Many job seekers have side hustles. Sometimes they need them to make ends meet. Sometimes they are building a side business that one day may become their full-time job. And sometimes, they have extra time and want to use it to acquire new skills (and make additional income). Whether you are a Door Dash driver, an eBay seller, or doing copywriting on the side, a question always is, should you add this to your resume? 

The answer is it depends (I know you hate that answer).

But hear me out.

The strategy for what to put on your resume will always depend on the role(s) you want and your work history. Sometimes, putting your side hustles on a resume makes perfect sense. There are also times when it may detract from your professional story. 

Let's explore when it might make sense.

When to Add a Side Hustle to Your Resume

There are two reasons why you might want to add a side hustle to your resume.

It Showcases Additional, Relevant Skills

Professional career coaches like myself will always say that you must keep the reader in mind when writing a resume. Your goal is to provide information that will be of value to them. So whether you add your side hustle to your resume depends on what you are doing in the side hustle, the skills you are using, and whether they add value to the reader.

So let's take the example of the Door Dash driver. What are some skills needed to be a successful Door Dash driver?

• Punctuality (arriving on time at the restaurant)

• Detail orientation (picking up the correct order and all items ordered are included)

• Customer service (update the customer on order, pack the order carefully, and follow delivery instructions)

• Multi-tasking (batching orders)

• Following procedures (such as following alcohol delivery guidelines)

Now, if you are applying for a role where these skills are an important part of the job, it may make sense to add the Door Dash job and provide a few bullet points explaining your success using these skills.

But if these skills are not relevant to the jobs you want or you have these skills noted in other areas of your resume, then adding the DoorDash role will not provide value, and you should leave it off.

It Closes an Employment Gap on Your Resume

Perhaps you must leave a toxic work environment and decide to pet sit or walk dogs to earn money. Now what many people do as a side gig has become more of a full-time endeavor. If you have been doing this for several months, should you include it on your resume?

Employers wonder about job gaps, and often having something on your resume to account for the time is better than leaving the recruiter or hiring manager guessing. Even if the job is not career-related, it may make sense to have it on your resume, especially if you have been out of your professional career for more than one or two months.

So how to best do this? You have a few options.

• Add it to your reverse chronological order resume. You could write something like the following:

Professional Pet Sitter, (Name of Company) (Dates)

OR

Owner, (Your Name Pet Sitting) (Dates)

If you have relevant transferable skills that make sense to add to your resume, you can add bullet points describing your accomplishments and the skills you used. If not, you do not need to add anything else.

• Create a section called Other Experience after your Professional Experience section, and add your job there. This accounts for your time (you can use the same structure as above for noting this work), but it is further down in your resume, so it is not as prominent. You get to highlight all the important value you provide in the top part of your resume and leave to the bottom what you were doing when between jobs.

A Word of Caution about Side Jobs on Resumes

When you put a current side job on a resume, please know it can bring up questions in a recruiter's or hiring manager's mind. Many hiring managers will worry that you will be less dedicated to the role or that you might even try to do the side job while working, especially if you are working remotely. If you think this may be a concern during the hiring process, you may want to address it during your interviews. Saying something like, "I plan to continue my side job, but I only do it in the evenings and weekends," or "This job will always be my main priority, and I will only take on clients when I know that I can still provide 100% to (name of employer)" may help to address a hiring manager's concern.

Conclusion

A 2019 study from Bankrate.com showed that almost half of Americans had a side hustle. So, whether to add it to your resume or not is a common concern of many job seekers. Using my guidelines, you now should have a better idea of the right solution for your situation.

Shelley Piedmont is a Career Coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. I help job seekers prepare for interviews. You can engage me to help you prep for any interview. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.