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Comment by gundmc | Hacker News Reader

One unanswered question that I have around resumes is how to represent work done as a contractor or consultant for another company. I've seen everything from making it look like you were employed by the customer directly (obviously bad) to intentionally vague descriptions of the company such as "fortune 500 defense contractor" and every variation in between.

My favorite was a candidate that described consulting with "large internet search engine company based in Mountain View, CA".

Even when I worked at a consulting firm, there were huge variances in how folks would represent themselves on both internal and external resumes.

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I think it's a reasonable thing to think about. I list the client if that's what seems reasonable. If prompted, I'd say "Technically I worked for an agency that provided next to zero value and I don't consider them relevant for the purpose of my CV"

If I was consulting through a company on more of a short-term basis for multiple clients, and that consulting company played a more significant role in employing me, than ya they'd get recognition. As it stands, I list the client I worked for, and in my current case I use the name of the one client I work for rather than the proxy company I technically work for.

There's a number of valid situations to be in, I usually do list "contract" if it was truly a contract, but otherwise I just do what seems reasonable, and if someone thinks that's deceptive, then I guess that's reasonable too.

One way I've liked seeing it as a hiring manager is to treat it as one large block ("self-employed" or "contract work") and then list individual projects as paragraphs in the description. That can help you avoid looking like a job-hopper.

ha I thought about doing this, but after 14 years of freelancing you accumulate - a lot - of those entries. Also nobody really cares beyond let's say 5 years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You don't have to list all the entries! Just put in the fun ones, with a bit at the top. "A variety of successful web-based projects, including:"

[role] at Company A, through Company B

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