how do I make myself more presentable to employers?

[fascinoma]

Here's my situation...

How can I make myself look more stable to employers?

In the past two years, I've been at a series of jobs that were very short.

Mostly for reasons that weren't my fault. Here's the history of past two years. These were all fairly low end jobs. Job 1 was as a bookseller, 2 was as a barista, 3a was as a telephone market researcher, and 3b onward (which I've done since September) are as a home health aide.

Worked at Job 1 for about a year, then moved. Took me about three months to find another job.

Worked at Job 2 for about two months. I got sick and I had to quit Job 2. I was on temporary disability. [Found out I had an undiagnosed thyroid disorder. Disorder treated. Problem solved. Am well again... but require regular monitoring, and medication.]

Job 3a didn't offer me stable hours. Had to make ends meet. When I got an offer of Job 4 a month later, I took it.

Job 3b (side job I've done ever since the same time as Job 3a) I'm still at, it's very minimal hours, I may be able to make it seem more significant than it is since it's the longest running job this past year?

Worked at Job 4 for about three months. Then Job 4's previous worker came back, and my hours got cut in half, forcing me to take Job 5 and quit.

Job 5 has been rock solid, but I don't get benefits. He's morning, I'd like to get CNA certified. The only way to get CNA certified is to go to a facility-based program that will employ me while training me, because CNA programs are all in the MORNING. Applying for such a facility-based program means I have to represent myself properly and go through the job interview process.

Jobs 3b, 4, and 5 have been through private parties (no HR department, et cetera, it's a private individual who would be giving me the reference).

I'm going to lose my current benefits soon. I have a pre-existing health condition.

Bah.

I could go to a CNA school instead of do facility-based, but I'd have to quit Job 5 and find another job that's at night instead of morning, and my option would basically be to work somewhere like Target while doing that... feels like a backward step, especially with my oh-so-stable history... sigh.

[caliotter3]

Unless you intend to leave several of these jobs off your resume altogether, the best thing you can do is to list them. When asked for the reason for leaving on a job app, be truthful. That is all you can do at this point. If you are going to nursing school and these are just jobs to get by while you are in school, you can explain in your interview your plans for working in the healthcare industry. Whenever I listed my non-healthcare jobs on job apps, I put more effort into describing the healthcare jobs. Eventually, there was only a string of healthcare jobs. At some point, it will be like this for you too.