Hi All,

I'm concerned about the message my resume seems to convey about job hopping. I'm in my late 20s now and have spent the last year traveling to different parts of the world which included volunteering, teaching english, and learning a new language. Prior to this experience, my last two jobs were contracts and prior to this I had a salary position that lasted a year due to being laid off. Then I did some more traveling, teaching english and learning a foreign language. I graduated from college at the worst time, during the 9/11 period, where the job market was tough. It took me a year to get my salary position but in the meantime I did some internships and waitressed. So as you probably could imagine, all of these experiences make me look as if I'm a job hopper but in fact, I worked many internships, contracts and had some meaningful travel experiences.

I've already been told by two recruiters that I don't seem focused. My work experience has been primarily in marketing and media. As you know, internships are very important in this field.  I try to tell myself that these experiences have given me more confidence to adapt to different situations and environments, that my 20s are the only time when I can really travel and try my hand at different industries. Also, outside factors like tough job market and internships not turning into job offers (timing), made it more challenging to land full time positions.

The job hopping stands out because my resume is formatted in chronological order. I mentioned in my experience section that I traveled and volunteered in those countries for the past year. Is this advisable or should I leave the gap in my resume and not mention what I was doing in that time off work?

Any advice on this matter is greatly appreciated. Please tell me how to justify the job hopping (with the internships and contracts) and how to talk about those gaps when I was traveling. Thanks very much!