How To Describe Work Experience On A Resume

What Are The Best Skills To Put On A Resume

Its no secret that many hiring managers spend only a short amount of time looking at a resume before deciding whether to pass on a job candidate or add them to the shortlist. What you may not know is, employers today are looking for both hard and soft skills on your resume. Read any job posting, for example, and you might see the following requests:

• Computer skills
• Collaboration talent
• Problem-solving abilities

These skills and attributes, and others we discuss in this post, are essential for todays workplace. Hard skills are the technical skills required to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities associated with the job. Theyre acquired through practice, education and training. Theyre measurable and easy to advertise: You either have the desired technical skills and experience, or you dont. Your work history and certifications will speak to them.

Soft skills, or interpersonal skills, reflect ones personality and personal attributes. They can relate to an ability to fit into a companys work culture, handle stress, communicate clearly or play well with others, for example. They may be soft, but theyre important skills for a resume: When job candidates possess comparable experience levels and technical skills, soft skills can tip the balance.

See later sections for tips on how to showcase soft and hard skills on your resume. But lets talk first about which skills employers are looking for.

How To Describe Your Resume Work Experience

Of all the sections on a resume, your work experience is one of the most critical and most important.

Why?

Your resume work experience says a lot about you. If the hiring manager sees your potential and what youre capable of based on the results youre responsible for in your previous company, that itself can determine the hiring decision.

However, it doesnt just mean youre a qualified candidate

Its a form of proof that shows your skills and expertise are credible.

That insight into your previous job roles and responsibilities will speak for itself. Im sure youve heard the phrase, actions speak louder than words.

Its true.

Highlighting what your achievements or years of experience will leave an impact on your employer. This section alone can be the deciding factor for recruiters to think whether youre worth hiring or not.

Now, you might have less than 1 year of work experience or none at all.

Dont worry, because youre not the only one. Thats why weve also included work experience resume examples for those of you with little to no employment history.

So, be sure you stay until the end!

OR, you can skip this entire guide by using Enhancvs proven resume templates for your job position. You wont have to worry about writers block because you can take inspiration from whats already included and rephrase them however you want!

Its easy and only takes a few minutes!

What To Include In Your Customer Service Resume

Include the right information. The most important elements to include in your resume are your contact information, education, and experience. Another optional way to highlight your customer service abilities is to list them in a skills section.

Include optional sections, if you wish. These include a resume objective or resume profile. Use the objective or profile to specify what role you are looking for, along with the talents and abilities you’d bring to the position.

Emphasize your experience. You should be sure to list any previous customer service positions you’ve held.

Use the appropriate keywords. In addition to highlighting strong soft skills, you may also want to include customer service keywords throughout your resume.

Make a match. Match your qualifications to the job listing to be sure your resume accurately reflects your ability to do this particular job.

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Always Use Bullet Points For Your Descriptions

Long paragraphs can be hard to read and make your work experience section look too cluttered.

Incorrect:

Restaurant Manager, 2018 â 2020âIn this position as a restaurant manager, I worked diligently to help implement new point of sales systems that greatly reduced operational costs. I also managed a staff of over 20 waiters on any given day. Of my responsibilities, I was in charge of handling customer complaints and issuing refunds.

âCorrect:

Restaurant Manager, 2018 â 2020Mellow Mushroom ⢠Nashville, TN⢠Hired and trained over 20 staff members.⢠Implemented point of sales systems that reduced operational costs by 15 percent.⢠Reduced customer complaints and refunds by 25 percent.

Company Name Description And Location

If the position checks out, theyll want to know more details.

If the company isnt famous, you can also describe in 1-2 sentences. And you should always mention the location of the firm, too.

Try to keep the total section under 3-5 jobs and only remove other job experiences if youre running out of space and absolutely cant remove any other part of your resume.

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Mistake #: Thinking Its All About You And Not About The Employer

The average job seeker thinks their resume work history is all about them. They decide what THEY want to write, what THEY care about, etc.

Thats a backward approach, believe it or not. .

The best way to approach writing your resume employment history is to think of the employer. Look at their job description. What are their needs? What skills do they care about?

Thats why I mentioned tailoring your resume in the previous section. Its incredibly important. Dont write your previous work experience without a few job descriptions in front of you for the jobs you want to get!

Thats how to make sure what youre writing will get you interviews.

Most of the mistakes above should be review if you read the entire article above. If not, go back and make sure youve read everything.

You only get one shot to impress employers with your resume, and theyre looking at your previous work experience within 10 seconds of opening your resume.

Including Work Experience On A Resume

Work experience is a major component of any successful resume.

However, it can be difficult to decipher what exactly you should be including in your work history.

Each job applicant will have a differing amount of working experience under their belt.

The key is to not shove too much information into this section.

Instead, you will need to take the time to sit down and decide which information best highlights your strengths and gives you an advantage for a particular job opportunity.

It is important to keep in mind that you should be altering your resume to match the job description of each individual job you are applying to.

In this article, we will help you craft the perfect work experience section.

Some key questions we will be answering include:

• What should you be including in your work history?
• What should you be excluding from your work history?
• How should your work experience section be formatted?

Keep reading to learn more about how you can begin optimizing your work history section.

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Add Numbers To Your Bullet Points When Possible

Use numbers to describe your work experience whenever you can, because numbers give hiring managers a better idea of what you can accomplish.

Anything that shows how you measurably improved performance can be included on your resume.

Examples of how you can use numbers to describe your achievements include talking about:

• percent increases in something good
• percent decreases in something bad
• total money saved on something

Here are some examples of bullet points that include numbers:

• Increased annual sales by 30% by running a marketing campaign in a new market
• Saved company $280,000 per year on printing costs by purchasing two high-end printers and supervising user training
• Organized a series of community-focused events that resulted in a 200% increase in local engagement and earned $450,000 over two years

Example : Administrative Assistant

Administrative Assistant | December 2017âJune 2019

• Coordinated meetings and travel schedules for managers and executive staff members
• Trained three interns on organizational and filing processes, saving $2,000 on administrative expenses
• Worked with various departments to properly relay confidential information
• Compiled performance reports for all interns and entry-level staff members

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Engineering Work Experience Example 1

Automotive Engineer

Tonys Automotive Engineering Firm, Albuquerque, NM

In this role, I was responsible for inspecting vehicles for possible issues and areas for improvement. I developed and implemented a computer model to measure vehicle function. I worked on all areas of the vehicles, but I specialized in control systems. Independently, I performed research on the latest control system models and procedures. Because of my diligent work, Tonys Automotive Engineering Firm passed our safety inspection with the highest rating and nearly doubled our sales in the year after I developed my computer model.

+ Best Words To Describe Yourself

They say actions speak louder than words, but sometimes you can only rely on words to describe yourself.

For example, before you can prove your professional or academic capabilities, you first have to express yourself through your college application, your interview with recruiters, or your resume.

Your online personae from your social media usernames to the adjectives you use to describe yourself on various platforms is also defined by your choice of words.

Considering how important all of the above is, theres no doubt youd want to nail the words to describe yourself.

To help you pick the right words, weve compiled a list of the best 100 words to describe yourself in any situation:

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Customize Your Resume To The Job Opening

With no experience, your best chance to get an interview is to target your resume to the specific job you want. Check out their listing for the position, and see what skills theyre looking for. From those skills, take the ones you have and place them in your skills section.

You can also reuse some of the language elsewhere in your resume, like in your resume summary or experience section.

Fitting these skills into your resume is important because many companies still use applicant tracking systems to scan for resumes keywords. This helps them filter large quantities of applicants and determine which ones are worth evaluating further.

If you make an ATS friendly resume, you set yourself up for success against candidates who might have more experience than you.

How To Get Started Using Job Descriptions For Your Resume

To help you get started, take a look at the sample job descriptions below. For additional example job descriptions, search for listings on your favorite online job boards, and check out the following links from Workable.com.

Search for two types of sample job descriptions:

In both of these instances, don’t worry about the job’s location. For the purpose of this exercise, instead only focus on the job description and its requirements.

Use the sample job descriptions that match titles in your work history to beef up your professional resume’s Employment History section. Click on the following link to learn how to use these job listings to brag about your experience.

Once you’ve found three to five sample listings that describe your job goals, copy and paste the text of each job description into a Word document and bold any phrases that routinely pop up. Then, highlight each term that describes a qualification you possess. Use this information to edit your resume and cover letter so that your key accomplishments and skills match those desired by your target employer. Your end result should be a professional resume that mirrors the employer’s requirements.

Sample Job Descriptions:

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Work Experience Section Example

Automotive Technician, Icahn Automotive, Rotorua, New Zealand

• Repaired various cars and trucks. Troubleshot and diagnosed vehicles. Repaired or replaced defective parts. Ensured that everything was in compliance with the companys high standards and clients needs.
• Awarded Employee of the Month for increasing customer satisfaction with provided services from 87% to 95% within one year.

Executives can use more than one page on their resume to present their extensive work experience. But that doesnt mean that you should let your resume become a 700-page long autobiography.

If somethings recent it also means its more relevant. Thats why you should describe more recent jobs in greater detail. Older ones will do with a brief description, allowing you to save some valuable space for more important details to put on your resume.

Practice Describing Yourself For A Job Interview

Practice interviewing with a close friend or someone you trust. The more youre prompted with questions like How would describe yourself? and the more you speak your answers out loud, the more comfortable you will be once youre sitting across from your interviewer. It is possible to distinguish between interviewees who are have practiced interviewing and those who dont. You, of course, want to fall into the former group.

Finally, words can be powerful, so give your word choices some thought before you walk in for your interviews. Doing so will make it easier for you to choose the best words that will help you stand out among the competition.

Your resume helped you land the interview congrats! But are you ready to finish the job? Get help from TopInterviews expert coaches.

Also Check:

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Resumes With Impact: Creating Strong Bullet Points

How can you make your resume stand out to an employer?

• Use an easy-to-read format and structure that highlights your relevant education and experience.
• Develop bullet points or statements to show relevant skills and qualities. Be specific about what you did and how you did it.
• Start your bullet points or statements with strong action verbs.
• Provide contextual details to inform the reader about the purpose of your work, the scope of the project, and what you produced or accomplished.
• Quantify your work and achievements where possible.

Make Your Resume Job Descriptions Relevant To The Opening

Recruiters dont care how successful youve been so far, in general.

They want to know if youre familiar with the duties and responsibilities that come with the advertised position.

If theres just one takeaway I want you to get out of reading this guide, its this:

Personalize every work experience entry on your resume to the position youre trying to land.

Remember Amelia, the candidate from our sample resume job description?

Shes eyeing the Head of Digital Marketing position. Her most recent job has been a managerial role in digital marketing, but

Before that, she worked as a Product Manager. So, what did she do? In her resume work history, she described responsibilities that were relevant to digital marketing.

• Product manager for a high-volume pharmaceutical company.
• Met over 110% of revenue goal all four years.
• Implemented Agile ideation plan, boosting idea implementation by 34%.
• Developed quarterly reports requiring a high level of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

Dont get me wrong. The bad example isnt badas such. Its just not right for this particular post.

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List Examples That Apply To Each Element

Let’s review a workplace scenario where we can use all these elements:

Situation

In my previous role as a project coordinator, I was responsible for ensuring on-time deliverables for all clients, so they’re satisfied with the delivery and the quality of the organization’s products.

Task

As the leader of the front-line staff, it was my responsibility to keep track and meet deadlines every week until we got a new project manager on board. I also had to be the liaison between multiple departments to ensure the completion of work that’s due to the client.

Action

I set up and led team meetings with our project team to streamline workflow, improve team collaboration and troubleshoot additional issues when needed.

Result

Within two months, the company’s project output increased by 20 percent and profit rose by 30 percent.

Formula For Changing Your Resume Work Experience For Linkedin

Here is a three-step formula you can follow to convert work experience from your resume to your LinkedIn:

Step 1: Copy the information

Copy the work experience from your resume over to your LinkedIn profile. Break it up by company or position.

Step 2: Reformat

Remove the bullet points. Select your major achievements–quantifiable if possible–and remove the rest of the content. Put the most important information in the first four lines .

Step 3: Edit

Make your content conversational and engaging. It’s okay to say “I did XYZ.” Switching to the first-person perspective might take some rewriting, but it’s worth it!

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How To Match Your Resume Skills To The Job Description

Many companies use an applicant tracking system , which acts as an electronic filter, to collect, scan, sort and rank resumes to narrow applicant pools to the most qualified candidates. Thats why you need to customize your resume and cover letter using keywords and phrases that match the job listing .

If an employer is looking for a graphic designer with mastery in Adobe Creative Suite, for example, you wouldnt just claim experience with software for creative professionals. List the software by name, give your expertise level, and if you have it highlight your Adobe Certified Expert certification. Likewise, if an employer is searching for an accountant with experience processing daily invoices and credit, then use similar language in your resume. Simply listing gathering receipts as a duty wont likely score well with an ATS.

Repeat common words and phrases from other postings of the same role, too. But remember, every job description is different. Tailor the keywords and skills on your resume and in your cover letter for each position.

Beautiful Resume Templates To Land Your Dream Job

Here’s how that looks, you can also see an example of the Yoga Instructor resume here.

Yoga Instructor, January 2018 â PresentMellow Mushroom ⢠Nashville, TN⢠Taught 40+ elderly clients basic yoga moves each day⢠Held 4 classes a day that differ in intensity, including beginner and intermediate⢠Advised modifications for yoga poses to ensure proper form, to meet clients’ athletic abilities⢠Instructed clients on breathing techniques, such as Basic Breath Awareness and Retention⢠Developed body-mind-spirit awareness, mental clarity and physical flexibility and strength

However, when deciding which information to include within your work experience section, there are four main principles to keep in mind:

Here is a quick breakdown of each of these crucial factors:

1) Relevancy

When writing out your work experiences, it is important to consider how relevant your previous experience is to the job you are currently applying for

Your most relevant experience should always be the most emphasized and focused on, as it will be where you showcase the skills and achievements that qualify you for the position.

For instance, letâs say you are applying for an entry-level copywriting position and you have two major examples of work experience you would like to include.

These examples are:

• Managed the front of house of a restaurant for four years.
• Worked as a journalist at a local newspaper for one year.

2) Timeliness

3) Longevity

4) Position

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