Can I Put Future Jobs On My Resume?

The goal of a resume is to introduce your job qualifications and skills to the employer. This document tells them your background, career story, experiences, and education.

Employers do more than read this document; they analyze it deeply by assessing your education and how relevant your skill would be in their organization; they look out for the keywords used in the texts and examine your career trajectory.

Job seekers know the potential uses of this document and how this in-depth analysis determines if they’ll get the job or not. That is why they go all out, adding various useful information that they think would favor their application.

Some go as far as adding future jobs or internships to their resumes to make them appear stronger. While this is understandable, various guidelines must be followed to do this successfully. If these jobs or internships are solid and would work in your favor, there is no reason why they should not be on your resume.

However, if the guidelines are not properly followed, it would work adversely to your hopes and end up making you look desperate.

Let’s get started on the tips, guidelines, and general rules to follow if you want to add future qualifications to your present resume…

Important Tips On Including A Future Job On Your Resume

Can you put future jobs on your resume? Yes, of course.

But before we dive headfirst into these useful details, it is important to mention that except you are sure that the inclusion would make a major difference in the favorable consideration of your resume, then you should leave it out to avoid unnecessary complications. If you do plan on including it, then follow these major guidelines:

Be Clear On Your Position

There’s no need to pretend you are already working the job. Lying would become a hurdle that would be so hard to cross if you are eventually chosen for the job. Be clear on your position from the onset, and let the employers know that although you have gotten this job, you have not resumed yet and therefore have no experience regarding that area.

You can do this be listing this position as any other job on your resume and adding “Incoming” as the job title. This way, employers automatically know what you mean instead of assuming you got the job.

Include Start And End Date Wherever Possible

It is not enough to just include the job and highlight “Incoming” as its title; anyone can do that. To make it seem more natural, you should include a probable date to resume such a job. This will tell the employer how serious and real it is. If you don’t know the exact date, you can use a general moment like winter or summer. Extensive examples would follow after these tips.

Keep Details Brief

Since you haven’t started the job yet, employers do not expect you to know the details yet, so writing too many details about the description would seem a little off and a lot deceptive. Keep the details brief and restricted to just the outline.

Too many details on a job you haven’t started yet is a red flag to employers. So is writing too little detail. Even if you aren’t expected to know all the details, you should know the basics. After all, you applied for the job and got it, which means you have to know something, right?

Examples On How To Make The Inclusion

On the assumption that you’re listing your professional experiences, you can include your incoming job like this:

Professional Experience

Assistant Teacher

Phenomville | California, USA |

July 2020 – Present

Incoming Head Teacher

Fortune High | Texas, US |

Above, you will see how to add “Incoming” to your job title in a way that lets the employers know this is a future job position.

Here is another example…

Professional Experience

Lab Technician

Orlando Health | Florida, US |

April 2019 – Present

Incoming Laboratory Technologist

Colorado Hospital | Aurora CO, US |

Start Date: October 2021 – End Date: October 2022

This illustrates how you include start and end dates in your job description when writing a resume. If you don’t know the exact date of resumption, you can use any other moment to describe it. Here’s how:

Incoming Laboratory Technologist

Colorado Hospital | Aurora CO, US |

Start Date: Summer 2021 – Winter 2022

Here, summer and winter are used to describe the time frame when you are likely to resume without pointing out an exact date or time.

Professional Experience

Office Assistant

Barbados Enterprises | Washington, US |

April 2018 – July 2021

Incoming Office Administrator

High Tech Inc.| Florida, US|

Start Date: Summer 2021 – Winter 2022

• Will welcome and direct visitors;
• Will coordinate meetings and appointments;
• Will answer the phone and respond to mails;
• Will arrange travel and accommodation.

Notice how the bullet sentences all start with “Will,” which is used to deceive future tasks instead of the past tenses used to describe the other job experiences. And try not to include too many details, as you will only risk sounding deceptive.

NB: Always be mindful of using period punctuations after bullet points and the excessive use of “I.” The recruiter already sees your name on the resume and assumes you did everything on the documents; using “I” will be a little repetitive and bogus.

When You Should Be Putting Future Jobs On Your Resume

The only time you should be putting future jobs on your resume is if you have gotten the said job. It would be thoroughly deceptive and unprofessional if you only applied for a job and then added it to another resume without getting feedback first.

So many job seekers ask, “Can I put future jobs on my resume?” and the answer remains the same. Except the inclusion would prove favorable, you should leave it out.

“Emphasize your strengths on your resume, in your cover letters, and your interviews. It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people simply list everything they’ve ever done. Convey your passion, and link your strengths to immeasurable results. Employees and interviews love concrete data,” says Marcus Buckingham, American Business Consultant.

When Should You Not Include This Job?

There are certain times when it is unnecessary to add these jobs to your resume. Let’s look into them:

When The Job Is Not Important

Including future jobs on your resume puts you at the risk of sounding desperate, but if the job is something big and vital, you know for sure that you would impress the recruiter.

However, ask yourself this important question and take it off if it’s completely unnecessary.

According to Brenda Greene, a Resume Expert, “When a resume comes in, especially in this market, hiring managers are not looking to find someone… They are looking to disqualify someone. Errors and hype do that.” Be careful not to make any errors or overhype yourself.

You Haven’t Gotten a Reliable Response

Okay, maybe you applied for the job and have gotten feedback. This is not enough reason to include it in your resume. Positive feedback is not enough. You have to be sure you got the job first. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a specific resumption date yet, just as long as you get clarification on where you stand.

You might be planning for future jobs or internships and wondering how to incorporate them into your resume.

Can I Put a Future Internship On My Resume?

So many job seekers want to know if putting an internship on a resume before starting is a great move. The answer is yes, of course. Putting a future internship is conventionally better and more valuable than putting a future job on your resume because it will drastically improve your application.

Why? Here’s the answer.

Internships were created solely to impart work experience, which is a transferable skill. The employer knows that you’re about to start an internship which will equip you with the favorable knowledge you would then use to work for them. It’s a win-win situation.

If you are still not sure how to write your resume properly, hire a professional certified resume writer near you and he will give you even more important advice.

Conclusion

Filling out a resume should not be so difficult, and with the above steps, you would breeze through it in a few minutes. Take care to always go over your application as many times as possible to ensure all mistakes are eliminated and edited. Goodluck.

Photos were taken from Unsplash