your resume .
• Add a portfolio to your LinkedIn profile and include the link on your resume

For more tips on how to highlight your achievements, check out this guide on how to write achievements in your resume . 

How to format a contract job title on your resume

Since contract work often means multiple job titles under one employer, you may wonder how to list contract work. Traditionally, the resume is formatted by the employer, with the date range indented to the right of the resume. Since you may need to list multiple jobs under one employer, you can opt to list date ranges next to the job titles as well.

In Teal’s AI Resume Builder, formatting a resume’s date range doesn’t have to be a hassle. Teal’s Design Mode simplifies the process of properly listing work experience.

Toggle between showing dates based on company, based on position, or both. 

Common mistakes to avoid when listing contract work on your resume

The key to a clean, enticing resume is the formatting. Focus on lumping your work together under certain employers or job titles so that a recruiter can easily see what you do within a matter of seconds. 

Here are the biggest mistakes in listing contract work:

• Not being consistent : Use the same format throughout your resume. If you call your contract work “temp” or “contract," use that same terminology throughout. 
• Including irrelevant information : You don’t need to include all your contract work. Tailor your resume to the job. 
• Having resume gaps: Having a gap on your resume can hurt your chances of getting an interview, so utilize contract work to your advantage. Include any freelance work on your resume to help fill up a gap in your employment history. 

Contract work matters 

Contract work is a great way to fill gaps on your resume, try out new work duties, enjoy a flexible schedule, and more. Although, it does veer away from the most traditional form of full-time employment. That’s why formatting the resume in a way that highlights how much you’ve contributed while under contracts is the key to capturing hiring managers’ attention. 

Teal's Resume Builder can simplify the process for you. Add your various contract experience in a matter of seconds, utilize different methods for formatting your experience, and quickly tailor your own resume just for each job application–getting you closer to the role of your dreams.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you put a few temporary or contract positions on a resume.

You can add "temporary," "temp," or "contract" next to the job title in the Work Experience section of your resume when adding contract work.

Does contract work look good on a resume?

It can showcase resourcefulness, flexibility, and adaptability. If you have relevant contract experience, it's worth including on your resume.

Does contract work look bad on a resume?

As long as the work and skills are relevant, it won’t look bad on a resume. It can be helpful to explain the nature of the contract work and list your achievements there.

How do you add that you are working for a new contract at the same job on your resume?

If the duties are the same and the contract has been extended, you can keep both contracts under the same job title. If the nature of the work changed, list them as two separate job titles, including the date ranges, under the same employer.

How do you mention a big name company on a resume when you were a contractor?

Unless you were hired through a staffing agency and signed a contract with anonymity clauses for customers, you can include the big name company as your employer and add “contractor” or “contract - Staffing Agency” for clarity.

Kaleena Stroud

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How To List Contract Work On Your Resume (With Examples)

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Contract work is becoming more popular and is a great way to earn some extra money on the side or for your main source of income. While this can be an excellent way to make money and grow your professional skills, it’s essential to know how to list contract work on your resume . Listing contract work on your resume can help fill in any gaps in a resume and can help show your experience in the field.

Whether you’re a freelancer, virtual assistant , or remote contract worker , we’ll go over how to list contract work on resume, provide some examples of how to list contract work on your resume, as well as some tips to keep in mind.

Key Takeaways:

If you have multiple contract jobs, you should create a new section for them on your resume.

Be sure to include any relevant contract work to your resume, including temporary work.

Try telling a story with your contract work to help craft the narrative of your work experience.

How to list contract work on your resume

How to put contract work on resume examples, should you include contract work on your resume, formatting tips for listing contract work on your resume, listing contract work on your resume faqs, final thoughts, expert opinion.

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When listing contract work on your resume, you should try and tell a story of your work experience and try to emphasize your accomplishments. Below is a more detailed list of how to add contract work to resume:

Tell a story. The most important thing about including contract work is to focus on telling a story.

Work experience at a single company over a long period of time tends to do this by default — if you’re stringing together work you undertook on a variety of projects, then the job of crafting the narrative of your work experience falls on you.

Organize your contract work. For this reason and others, the organization of your resume is extremely important for your resume. Group all of your contract work into one central location of your resume, so that any interviewer will be able to quickly scan and understand which work experiences of yours were done in which context.

You can group by industry or job type; whatever makes sense for you. List your contract work in reverse-chronological order, starting with your most recent experiences. If you’ve done multiple projects for the same company, list all of that work under the same company’s name.

Be clear with your formatting. List each company you worked for individually. Don’t be afraid to list both the contracting firm employing you as well as the specific company you did the work for.

Just make sure it’s clear that the staffing agency was your employer and that your projects were done for other companies. You can impress the recruiter if you’ve done contract work for some reputable companies.

Formatting a resume with contract work can be tricky, but we recommend the functional resume format if you lack sufficient full-time work experience. It emphasizes your skills and qualifications over work experience.

Customize your resume for the prospective employer. As with any resume you send out, make sure your work experience is tailored to the client or position you’re hoping to land. This is where contract work can be a real asset, especially if you have experience wearing a bunch of different hats.

Read the job description for key qualifications and responsibilities, then select and emphasize contract work you’ve done that most closely matches those. It’s a bit of extra work, but you’ll see better results with a customized resume.

Emphasize your accomplishments . Your achievements tell the story of what exactly the result of your contract work was. Use action verbs and quantify your accomplishments whenever possible. For example, instead of saying “Designed webpage for company X,” say something like “Revamped webpage, driving traffic by 23% over 2 months.”

Your main goal throughout the hiring and interview process is to convince a hiring manager or recruiter that you’re going to add real, tangible value to the company.

Focus on your skills. Go over the job posting and highlight the skills mentioned there. Then, emphasize those skills in the context of your contract work. Your cover letter gives you a chance to emphasize your skills even further, but you can still incorporate a few choice keywords into your resume.

Here’s a quick example of one way you can list a single entry of contract work on your resume :

Single contract work entry example

Marvel Studios, LLC; Burbank, CA Content Writer and Stan Lee Personal Bodyguard; Contract (July – Dec 2017) Brainstormed, workshopped, and ultimately executed ideas for both inline and blog content. Protected famed comic book author Stan Lee from numerous assassination attempts originating from an international cabal of out-of-work comic book artists/hitmen headed by Steve Ditko.

Note: When listing multiple projects under the same company, remember that you only need to list the company’s name and address a single time.

Full resume with contract work example

John Pilgrim Birmingham, NY | 999-876-5555 | [email protected] | www.linkedin.com/in/john-pilgrim/ SUMMARY STATEMENT Experienced writer , copyeditor, and editorial manager with a background in technology and science. Delivers high-quality, customized SEO web content, content marketing materials, and client-facing newsletters. Thrives in a deadline-driven environment while supporting sales goals and client-oriented projects. SKILLS Proficient with HTML/CSS Excellent written and verbal communication skills Expert with Google suite and Excel Working knowledge of WordPress Ability to translate complex topics into easily readable information WORK EXPERIENCE XYZ Consultancy | Birmingham, NY Calico Tech | Johnson City, NY Lead Editor: Science and Tech Blog; Contract (Sep. 2020-Present) Drove traffic to company blog by 67% over a 4-month period Copyedited 40 articles per week, maintaining consistent style, tone and graphics Managed a team of 8 writers and 2 designers to meet deadlines, develop new content ideas, and create customized graphics Developed and updated blog style guide Heya Science | Park Terrace, NY Content Writer: New Science Newsletter; Contract (May 2020-Oct. 2020) Delivered 2 long-form newsletters per week, totaling 5,000 words and reaching 10,000+ subscribers Conducted competitor research and reported weekly at Marketing team meeting Won best writer June 2020 Big Tech Jr. | Philadelphia, PA Marketing Assistant; Contract (Nov. 2019-June 2020) Planned new content and promoted page on social media Drove app engagement by 39% over first three months Created streamlined marketing/engineering protocols, improving turnaround time on new projects by 16% Johnson and Johnson | New York, NY Junior Marketing Assitant; (May 2017-Nov. 2019) Assisted marketing team by collecting data and reporting findings on a weekly basis Leveraged organizational skills to create spreadsheets for tracking success of various marketing campaigns Drove website traffic to the science and tech blog by 12% EDUCATION B.S. in Marketing (May 2017); GPA 3.8 University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT Dean’s List for 8 semesters

Yes, in most cases you should show contract work on your resume. Any legitimate work experience that helps prove you have the right skills for a job should be listed on your resume.

It shows your experience. Working as a contractor also shows recruiters that you’re capable of adapting to new work environments quickly, which is an attractive trait in a job seeker

It helps fill in the gaps. Contract work that helps fill gaps in your employment is crucial to include. It proves that you weren’t idle while in between jobs and that your resourcefulness led you to find other avenues for paid employment.

The main issue with including contract work is a little bit dated since the gig and freelance economy have been thriving in the recent job market. Still, listing contract work on your resume can be cause for alarm to some (although not all) employers.

It shows how long you’ve been somewhere. For the most part, a recruiter or hiring manager prefers to see steady work experience where someone works for several years at a single location before moving on.

This is because hiring anyone is essentially an employer making the following bet: Will this person I’m hiring remain with my company long enough to make up the money I’m going to spend on training them?

It shows you aren’t a job hopper. For this reason, it can be a bit of a red flag when employers see too many seasonal or contract-based work experiences on your resume.

If these experiences aren’t properly detailed (or even sometimes if they are) then it can easily look to a potential employer like you’re the kind of person who jumps from job to job at a moment’s notice. They might start to worry that you’re the kind of person who gets bored easily, who won’t stick around for very long.

When formatting your resume to list contract work, you should use your company name. Here are some more formatting tips to keep in mind:

If you’re an independent contractor, use your company name. This can be as basic as “Sam White Marketing,” or you can come up with a creative name and register it. Using your own company name can help you organize your contract work more clearly.

If you only had one or two temporary jobs in between permanent jobs, list them like you did your permanent jobs. Just mark them as temporary jobs by putting the word “temporary” in parentheses after the job title.

If you have multiple contract jobs, consider giving them their own section. This is an especially good idea if you need to show what you did during a gap (or gaps) in permanent employment, or if it just makes good sense for your resume’s organization.

If you aren’t sure how to format something, use common sense. At the end of the day, the point of formatting guidelines is to increase clarity, so if you get stuck, just ask yourself what would make your point clearer.

Put yourself in the reader’s shoes, or ask a friend what they think and then choose the option that makes the most sense for your resume.

Can you put an independent contractor on a resume?

Yes, you can put an independent contractor on a resume. Independent contracting work counts as work experience the same as any traditional job. Just list your responsibilities and accomplishments as you would normally to show hiring managers what kind of work experience you gained in those roles.

Does a contract job count as employment?

Yes, a contract job does count as employment. Some hiring managers may see contract jobs as less valuable experience, but most these days count it just as they would any job.

Should I include temporary jobs on my resume?

Yes, you should include temporary jobs on your resume. The work experience you gained in these roles is just as valuable as work experience from permanent roles, so you should add them to your resume.

Just remember to show hiring managers how the work you did in those temporary jobs will help you in the role you’re applying for.

What type of work is contract work?

Contract workers, often called independent contractors or freelance workers, are hired for a specific project. The work is usually for a specific amount of time and has a set fee. These workers are often hired because of their expertise in a particular field or area.

What is contract work?

Contract work, also called independent contracting, is when a business will hire a professional to help[ them accomplish a task for a determined amount of money. Oftentimes, contract workers are freelancers and they are hired for their niche expertise for a short-term project.

Remember that when it comes to listing contract work, including the work is always better than ignoring it. Job hunting is tough, but with these tips in mind, you should have a great resume to go along with your winning cover letter .

Even if you’re worried about the way that you’ll be perceived for the large amount of temporary or contract work, remember that most recruiters and hiring managers would agree that contract work looks better on a resume than no work at all.

Use strong action verbs, hype up your accomplishments, and tailor your resume to the job posting. By showing off all the impressive skills your contract work has helped develop, you’ll have job offers in no time.

TopResume – Ask Amanda: How Do I List Temp Jobs on My Resume?

What’s a general tip for writing a resume?

Lucas Moe Career Coach Consultant

Two quick tips:

• Be action/result oriented (result should be written in active voice e.g. streamlining, enhancing, producing, reducing, etc.)
• Make points quantifiable (if you struggle with quantifying your bullet, find the noun and quantify the noun – you can ask yourself: How much? How many? How often?).

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Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.

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• Listing Contract Work On Resume

How To List Contract Work on Your Resume

In This Guide:

What is contract work, examples of contract work on a resume, should you list consulting work on your resume.

Because individuals who make a living from contract work are self-employed , their resumes will likely look unique to reflect their distinct experiences.

Whether you’re preparing to find a more traditional corporate position with your resume, or you want to show clients your previous experience, an up-to-date resume is a perfect way to present yourself in the best light.

In this article, you’ll learn how to list contract work on a resume, plus:

• Should you list consulting work on a resume?

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An independent contractor is a self-employed individual who provides temporary work for clients. Similar to freelance positions, a contractor has the freedom to choose the number of projects to accept at any given time and is responsible for equipment, taxes, rates, work locations and benefits.

In contrast to a freelancer, a contractor may take on fewer long-term projects and work closely with clients and employers.

The following are examples of contract work you can put on your resume.

Contract work for a single client

Providing a series of targeted projects you have worked on is a great way to show that you are experienced in the field and you have flexibility.

You can frame the entirety of your contract position as a single job. Unifying your projects with similar skills is a simple way to write about the big picture.

Writer - Contractor Remote (January 2022 - present) Composed publish-ready articles and blog posts.

• Created SEO-friendly, 1st-page content.
• Managed quick turnarounds.

Group contracting work from a staffing agency

If you acted as a contractor for a staffing agency, you can capitalize on your consistency within the company and your flexibility with every project. You can highlight both your dependability and independence in this role,

Lawn & Tree Agents - Clearlake, CA Built a repertoire of satisfied clients in the Clearlake area over three years of steady work.

Landscaper - Contractor Northside Preparatory School, Clearlake (July 2020 - August 2020) Surveyed the grounds and provided routine and emergency maintenance.

• Pinpointed unhealthy trees.
• Implemented care solutions to prolong the lifespan.

Landscaper - Contractor Main Street Dentistry, Clearlake (September 2020 - September 2020) Provided routine pruning and beautification for the property.

• Maintained the appearance of trees and shrubs.
• Performed precise edging techniques.

Consulting is similar to contracting and can be a constructive addition to your resume if applicable. Consulting projects show your entrepreneurial spirit and your self-starter, self-driven and self-motivated qualities. Creating a separate projects section is a good place to list consulting work.

Sales consultant New York City (September 2019 - November 2019) Provided expertise to small businesses: First Avenue Market and Dreamgate Books.

• Doubled the productivity of sales teams.
• Advised clients on successful hiring techniques.

Now that you know how to list contract work on a resume, head over to Enhancv’s Resume Builder for everything else you need.

By emphasizing the continuous skills you gained from contract projects, you can show that every job was a stepping stone on a single path to your next job.

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How to list contract work on a resume + examples

If you’re currently a contractor or you’ve done contract work in the past, you might be worried about how this will look on your resume.

You want to show all the good work you’ve done, without looking like a serial job hopper.

Well, the good news is that contract work can be a great addition to your resume and help you to secure interviews – no matter how many jobs you have done.

This guide will show you everything you need to know about listing contract roles on your resume, in a way that will impress recruiters hugely.

I’ll walk you through which roles include, how far to go back, and how to structure each job with real-life examples.

Resume templates 

Current/recent contract role

If you’re current or most-recent job is a contract role , then it will be thing that recruiters will be most interested in reading.

Therefore you need to place it at the top of your work experience section and include plenty of details in short, sharp bullet points .

You also need to structure it in a way that is easy for recruiters to read, and highlights the important information about your contributions and achievements.

Go for a simple but effective structure, broken into 3 key areas :

• Job outline – Starting each job with a brief summary of the organization, your position within it, and the primary goal of your role can help recruiters quickly understand the context of your work.
• Key responsibilities – The bulk of the role description should be comprised of bullet points that explain all of your duties in the job. Keep the sentences short and simple to make them easy for recruiters to digest.
• Key achievements – Show employers the value you can bring to them by adding a few achievements to your jobs. Whether you’ve saved the company money or improved an internal process, let recruiters know. Add some numbers to give readers a real scale of the impact, e.g. “ reduced call wait time by 10% “

A group of old contract jobs

If you’ve got a group of contract roles that were similar positions or held with the same company or agency, it could be beneficial to group these together – this will save space on your resume , whilst still giving a good demonstration of your experience.

In this case, give the title of the jobs and a brief outline of the roles, but leave out the bullet points or huge amounts of detail.

Still ensure that you show the impact you made within the jobs to prove why hiring managers should choose you.

Multiple clients under one contract

If you’ve worked for the same company but handling multiple different clients or contracts, you can format this like one job.

To do this, give your job title and a brief description of your different experiences or contracts within the company. You could also list some of your key responsibilities and achievements during that time.

Very old period of contracting

“1997-2007 | Multiple IT engineer contract roles across the US insurance industry”

If you want to include an old period of contracting on your resume from many years ago, you should keep this short and concise.

The idea with this, is to show recruiters your industry background, without using up much space on the page.

Give the dates that you worked as a contractor and a sentence that sums up your job title and the industry you worked in.

Tips for listing contract work in your resume

There are lots of great reasons to add contract work to your resume, and to help you effectively showcase these experiences, here are our top tips for listing contract roles.

Keep your resume under 2 pages

You’ve got a list of contract roles as long as your arm and they’re all relevant to the role, you’d need 5 pages to fit them all in!

But unfortunately, busy recruiters don’t have time to wade through 5 pages of content, so it’s vital that you find ways to consolidate or prioritize your experience and stick to the recommended 2-page resume .

Shorten older roles

In most cases, potential employers are going to be more interested in your most recent contract roles, because that’s how they assess your current capabilities.

So, it’s best to shorten older roles and only give the top-line summaries of them.

Often a short sentence or two is enough detail for a job you did many years ago.

Batch multiple old jobs into one entry

Much like the example we shared above, grouping multiple old jobs into one entry can be a great space saver, whilst still allowing the recruiter to get a feel for your experience.

This allows you to go into a little more detail about your key responsibilities or achievements, without having to write a huge list of different jobs, and risk repeating yourself.

Highlight in-demand skills

Both in your employment and core skills sections, it’s important to highlight the most in-demand skills related to the jobs you are applying for. Wherever possible use keywords and skills outlined in the job descriptions you are targeting.

You should also highlight the transferable skills you gained as a contract worker, for example, flexibility, adaptability, and communication.

Focus on impact and achievements

No matter whether you’ve had 1 job or 21 jobs, employers always want to know how you can add value to their business.

So throughout your resume, you need to focus on the impact you’ve had in past contract roles and share your biggest achievements.

Try to make these easier to understand by quantifying your accomplishments with tangible facts and figures wherever possible.

Example achievements for a contract resume

• Hit and exceeded sales KPIs by 35% every month of my contract (April to August)
• Through detailed data analysis, managed to understand customer trends and reduce customer churn by 25% in a year
• Hired, trained, and oversaw the daily activities of 25+ cleaning and maintenance staff
• Increased the company’s revenue by 15% in just three months by collecting and converting data from Google Analytics and transforming this into action insights
• Helped {Company Name} not only stay within their budget, but to cut unnecessary spending 4 years in a row
• As part of the internship, created social media content and up to 5 articles a week, whilst working closely with the SEO team
• By successfully overseeing 5 major projects from start to finish, generated a total of $300,000 in revenue over a 4 year period
• Took full control of the company’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and improved user engagement by over 40% in 6 months
• Worked as the single point of contact for over 20+ clients, always answering their emails, calls, and queries within 24 hours
• Worked with the IT team to update {Company Name’s} continuity plan, whilst also introducing a 5-year disaster recovery plan at the same time

Example contractor resume

Hopefully, by now, you feel more confident about creating an impressive and engaging contractor resume that effectively showcases your contract work.

But just remember that once you’ve decided how to list your experience, be as clear and concise as possible, grouping jobs together when you need to save space.

And, more importantly, make sure your resume highlights the key skills and achievements you’ve gained during your various contract roles and how you can add value for the employer.

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How to List Contract Work on a Resume

More people are becoming independent contractors because they like having control over their time. Contract work can be a way to gain experience in a new field, earn a living while in between jobs, or expose yourself to different work environments. Contract work experience can also be a way for a job seeker to stand out against the competition.

This article explains why you should include contract work on your resume and your LinkedIn profile, how you should construct your overall resume, and how to integrate contract work into a resume so that it showcases your versatility. We also give an example of a resume that includes contract work.

• Why You Should Include Contract Work on Your Resume

It used to be the case that potential employers were leery of a candidate who listed contract work on their resume. Employers wanted to see steady full-time employment on a resume to be confident that the person was not a job hopper.

However, the stigma associated with contract work has largely disappeared with the rise of the gig economy and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce. During the pandemic, many people lost their full-time jobs and turned to contract jobs.

Here are some key reasons to include contract work on a resume for your job search.

Contract work shows valuable work experience and skills like adapting to new work environments.

Listing contract work can supplement a resume that lacks full-time experience, for example, in the case of a recent college graduate or someone who is switching careers.

If a candidate has gaps in their full-time work history, short-term contract work can show they are resourceful.

Contract work is unique and can make you stand out to the hiring manager against other candidates.

That said, it is wise to construct your resume in a way that does not draw attention to frequent job changes. One way to do that is to organize your resume so that all your contract work is in one place on your resume.

• Constructing Your Resume to Include Contract Work

If you lack full-time work experience, are a recent graduate, or are switching career paths, it is best to use a functional resume. A functional resume will emphasize your skills and core competencies rather than your work history and longevity at each firm.

To understand more about the differences between a functional and chronological resume, read “ Which Resume Format Should You Choose?”

If you are writing a chronological resume, your work history will tell a story. For example, you started at entry-level, then became a manager or supervisor, and perhaps then a director or VP. Your experience tells a story. Try to do the same with your contract work. Here’s how.

List all your contract work in one section to separate your full-time work from your part-time work, and a recruiter can see what work you did in what context.

List the work by industry and job title and in reverse-chronological order with your most recent job first. You may have taken on increasingly complex work as you gained experience, so try to emphasize this. For example, a coder may have initially taken on very short, easy contract jobs but then progressed to more complex projects or multiple assignments.

List the company name or staffing agency that hired you as a contractor and each firm that you were contracted to. That’s important because the more companies you worked for, the greater your experience.

When Not to Include Contract Work on Your Resume

Your professional resume should be tailored for each job that you apply to so that you can align your skills and work experience with the needs of the position. Therefore, do not include contract work that is not relevant. For example, if you are applying for a job as a data analyst, working as an Uber driver is not going to beef up your resume.

The goal is to show an employer that you can add value to the company, so study the job description and research the position, so that you can find ways to apply your contract work to the job.

• Example of Contract Work on a Functional Resume

Here’s a quick example of one way a job seeker can list a single entry of contract work on their resume:

Contract Work

HEI Hotels, New York

Project Evaluator; Contract (July – Dec 2019)

Assessed potential hotel renovation projects. Evaluated concepts and produced financial budgets and projections to inform ownership group investment decisions.

Here’s an example of a resume that includes a series of contract work.

• Resume Rules

The same rules apply when adding contracting work to your resume as when constructing another type of resume. For example, you should always tailor your resume to each job. You should study the job posting and use similar terminology in your resume as in the job description so that applicant tracking systems pick up on keywords. 

Use bullet points to describe your accomplishments in each position and use action words to describe your accomplishments with metrics to show measurable results.

For details on resume writing, read “ The Ultimate Guide to Writing the Perfect Resume .”

The Cover Letter

Your contract work will be unique, and you can use that uniqueness to your advantage by emphasizing it in your cover letter. For example, in your cover letter, expand on your contracting experience and explain how it has advanced your skills and competencies. You could link your experience with the needs of the hiring firm. Here’s an example:

“ Part of my contracting work with IT Staffing was with company XYZ. The company was developing a new tax returns software for large global corporations. I believe that this project is similar to one that your company is currently developing, and I would love to be part of your product team.”

For more on cover letters, read “ How to Write a Cover Letter .”

Your LinkedIn Profile

A prospective employer will look at your LinkedIn profile if they are impressed by your resume. Therefore, your online profile should show similar information that does not conflict. Include your contract work on your LinkedIn profile along with your regular employment and list each contract position that you feel best showcases your experience.

• Summary Tips for Adding Contract Work to Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile

Contract work is becoming increasingly popular in today’s work environment. It provides flexibility and is a way to earn income between jobs or to gain experience in a new field. Don't be afraid that including contract work is a sign that you might be a job hopper; contract work is important and should be added to your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Here are some summary tips.

Use a functional resume format if you have gaps in your resume or to emphasize your core competencies.

If you do not have one or two full-time jobs that show some career progression or longevity with an employer, use a functional resume and list contract jobs in a separate section.

Read the job description and align your contract work with the skills required.

Tailor your resume to each job.

Emphasize your valuable contract work in your cover letter so that you stand out.

Proofread your resume to avoid typos.

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How to List Contract Work on your Resume (Examples)

To make maximum use of that experience, however, you need to know how to showcase it within your resume. Unfortunately, many job candidates are unsure about how to include that type of work experience without leaving employers with the impression that they’re unreliable or unstable in their careers. These few tips can help you learn how to list contract work on your resume.

Don’t be afraid to list contract work on your resume

Do not hesitate to list contract work on your resume or cover letter. Yes, these positions are temporary, and often mission-specific – but they are important nonetheless. In fact, most hiring managers are now familiar with this type of employment. The key is to properly document the job, and terms of employment so that your reasons for leaving are clear.

There’s another good reason for job seekers to include this information, of course. Without these listings, your resume will be littered with employment gaps – and that will definitely raise an eyebrow or two. The best way to ensure that a hiring manager understands that you have been actively employed is to list those contract jobs.

An example of how to list contract work on a resume

The following example can help you learn how to list contract jobs on your resume. In this example, we have included the name of a staffing agency and the reputable companies where the contract work was performed. If your contract work was independently secured, then you can omit the staffing agency name and simply focus on different listings for each job:

Ultimate Staffing, Anytown, Anystate

My partnership with Ultimate Staffing provided consistent access to quality project opportunities within the greater Anytown area. They helped introduce me to the following companies and projects:

Software Development; Gamesman, Inc (May – Dec 2017)

- Designed game interface for online game

- Developed beta test strategy for project rollout

- Project-based contract, ended upon project completion

Software Engineer & Consulting; Dynamic Programs (Oct 2016 – Mar 2016)

- Designed $40 million CSM software

- Software cut company customer service waste by 38%

- Project was completed two months early and under-budget

Example of contract work on a resume:

Emphasize achievements

Always emphasize the things that you achieved during any job when you list contract work. Obviously, you won’t be able to focus on longevity or advancement within the position, since it was short-term. But that doesn’t really matter, since employers are most interested in value.

By documenting your accomplishments, you can better showcase the value that you brought to that position and present yourself as a worthy candidate for consideration.

Naturally, you should do more than just list those achievements to improve your resume. You will also need to use your descriptions to paint a picture that highlights real value. That means using numbers that quantify the benefits that you provided to each contract employer. Remember, the goal during the job search is to show the prospective employer that you can add real value to his company’s bottom line. 

Document the skills you used

Think about the specific skills that you utilized in each position, and how to convey that information when you list contract work. Review the job posting’s requirements to identify job-related keywords and focus on skills that fulfill those needs. This can help you illustrate your skills in a way that is both relevant and timely.

Include an explanation for why you’re seeking regular employment

If you have only done infrequent contract work over the years, then this tip may not be necessary.

However, if that has been your preferred employment option, then you need to explain why you are looking for a more permanent position. Typically, this can be accomplished by simply noting that you are eager to advance your career. Alternatively, you can explain that you are looking for new challenges, and a more stable environment in which to use your skills.

List contract work in chronological order

When you list contract work, you should always do it in chronological order.

That helps to create a more cohesive snapshot of your work history. To make it easier for hiring managers to understand,  use reverse-chronological order, with the most recent jobs listed first.

As you can see, when you list contract work on your resume, that information can provide a tremendous boost to your credentials. Just follow the tips we’ve outlined in this post and focus on emphasizing the value you can offer any potential employer. When you do this right, you can increase your odds of landing an interview, and get that job offer you need.

Related articles:

Here Is What a Good Cover Letter Looks Like

Do You Have to Include Every Job on Your Resume?

How to Write a Cover Letter When Changing Careers

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How To List Contract & Consulting Work On Your resume

​writing a resume and arranging your resume summary, skill sets, relevant work experience, and education section is tricky— building ....

DATE: Apr 24th - 2023

​Writing a resume and arranging your resume summary, skill sets, relevant work experience, and education section is tricky— building and organizing a resume when you’re a consultant is even trickier.

Why? Well, most of the workforce uses a classic resume template that organizes their work history in reverse chronological order, including each work experience, their title, employer name, and dates of employment.

But that approach clearly won’t work when you’re shifting company and roles every three to 12 months.

How to organize your resume experience when you’re a contractor or independent consultant

1. organize it by parent company.

This approach is the closest to the standard approach. List the staffing and consulting firms you work with as the “umbrella” companies, then underneath, write the consulting jobs you’ve completed along with soft skill bullet points.

For example:

Work Experience

Dexian , 9/10 – Present

Blue Moon Bank , Nashville, TN

Senior Java Developer, 6/15 – 11/15

Re-engineered Java User Interface and portions of core applications, resulting in additional functionality and scalability

Increased customer satisfaction with bank website by 56% according to user surveys

2. Organize It by Short-Term Employers

Another strategy is to list all of your consulting jobs in reverse chronological order under the heading “Consulting Jobs.”

For job seekers who have worked with a variety of staffing firms , completed many independent gigs, or both, this is a great way to present all of your experience without spending lots of space showing which staffing firm you were working with during each gig.

Consulting Jobs

3. Organize It by Technology

Maybe you have expertise in several different languages and want to highlight your programming range to potential employers. Or maybe you haven’t worked with your favorite technology for a while but would like to again and need to prove to the person looking over your resume that you’re qualified.

In these cases, grouping your experience by the type of project, technology, or language is the way to go.

Java Consulting Roles

JavaScript Consulting Roles

4. Organize It by Work Category

It’s fairly common for professionals in this industry to have experience working as consultants, independent contractors, and regular employees.

But that presents a problem: you must incorporate all of your disparate work experience into a unified list without confusing the person looking over your resume.

To do that, you can arrange your work experience by category.

Consulting Experience

Independent Contracting Experience

Full-Time Positions

By implementing one of these four organizational strategies, you’ll be able effectively show hiring managers your expertise, work experience, and capabilities.

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How to Responsibly and Professionally List Contract work on a Resume

It can be difficult listing contract work on a resume for a number of reasons eg. jobs are generally much shorter and more varied. this post will help you nail your contract cv, 27 feb, 2022, career advice.

A resume is a document that makes a case for your employment. It’s meant to convey as much relevant information about you as possible in as little time (and space) as possible. In other words, your resume needs to do a lot.

Given the importance of resumes to the hiring process, it’s no wonder people sometimes worry about what they should be including on their resumes. For contractors (who have potentially worked at 10's of companies) this becomes particularly challenging. For example:

• Should I include freelance projects on my resume?
• Will listing them waste valuable resume real estate?
• Do employers care?
• Do short contracts look like I'm "not loyal" or proficient?

These are just some of the questions that software engineers frequently ask as they get their documents ready for the next round of applications. In this article, we’re going to be answering those very questions and more!

Should You List Contract Work On Your Resume?

Ready for the short answer? Yes .

Contract and freelance work is work. Plain and simple. Just because a role doesn't have a long term contract does not mean it should be excluded from your resume. Many software engineers gain valuable experience and skills from contract work , and the only way potential employers will learn about this is if you list it.

DesignShack is a company that tries to highlight the importance of contract and freelance work in their hiring process.

Here is what they have to say on the matter:

The simple answer is that you should include freelance work on your resume. This includes paid jobs, side projects, and pretty much anything that relates to your competencies as an employee or independent contractor.

It seems that many software engineers worry that including contract work on their resume will overshadow their other work experiences in a way that’s detrimental to their chances of being hired. In other words, they don't want their resume to appear overly crowded or difficult to understand.

While this is certainly a valid concern ( employers prefer shorter resumes that get to the point ), it shouldn’t stop you from including contract or freelance work on your resume. You just have to be smart about how you do it!

Don’t worry if you’re not sure what that means, we’ll be walking you through the process in the sections to come.

How Do I List Contract Work On a Resume?

You have made the decision to list your freelance or contract work on your resume to show employers the full range of what you have accomplished. Great! Now you just need to know how to properly list this out or format it to make the most sense on your resume.

Think about some of the following when creating the ideal self-employment section of your resume:

Create a Distinct Section for each Type of Work

Rather than forcing your work experience and contract work experience to battle it out for the reader’s attention, try making distinct sections for each kind of experience. This helps divide your resume into easy-to-digest sections rather than forcing the reader to make connections by themselves. In addition, it also shows the reader that you have a variety of experiences under your belt!

For example, you could adopt the following sections:

• Contract work
• Freelancing
• Side Projects

Group Work By Industry

Software engineers have the luxury of being in-demand across a huge range of industries and sectors. It's not uncommon for a software engineer to bounce around from industry to industry—taking on industry specific jobs, projects, and roles. This is especially common with contract workers and freelancers.

One year you may have been working as a freelancer for a telecommunications company, the next you might be working in the transportation industry. Each of these experiences will leave you with a unique set of skills that other candidates may not possess. Structuring your contract work by industry is a great way to make sure the company hiring manager doesn't get confused by the jumps. Plus, it's a great way to show how adaptable you are!

Highlight Your Accomplishments

Some might say this sounds like bragging, but employers truly want to know what they are getting with a potential hire, and this includes what that candidate has accomplished with other employers. Indeed —a leading employment website—recommends highlighting your accomplishments in the various jobs that you have worked before.

They say it’s best to point to accomplishments that have concrete facts and figures which you can use to supplement the resume. If your work directly contributed to the bottom line of a company in some way, state the accomplishment and show the receipts!

Chronological Order Is Not Always Best

Human beings naturally look for structure and organization. That's true for the hiring manager reading your resume, too! However, creating a great resume isn't as simple as choosing a structure and running with it. How you decide to structure your resume matters!

Chronological order is far and away the most common resume structure, but that doesn't mean it's the best for every set of circumstances. In truth, it can often be confusing—especially if you've jumped from industry to industry over the course of your career. That's why we recommended grouping your bullet points by industry rather than putting them in chronological order.

This allows you full control to arrange your resume as you like i.e. you should put your most impressive contracts (aka the most well known companies) at the top of your CV.

You should still include your contract start and end dates with each job listing but understand that you don't have to keep them in order to make the most impact. In fact, grouping related roles together often gives you more space to highlight the benefits of a varied career!

How Many Jobs Should I List On My Resume?

Employers obviously want to know about your past work experience, but how much information is too much ? Unfortunately there is no "correct" answer here, but the Muse offers a nice rule of thumb for deciding how many to include:

You shouldn’t list your entire work history on a resume. Your resume should go back no more than 10 to 15 years. Focus on highlighting your management skills. Ensure that the recruiters know that you’ve had essential past responsibilities.

Essentially, you want to provide information about every relevant job in your work history, without including jobs that aren't relevant to what you’re applying for. A software engineering firm probably won’t care about the summer you spent flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant!

However, there is an exception to this rule. If your resume is short (more on what qualifies as short is a bit), you should start to lower the bar for what qualifies as relevant.

How Long Should The Resume Be?

You should use the 10 to 15-year job history as a general rule when determining the ideal length for your resume . With that being said, you generally want your resume to be between 1 and 2 pages . If you’re a recent graduate, try to keep it to 1 page. If you have tons of experience, feel free to use a bit more space.

Did you know... Marissa Mayer (ex CEO of Yahoo) has a 1 page resume. If an ex-Googler with 25 years experience can fit their work experience into a single page, so can you.

While we’re on the subject of length, keep in mind that recruiters can tell when you’re trying to make your resume look longer than it is. Employers are interested in your background, but they don't have time to sift through filler. Every word on the page should be there for a reason! Ironically, submitting a resume that’s much longer than it needs to be may contribute to a rejection email.

An Example Of A Resume With Contract Work That Is Likely To Work

To finish off, we wanted to provide a sample of a resume that highlights contract work in a professional and intuitive way. Keep in mind, the example below is not a complete resume, it only features the work experience sections.

Here it is:

Steven Newbert 1704 Pencil Street Burbank, CA 78421 Work Experience Newell Corporation (May 2014—May 2017): Performed various IT services for the company to assist in the day-to-day operations of their website, with a particular focus on improving the customer experience. Was responsible for updating servers, maintaining uptime on the platform, and ensuring the smooth transition of customer data and questions. Initech Corporation (February 2013—April 2014): Maintained critical financial services and systems for my employer. Looked for glitches in the system to protect company data and finances. Contract Work AT&T (May 2017—Present): Resolves issues with customer contract data not being put properly in the system. Assists with answering customer questions and complaints about their monthly bills.

As you can see from this example, it makes a lot of sense to separate your work experience into contract work and standard employment.

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that contract or freelance work is absolutely relevant to any potential employer. They want to understand what they’re getting when they hire you, and if contract work plays an important role in developing your current skill set, it deserves a spot on your resume.

And if you'd like extra help with writing your resume, AI resume builders can help streamline this process.

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How to List Contract Work on Resume (2 Examples)

Contracting is a great way to gain career experience through exposure to multiple jobs and employers.

However, most people don't know how to put their contracting experience on their resumes.

In this article, I will show you 2 examples of a contractor resume : one for those who use a staffing agency and one for freelance contractors.

Contractor resume example 1 (no staffing agency):

Software Engineer - Contractor Microsoft, Seattle (January - June 2020) As a software engineer, I was responsible for the design and implementation of the payroll system used internally by the company.

• Technologies used: C#, Javascript, React, SQL Server, Azure Cloud

How to list contract work on a resume:

• Use keywords to bypass application tracking systems.

What if I used a staffing agency?

In that case, you need to make a few changes:

• Format each entry as example number 1.

Here's an example of a job section using a staffing agency.

Contractor resume example 2 (using staffing agency):

Staffing Pros - New York City I've been partnering with Staffing Pros for 2 years, offering my project management skills as a contractor to help companies finish their projects on time.

Project Manager - Contractor Manhattan Media, New York City (October 2019 - Present) Responsible for managing the implementation of marketing campaigns for clients.

• Planned and managed a $5M campaign for IBM.

Project Manager - Contractor Big Engineering, New York City (January - October 2019) Managed the development of a new toy product for children.

• The project was 25% under budget and completed 3 months early.

Should you group your contract work?

If most of your job history is contract work, then group it together. And ‌definitely group work you've done under the same staffing agency .

If you only had a few contract jobs throughout your career, then it's ok to keep them separated.

Should you list all your contracting jobs?

It's not uncommon for contractors to work two, three, or even more gigs on any giving year. If you've had a long contracting career, then it's ok to abbreviate each gig.

Summarize your responsibilities and achievements for each job down to a small paragraph and skip the bullet points.

That said, some contracting jobs might not be relevant anymore, especially if you have a long career. You don't want your resume to read like an autobiography.

Is including contract work on your resume bad for you?

Some people worry that including all their contract work in their resume will make them look like job hoppers.

They think employers will not risk hiring a previous contractor because they might get bored quickly and move on.

However, not including those jobs will make it hard to explain job gaps, which is much worse . Also, there is no longer a stigma in contracting. We live in a gig economy after all.

Tailor your resume for each position you apply

This is a rule for good resume writing. You want to tailor your resume as much as possible to each position you apply for .

It might not be practical to change it for each company, but at least try to have a few versions of your resume in hand for each position type.

You don't need to create 100 versions of your resume. But having four or five will definitely help you.

Some resume writing tips

When writing ‌your contracting experience, focus on your accomplishments . Quantify your results and always use specific numbers to show your impact.

Show, don't tell . Employers want to know how the skills and knowledge you gained while contracting will benefit them.

Tip: If the dates for each gig are short enough, you may omit them completely.

Explain why you're going into regular employment

If you want to get out of contracting then you need to have a plausible explanation why.

You don't want your prospects to think you're just desperate for any job . Or that you will go back into contracting once you have better options.

Explain you're looking for career stability and want to invest your time in a long-term project where you can have a higher impact.

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How to List Contract Work on a Resume? Tips and Examples

The freelance economy has been booming for the past couple of years. Independent contractors now account for 38% of America’s workforce and contribute over $1.27 trillion in annual earnings to the country’s economy.  

Being self-employed indeed has its perks — unlimited earning potential, flexible work schedule, and variety in work. At the same time, operating as an independent contractor can also get tiring at times. You have less job security which can lead to gaps in employment and inconsistent earnings.

Whether you’re looking for a new project or considering the return to regular employment, your resume likely needs a refresh. And the natural question you have is: how do I list contract work on the resume in the best way possible? We break down the resume formatting rules and provide several working examples of how to add contract positions to a resume. 

How To List Contract Work On Resume 

How do I include contract work on a resume? And what about freelance work — what’s the best way to describe it? We get these questions often. There are plenty of resume templates for your listing contract work (like our Freelancer’s template or other creative options !).   

And here are the seven quick steps for listing contract work on a resume. 

1. Decide on Your Resume Format

The two resume formats are: chronological or functional. In a chronological resume, you’ll list contract work as separate entries in reverse chronological order, adding one contract position after another. 

Here’s an example of contract positions on a resume: 

Bookkeeper – Contract  Acme Financials LLC Jan 2023-present 

• 12 months, part-time contract with an accounting services provider  
• Maintain general ledgers for 10 customer accounts 
• Manage accounts payables (bills, invoices, reimbursements) with high accuracy 

Bookkeeper/Accountant — Contract  Bantra Bookkeepers  August 2022-Dec 2022

• Full-time, 6-month contract position 
• Handled payroll processing for 8 small-to-medium sized firms 
• Provided budgeting support and expense management advice. 

While a chronological resume is generally preferred by HRs, it may not be the best for full-time independent contractors. First, it may reveal some gaps in employment . Secondly, having too many short-term entries, especially when you did some overlapping projects, will either make your resume look too cluttered or too long. Neither is great. 

So consider going for the second option — a functional resume . 

On a functional resume, you can group different entries by industry or project type. Doing so helps you pack more information into one work experience entry to showcase a wider range of skills and competencies. 

Here’s how such an entry will look on a contractor’s resume: 

Freelance SEO specialist  Self-Employed Dec 2019-present 

• Provide a range of SEO consulting services, primarily to companies in the SaaS space. 
• Performed a technical SEO audit and made improvements to website architecture, which led to a 25% increase in organic traffic. 
• Helped re-optimize  App Store/Google Play listing for a mobile banking app, which brought a 15% increase in app installs in 3 months. 
• Keyword research (Ahrefs, Semrush) 
• Technical SEO audits 
• On-page SEO and content optimization 
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO) 
• App store optimization (ASO) 
• Google Analytics 4 certified 

To maximize the page space, try using a two-column resume design. It lets you display both your contract work entries and leaves room for a resume summary and featured skills section. 

2. Create Contract Job Entries 

Once you’ve settled on the resume format, start putting down your work history. 

For each job entry, you can either use your registered business name, temp agency name, or employer name (if it was a direct contract). If you’re not incorporated, just add “self-employed” or “independent contractor” instead of an employer name. 

Add a job title plus a “Consultant” or “Contractor” moniker.  Use a general job title that best describes your role e.g., software developer or engineering technician. Then add “Contractor” or “Consultant” after a comma for clarity. 

List employment dates to clarify the contract duration. For short-term contracts, use the Mo/Year-Mo/Year format. For long-term work, use the Year-Year format. 

3. Include a General “Contractor” Position 

To present a credible one-page resume , limit yourself to 3-4 most relevant contract work entries. 

You can “wrap” the remaining ones under a general “Self-Employed” entry to highlight more projects and achievements. Doing so, both saves you space, plus allows talking about some great freelance, project-based work you did. 

4. Curate Your Projects  

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you have a lot of gigs under your belt. But again — not all of them should be on your resume.

Always personalize your resume to the job you’re after. For example, if you’re a freelance mobile app developer, after a new ecommerce project, showcase projects from the same industry and/or the ones built with a similar tech stack as the one mentioned in the job ad. You can always showcase more projects on your LinkedIn profile and personal website. 

Generally, for each job entry, list specific duties and share several accomplishments. Use resume bullet points to improve the readability of your work experience section. Aim for 2-4 bullet points per job entry on your resume .

Pro tip : Don’t forget to include relevant resume keywords from the job entry to make your resume more compelling. 

5. Include Portfolio Links 

A resume gives you limited space for displaying your competencies. But unlike regular employees, you probably have a solid external portfolio of work to display. When listing different projects, you can always drop a link to a respective project (if it’s available publicly) to demonstrate as your work sample. 

A well-organized portfolio puts your skills in context and demonstrates exactly how you approach work. If you’re an independent contractor in a creative or technical field like graphic design, architecture, videography, journalism, or mobile app development, a portfolio is a must-have! 

6. Incorporate Client Recommendations 

While regular employees can only add references to a resume , independent contractors can display glowing client testimonials. First-hand recommendations increase the credibility of all the claims you’re making, dispelling any doubts a hiring manager might have about your qualifications. 

Here’s an example of how to add contract work on a resume alongside a client recommendation:

Videographer Self-Employed  June 2020-present 

Visual storyteller, specializing in content for beauty, fashion, and sports brands. Produce content for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and interactive DOOH campaigns. 

Select clients include: Glossier, Lululemon, Uniqlo. 

“Jemma has the creativity, technical expertise, and strong listening abilities, which make every campaign an absolute success. She always delivers on-time and on-brief results. Highly recommended”.  Sarah Tomas, Brand Manager, Sporty Chic 

Remember: a great client testimonial is short and to the point, commenting on one or two of your main skills and professional characteristics. It doesn’t have to be a page-long letter of recommendation to count! 

7. Add Extra Skills 

Still got some space left on your resume? Don’t leave it blank — instead, pack up some of your most marketable skills. 

You can (and should!) list extra skills alongside contract job entries or your consolidated “self-employed entry”. Alternatively, you can include a features skills section either in your resume header area or as a sidebar if you’re using a two-page resume template. 

Need some inspiration? Check our features lists of skills to add to a resume:

• Technical skills for a resume 
• Best resume skills for retail 
• Administrative skills for a resume 
• Critical-thinking skills to add to a resume 
• Business acumen skills to bring up 

Examples of Contract Work on a Resume 

Showcasing contract work on a resume isn’t much different from styling full-time job entries. Your goal is to articulate your most marketable competencies, main work accomplishments, and general duties front and center. 

To help you out, our team prepared several sample contract position resume entries for different types of independent work. 

Full-Time Independent Contractor Resume Entry 

Below is a sample resume entry for a full-time independent contractor/experienced freelancer, working with several clients at a time. 

UX/UI designer, Consultant  Koch Group October 2021-present 

A UX/UI consultant for mobile financial product development, hired for a 6-month project.  

• Conducted user research and behavioral studies 
• Optimized digital account opening process (from 22 to 8 forms) 
• Reduced churn rates by 15% 

Lead UX/UI designer, Contractor Prosacco LLC June 2021-present 

Joined as the project lead for a team of in-house designers for an online store redesign project. 

• Worked on-site with the client’s design and marketing team 
• Provided CRO consultations for product landing pages
• Re-designed checkout experience — which led to an 8% boost in conversion rates 

UX Researcher, Consultant Berigns Foundation October 2020-Present 

Part-time UX researcher, specializing in web accessibility research and website testing.

• Verified and compiled new UX best practices for web accessibility 
• Conducted user studies and focus groups 
• Delivered a series of workshops for business leaders 

Resume Sample For Temporary Contract Work 

This entry shows how you can best showcase temporary contract work alongside regular employment. 

Production Manager Shanahan Movies Inc – Full-Time December 2019-present 

On-set production manager, responsible for managing “below-the-line” crew. Stellar budget management skills, strong time management skills, high levels of personal efficiency, and mental resilience. 

• Shooting schedules management and coordination  
• Quality control program development and implementation 
• Over 50 vetted equipment suppliers on my books 

Assistant Production Manager Faraway Studios – Contract June 2019-November 2019 

Contract-based position to assist during the shooting of the first season of a new travel show. Provided location scouting help and performed coordination on the ground. Liaised with local suppliers, partners, and authorities in Spanish. 

• Coordinated major project milestones and deadlines 
• Obtained shooting permits from the local Tourist Bureau 
• Facilitated relationships with the local show sponsors 

Freelance production manager Self-Employed April 2017-present 

Assisted on a number of short-term commercial shooting projects, primarily for fashion and luxury brands. Organized destination ad campaign shootings in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. Facilitated street-style shoots on the ground in NY, Florida, and California. 

Select clients include Fashion Housing, Ramires, Sana Tea, and Bloomington.  

Personal website [your website URL] 

Should I Put Temporary Contracts On My Resume? 

Yes, if your contract position is relevant to the one you are applying for, do include it on your resume. If not, you can always just add the name of a staffing agency you’ve been with and provide some general descriptions to avoid having glaring employment gaps on your resume. 

Does Contract Work Look Bad on a Resume?

Not at all. Having a mix of contract and full-time work positions is pretty much the norm in many industries — and the acceptance levels are growing among HRs. Almost 30% of employees at large organizations are contingent (i.e., hired for temporary contracts as independent contractors). So having contract work on your resume is becoming quite normal. In fact, some employers see a lot of contract work as an advantage. Former independent contractors often have more diverse work experience and a more proactive “let’s make things happen” attitude than full-time office dwellers.

Final Thoughts 

In the next couple of years, 66% of businesses plan to hire more independent talent, meaning that more gigs are coming to the market. Dust off your resume and give it a good makeover to score some amazing new client work this year! 

Elena runs content operations at Freesumes since 2017. She works closely with copywriters, designers, and invited career experts to ensure that all content meets our highest editorial standards. Up to date, she wrote over 200 career-related pieces around resume writing, career advice... more

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How To List Contract Work on LinkedIn

These tips from recruiters cover everything you need to know about listing contract work on your LinkedIn, including common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

a year ago   •   4 min read

Listing regular employment on LinkedIn is fairly straightforward — but what about contract work? Whether you were a long-term independent contractor, a temp worker for hire, or just took on the occasional contract job in between other work, we’ll cover:

• The right way to list contract work on LinkedIn
• What to do if you’ve had too many contracts to list
• How to avoid looking like a job hopper
• Which employer name to list if you were hired by a third party company
• When it’s okay to leave contract work off your profile (or just not label it)
• How to make contract work appealing to LinkedIn recruiters and hiring managers

Ready? Let’s dive right in!

How to list contract work on LinkedIn

Here’s the no-frills guide to listing contract work on your LinkedIn profile:

• Give yourself a standard company name and job title. Avoid labels like “self-employed” — instead, focus on what it was you actually did.
• Include the start and end date of your contract. This is your LinkedIn profile, not a job application, so there’s no need to list specific dates — month and year is fine.
• Add a short blurb to describe the work you did.
• Choose 3-6 of your most relevant or impressive accomplishments and write them as bullet points.
• Include keywords to make your profile easier for recruiters to find.
• Get feedback from our LinkedIn Review tool for tips on improving your profile’s visibility and impact.

If you aren't sure what keywords to include in your LinkedIn profile to make it easier for recruiters to find, use the skills and keywords tool below.

Tips for making the most of contract work on LinkedIn

Now that you have contract work in your profile — how do you make it look good? Here are some essential tips for making the most of contract work on your LinkedIn profile in just about any situation.

If you had multiple short-term contracts

Solution: Group similar experience together

While job hopping is losing some of the stigma attached to it, it can still be a red flag for recruiters. Avoid looking like a job hopper by grouping different contract work under a single heading. Use a single job title that describes what you mainly did and list different projects with subheadings underneath — that way, you still get to highlight your strongest accomplishments without having to explain what looks like multiple job changes.

If you took on contract work between full-time jobs

Solution: Separate your relevant experience and other experience

Grouping your experience may not work as well if you took on individual contracts in between other jobs. In that case, you can split your experience into two sections — one for “relevant experience” and one for “other experience.” You could even label that section “contract work” to differentiate it from your regular full-time experience.

If you were a long-term independent contractor

Solution: Don’t list every single contract

If you’ve been working as a freelancer or independent contractor for a while, chances are that you have more than a few contracts under your belt. While it may be tempting to list them all if you’re trying to prove that you have a lot of experience, it’s a much better idea to focus on a few key projects or clients. Pick 3-4 of your most recent, relevant, or significant contracts and drill down on specific accomplishments rather than giving a broad overview of every single job.

If you found work through a temp agency or contracting firm

Solution: List the company that actually employed you

Working for a third party can sometimes be confusing — for example, if you were legally employed by a staffing agency or consulting firm (Company A) but all the work you did was for a different company (Company B). Here’s how to handle this:

• List your employer as Company A. If you technically weren’t employed by Company B, you should never pretend that you were.
• Mention the work you did for Company B in your bullet point accomplishments. For example, “Assigned to a project at a large multinational firm to revamp customer onboarding procedure.”
• If it doesn’t violate the terms of your contract or any non-disclosure agreements, you can mention Company B by name. If you worked on multiple contracts for the same firm, create subheadings for different projects or clients and list specific accomplishments underneath.

If your contract work wasn’t completely relevant to the jobs you’re applying for

Solution: Focus on soft skills and accomplishments

If you’re changing careers — or if your contract work was a departure from the kind of work you normally do — you can still use it to your advantage. Focusing on transferable skills means that your accomplishments may still be relevant in ways that aren’t immediately obvious — for example, answering phone calls might not be part of your new job description, but communication, problem solving, and conflict resolution almost certainly are.

If it looks like you had overlapping contracts

Solution: Get specific with your dates of employment

While it’s totally okay to stick to years of employment on your LinkedIn profile, that may not be the best choice if you worked multiple contracts during what looks like the same period. Listing the months alongside the years makes your timeline easier to follow if you mainly had short-term contracts.

If you don’t want to draw attention to your contract work

Solution: Label your contract positions — or don’t

If you don’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that you worked on a contract basis, you have a couple of options:

Option 1: Stick a label like “Freelance” or “Independent Contractor” next to your job title and list the rest of your experience as normal. This is a good choice if the position was short-term, as it heads off questions about why you left the job so soon.

Option 2: Skip the label entirely and just treat your contract work like regular employment. There’s no rule that says you have to specifically label contract work differently, so this can be a good option if you worked a single long-term contract.

• Career Advice

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Should you include your home address on your resume, what you need to know about google career certificates (and the best ones for your resume), keep reading, how to list multiple positions at the same company on linkedin, how to announce a promotion on linkedin (with examples), is it bad to lie on linkedin plus, recruiter-backed tips so you don’t have to, subscribe to our newsletter.

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Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.