Submitted by kbuchholz on
in
Forums
Hello,
I'm new to the forum but have been listening to the podcasts for a few months now.
I'm beginning a new job search for the first time in over 10 years. My company will be shutting down our plant and relocating operations to the mid-west. Twice in the past two years they have made substaintial offers (promotions) for me to relocate and stay with the company. These were formal offers and not just "conversations". Both offers I turned down due to the location. Instead I have chosen to stay on and accept the severance package.
Is it appropriate for me to list the formal offers of promotion as an accomplishment on my resume even though I declined each offer? I've exceled in my current role and the offers were a result of my hard work and results I delivered. The other reason is that by the time we close our doors, I will have been in this current role for 5 years and I do not want it to appear as though things have stagnated.
What do you think?
Nope. By that logic, you
Nope. By that logic, you could list any position that you ever were offered and turned down.
Besides, what responsibilties and accomplishments would you list for that position?
Your accomplishments are best measured by dollars saved, parts produced, units sold, or other measurements that transfer from one company to another, not in positions you were offered. You'd take up a lot of space explaining what the other positions would be.
Plus, you'd raise questions about why you turned down these "substantial" promotions. Sure, not wanting to relocate is a totally valid reason. Would you list that as well?
I disagree.
I respectfully disagree with TomW. Kbuchholz isn't asking if he/she can list an offered position as a job, just as an accomplishment. Go ahead and list the formal offer of promotion on your resume, under your current job. Don't go into all the gory details; those are for the interview. It would look like this.
(relevant quote)
Is it appropriate for me to list the formal offers of promotion as an accomplishment on my resume even though I declined each offer?
I agree with Tom
Maybe you were offered those other roles because you excelled. Or maybe you were offered them because you stunk really bad at your current job, and the company was trying to find a better fit for you. The reader of the resume doesn't know which it is. If it's the first one, why not take the space on the resume to describe what made you so good?
--Rich
Thanks for all of the
Thanks for all of the feedback.
I'm in no shortage of accomplishments to list on my resume, though sticking to the one page rule does make every line very valuable so I understand your points.
The point I was hoping to convey to the resume reader by listing the promotions is that my current employer obviously feels I'm ready for an increased level of responsibility and that is something I will be looking for when applying for my next job. Make sense?
That said, I'm inclined to leave if off of the resume as I don't believe I have seen it on any other resumes I have reviewed over the years.
Perhaps this is something that would be more appropriate to convey in a cover letter.
No
We don't recommend listing a proffered promotion like this for a couple of reasons.
First, a bullet used for this purpose doesn't highlight any particular skill. Bullets like this are often seen as wasted in that they recap al the other bullets.
You might counter that it somehow trumps skill-specific accomplishments by being an overall indicator, but we don't find this to be true.
As well, in this case, you'd HAVE to put in the bullet that you turned it down, which creates a question... And we NEVER want to introduce questions. One might think that turning down this promotion isn't a negative, but it might be if you want to grow but not move in a national company. Recruiters will wonder.
You'll end up spending five minutes on this topic simply because of one bullet ... And that's five minutes lost to making your best case.
Mark