Dealing With Promotions On Your Resume
As we wind down 2020, we wanted to give you a short post on the best way to deal with promotions within a company/firm on your resume. Too many times we see attorneys making a separate job entry for an advancement from Associate to Partner, or from Associate GC to Deputy GC, etc.
It’s tempting to make a new entry. It puts an exclamation point on your promotion and give you the opportunity to highlight the new responsibilities. But oftentimes you still have your old responsibilities, so the temptation leads to having two (very) similar entries on your resume. Don’t do that. The reader of your resume’s time is too valuable to repeat everything. Here is a better way to handle it:
Sinatra, Davis & Martin, PC Las Vegas, NV
Partner 2019-Present
Associate 2012-2019
[TEXT BLOCK ABOUT SDM DUTIES]
Versus
Sinatra, Davis & Martin, PC Las Vegas, NV
Partner 2019-Present
[TEXT BLOCK ABOUT SDM DUTIES]
Sinatra, Davis & Martin, PC Las Vegas, NV
Associate 2012-2019
[SECOND TEXT BLOCK ABOUT SDM DUTIES]
Put two positions on separate lines under the name of your firm/company. Italicize the position names. A reader can see the progression and promotion and will quickly understand that you remained at the company but were given a new title. They won’t have to read several descriptions about the work you did at the same firm. Additionally, a lazy reader won’t accidentally infer that you “job hopped” (which you clearly did not do). Putting the two positions within the same firm together is clearly the best practice.
Have a great 2021 from Legal Resume Review!