5 Reasons Part-Time Jobs Catch an Employer’s Eye

When building a resume, most job seekers tend to focus on the previous full-time jobs they’ve had and how those can prepare them for future employment. Equally, the focus for those without previous full-time employment is often internships, which are also valuable on a resume. However, there are qualifications from other experiences which can often go undocumented and underappreciated by job seekers while creating a resume: part-time employment.

Most job seekers can speak fondly about their part-time jobs throughout high school and college. In many ways, these positions are no less important than the full-time and internship experiences on a resume. Some employers find a candidate’s part-time job history equally as compelling and informative as their other experience because of the qualifications that can be deduced from their part-time employment. Here are a few things a potential employer can glean from the part-time jobs you list on your resume:

1. Varied Experience
   Variety is always good. It means the job seeker has been exposed to different atmospheres, skill sets, and people in a job. Your part-time jobs most likely put you in a fast-paced workplace where you were required to multi-task and please customers. The way you were able to adapt to these environments shows employers how you may fare in their workplace.
2. Skills
   There are many skills you can take away from part-time jobs that are transferable to the traditional workplace. Some skills you can easily take from a part-time job and extrapolate to a full-time position are: customer service, efficiency, adaptability to new situations, ability to learn new skills quickly, etc. I’m sure you could come up with more based on the specifications of your part-time jobs.
3. Initiative
   A resume showing that you were employed part-time during school breaks or unexpected time between jobs tells employers that you take initiative and that you’re motivated. It displays your self-motivation in particular, which is an exceptional and necessary quality for almost any workplace.
4. Productivity
   By being employed during potentially “idle” times in your life, you show that you value productivity, which is key to any workplace environment. In particular, it displays that you value productivity for the right reasons. Hopefully you were looking to gain real world experience in your part-time job. However, productivity for its own sake is alright as long as it means you didn’t spend last summer on the couch when you could have been gaining valuable work experience.
5. Knowledge
   The experience of looking for and finding part-time employment can only serve to help you as you move forward and look for bigger fish in a full-time job. You probably had to go through an interview process for your part-time employment, without which you would have been a little less prepared for a job interview with full-time employers.

So, in your next job interview, don’t be afraid if you haven’t had much “real life” experience, such as a previous full-time position or a high-impact internship. The truth is, you probably do have a lot of great real life experiences you can gather from your part-time jobs. The key is being able to take your experiences, skills, and knowledge and show employers how they make you a competitive and highly desirable candidate for the job.

Have your past part-time jobs helped you get a position? Let us know about it in the comments section below!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by ed and eddie