Fixing resume for non nuke

[Dinerp]

 I have been in nuclear industry for 24 years, most the 24 years working as a road tech. As of late, it has a little more difficult to have steady employment as an outage RP tech. I know in the nuke world it is acceptable to have many pages of short duration jobs. I just wanted to ask what is a good method to condense a 9 page resume for the non nuke world.
  Most of my time my employer was Bartlett Nuclear. I had 4 other (in between outage) employers during that time. I have been thinking about omitting those 4 employers just to make a little less clutter. Am I wrong for doing this?
   I am doing because I was previously disqualified by my nuclear resume by a good paying company in my home area. Thanks.

[UncaBuffalo]

I'm in same boat you are and pared my resume template down to a one page skeleton¹ by lumping all my contract jobs in one paragraph, with a blurb that says "Contract companies and exact plants/dates worked available on request."

I have also used another format where I give each contract company their own paragraph, but that's a bit more cumbersome and I've never been able to pare it down to one page using that system.

I don't like the sounds of omitting the non-Bartlett employers completely...I think you are inviting questions about the gaps in your resume, as well as accusations that you had failed to fully disclose if anyone compared your resume to the full application that you will inevitably end up having to fill out.



1 - I almost never am able to actually send out a one-page resume, because it seems to always run onto a second page by the time I've modified it for the individual position I'm applying for...but it makes a nice generic template to start from.

[Ksheed]

I'm in same boat you are and pared my resume template down to a one page skeleton by lumping all my contract jobs in one paragraph, with a blurb that says "Contract companies and exact plants/dates worked available on request."

I would recommend going with the layout in the above quote. For downsizing purposes; it is acceptable to only include work history relevant to the job you are applying for. That said, leaving out some of your work history, or at least the details, isn't a major issue if it isn't relevant. One other way to compress your resume is to list your education and skills in a sidebar running vertically on the right side of the page. This space is usually empty due to typical resume formatting styles anyways. There is a lot of good information on this site concerning resumes. I would suggest using the search function and doing some reading, if you haven't already. Good luck on your job search.

Here is the one I was thinking of: http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,34823.0.html

[Dinerp]

 Thank you fellas, I was able to condense my resume to 2 pages without omitting anything and I am satisfied with it.
  When I work with up and coming young folks, I usually tell them, "in the nuclear industry there are a lot of good people with a lot of knowledge, you just have to ask and someone will give you an answer. If they do not have an answer, they will show you where to get the answer." Here is one more proof.

[UncaBuffalo]

BeerCourt said it better than I could a few years ago:

What you need in this case is a different resume - a real one.  Instead of a chronological job list, use a more narrative approach.  Try making an entry like this:

1998 - present  Senior Health Physics Technician
During this time, I have been employed by Bartlett Nuclear, Inc. and Whamodyne Nuclear Services, Ltd. on a contract basis.  I am regularly assigned to travel to various nuclear power plants and facilities licensed to handle radioactive materials.  My specific duties range from providing direct radiation protection to workers involved in refueling and maintaining nuclear reactors to calibrating and maintaining radiation detection and measurement instruments.
I have been responsible for surveying and preparing radioactive material for shipment, evaluating conditions in work areas involving high levels of radiation and/or radioactive contamination, and making recommendations for protective measures.
My overall responsibilities are to maintain exposure to radiation As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) for the workers at these facilities and the public in general, and to ensure that radioactive materials are kept under control at all times to prevent inadvertent release to the environment.

This is just an example.  You should be specific as to your own duties, but not so detailed that you include stuff that means nothing to the reader.  You should also list any mjor accomplishments that you participated in.  For example, you might have been charged with writing a new procedure or protocol for conducting shipping surveys, or  you may have specialized in SGRP work ... etc.  You don't want to use jargon or abbreviatons though, if they won't be clearly understood.  If you are trying to get a job in a hospital, it doesn't help to say that you did job coverage for a HPCI pump replacement.  What do they care about that anyway?  They don't have HPCI pumps.  They need to know you can handle working with high levels of radiation and contamination.  In fact, the term "job coverage" is too much jargon to be used outside commercial nuke or DOE applications.  You have to say it in English instead.

You are right.  The tech "resume" does tend to make you look unstable.  But a summary (which includes only enough detail to be appropriate in the particular situation) looks better.  It tells more of the story about you and what you do, and less about the specific times and places that you did specific parts of your overall jub.