How to show a company buy-out on a resume

Question

I'm working on updating my resume since the company I work for was recently purchased by Honeywell and it seems very likely that all the software development will be outsource in the next year or so....

Also, I received a promotion shortly after we became part of Honeywell. Normally I would just have two entries on the resume... one for the first position and one for the second with both stating the same company name...however I would like to portray that while the company name is now different I did not actually leave the first company, the new name is just the result of being bought by Honeywell.

Anyone know of a standard practice for portraying this elegantly on a resume?

Answer 1

I think using the original company name and parenthesizing Honeywell next to it would portray this clearly.

Answer 2

Did you have anythign to do with the transition of the company? You could list something like "facilitated transition after company buyout" under your responsibilities. That would make it pretty clear. Otherwise, just stick with Ben's answer.

Answer 3

It's a unique situation. I'd try something like this:

2007 - Present:  Honeywell Systems (via MyOldCompany aquisition)
Position: Promotion from previous position at MyOldCompany,
Duties: Chief Code Monkey.

2005 - 2006: MyOldCompany (acquired by Honeywell in 2006)
Position: MyOldJob
Duties: Code Monkey.

Answer 4

I would suggest putting down both positions under each companies name. Then put an explanation bullet for the original company that it was bought by Honeywell and your position was changed in the company. I generally try to include a bullet like this for every job I left, but it can be used to explain that the company was bought by Honeywell.

Answer 5

Others have answered the multiple company name question, so I'll deal with the buyout question: Unless you did something to help the buyout, it doesn't need to be on your resume. That topic can be broached much more effectively in the face-to-face (or even phone) interview. Putting this on your resume may actually backfire and look like a yellow (or even red) flag.

Answer 6

put the old company name in Strikeout and then Honeywell ;-)

Answer 7

The most important thing to keep in mind with a resume is that most of your "audience" is going to "scan" your resume for only a few seconds before deciding whether to give it a closer look or trash it. One of the main things they look for in this quick "scan" is whether you have had continuous employment related to the opening and whether the jobs were for long periods or whether you have "job hopped". If you express the buyout as:

Company2
2007 - 2008
(buyout from Company1)

Company1
2006 - 2007

at first "scan", it looks like 2 short-term jobs... the parenthesized notation might very well be "scanned over". It is much to your advantage to de-emphasize the buyout, since it really is not relevant to your job experience. I would instead put:

Company2 / Company1
2006 - 2008
(Company1 bought out by Company2 in 2007)

This makes it read much more favorably in "quick scan" mode.