Use These Resume Work History Samples To Get More Interviews
If you follow the advice above and use the employment history templates and samples to write your own resume work history section, youre going to get noticed by more employers and get more interviews.
Its worth taking the extra time to do a great job on your resume experience section and ensure that youre listing detailed achievements within your experience. Focus especially on your two or three most recent positions since thats the experience an employer will focus on first when reviewing your career.
This one piece of your resume is sometimes all a recruiter will look at before deciding yes or no on whether they want to interview you, so its key to a successful job search.
Highlight Promotions In Your Work Experience
If youve been promoted or taken on new responsibilities, make that clear on your resume. This is especially important if youve been at one company for a long time to dont want potential employers to think youve stagnated. You can show career growth by listing a progression of titles, emphasizing increased responsibility, or explicitly noting the promotion in your bullet points.
If the roles were similar, you can group them together like this:
Listing your titles in succession makes it clear you were promoted while allowing you to group similar accomplishments together.
If the roles were different, you can list them separately and include bullet points under each one like this:
Listing your roles separately under one employer heading makes it clear that the new role was a promotion, not a completely separate job.
If youre still unsure about how to illustrate your career progression, read our tips on how to show a promotion on a resume.
Even if you havent been promoted, there are still ways to show career growth, like highlighting key projects you worked on.
How To Include Education On A Resume With No Experience
When youre creating your first resume, its important to highlight your education. This will show employers youre able to overcome challenges, stick to your commitments and learn new things. You can also take this opportunity to share coursework youve completed that are relevant to the job.
For example, if youre applying to a retail associate position, heres how you might highlight your high school experience:
Graduation Date: June 20XXRelevant coursework: Introduction to Fashion Merchandising, Consumer and Business MathematicsClubs: Fashion Club, Young Entrepreneurs Association
And here is how you might highlight your college experience if youre applying for a role as a receptionist at a spa:
New York UniversityMajor: Pre-Med with a Concentration in Holistic HealthExpected Graduation Date: May 20XXGPA: 3.7Relevant coursework: Customer Discovery & Development, Introduction to Interpersonal CommunicationAwards and Honors: Deans List Fall 20XX through Spring 20XXClubs: Women in Business, Center for Holistic Healing
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Mistake #: Having Your Employment History Start Below The First Half Of Page 1
Youll notice in the work history samples earlier, this section starts early on the resume. Making a hiring manager or recruiter go digging in your resume to find this section is a big mistake.
Put it front and center . You want your recent experience and achievements to be dead-easy to find for any company you send your resume to.
Thats one of the best tips I can share in general: Dont make employers go digging for your recent responsibilities and achievements on your resume. It should jump out of the page at them because it should contain a lot of content compared to other sections, and it should appear high up.
It Is A Massively Growing Industry With Tons Of Potential For Professional Growth
Figure out your skills · identify skills employers want · top 5 skills listed in job adverts · compare your skills to what employers want · what skills should i put . Break down what you need to know about cv skills and offer master lists of the skills . It is a massively growing industry with tons of potential for professional growth. Demonstrate highly sophisticated skill and strategies. excel in operational skills . It’s no wonder why so many applicants are flocking to . Advertising your skills is an essential part of your job search,. The best skills for your resume are hidden within the job description. Ready to land your next job? Review the job description and research the company. Examples of job skills to list on a resume · skills and abilities · time management skills · people management skills · interpersonal . How to list skills on your resume. Though you may have several different areas of strength, .
Resumes focus on your previous job experiences. highly skilled in all phases of job. Demonstrate highly sophisticated skill and strategies. Figure out your skills · identify skills employers want · top 5 skills listed in job adverts · compare your skills to what employers want · what skills should i put . Break down what you need to know about cv skills and offer master lists of the skills .
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Showcase What You Learned
List it under a separate section entitled Additional Experience and follow the same format as you would for any other job. Specifically, list the company, your title and time frame followed by a description of responsibilities. Ideally showcase the metric-based results you achieved. Yes, note that it was a volunteer or pro-bono project, but dont think of it as less than other experiences. Showcase what you learned or achieved, using it as an example in the interview.
Tim Toterhi,Plotline Leadership
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Key Skills Youve Learned In School And Other Experiences
After your professional summary, list your skills that are relevant to the position you are applying for. To get a good idea of the skills required for a job, simply browse job descriptions for that specific job title. Typically, within the requirements or qualifications section, there will be many skills listed that you can copy.
Dont be afraid to list skills that you havent used in a professional setting. If you have learned about them in school or if you have practiced these skills during an extracurricular activity, list them! Just make sure you are honest during an interview about your level of competency.
Example of how to list less than 10 key skills in a resume:
- Time Management
Example of how to list more than 10 key skills in a resume:
- Leadership: Team Management, Resource Planning, Budgeting
- Math: Data Entry, Data Analytics, Statistics
- Professionalism: Active Listening, Office Etiquette, Professional Communication, Time Management
- Languages: English , Spanish
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Focus On Intellectual Humility & Emotional Intelligence
Executives should focus on intellectual humility and emotional intelligence when creating their resume to avoid looking narcissistic and desperate.
How do you write and format a resume that shows intellectual humility and emotional intelligence? Well, first take out all of the subjective text and superlatives and only include facts. Recruiters and hiring managers just want to know the numbers. What were the results? Quantify your work experience and accomplishments. You don’t need to hype it up, which leads us to what they call empty space or white space.
You should see a shockingly large amount of white space on your executive resume. It’s going to feel weird, but it’s intentional. Simplification helps the reader focus their eyes on the most important stuff. This means you should also simplify your formatting.
On your executive resume, use an 11 pt., clean-line font like Arial or Calibri, not a script font like Times New Roman. Also, make sure you have one-inch margins to further ensure that white space effect, and no bold, italics, or underlining except in very specific places because what happens when something is bold, for example, is that the eye goes there. Knowing how to bold something strategically on your resume is key because studies show recruiters and headhunters spend an average of six seconds skimming your resume. If they do not see in those first six seconds the most important things they were told to assess you on, they won’t take a deeper look.
What Is A Work Experience Section
Employment history is a detailed summary of your past work experience. Its a detailed report of all jobs youve held in the past.
Depending on your background, you can include full-time positions, part-time jobs, temporary roles, internships or even volunteer work.
You should list key information such as names of companies, locations, job titles and positions held, dates of employment and responsibilities.
But more importantly, it should highlight your main achievements and provide specific examples.
It has many names. Some people call it employment history. Others refer to it it as work experience or work history.
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What Should You Do If Youve Got Little Experience
First of all, dont beat yourself up if you dont have enough professional experience to leverage. After all, you must start from somewhere. If the job you want to secure is an entry-level one, there are other things you can talk about to make a case for yourself.
Pay particular attention to your transferrable skills, personal attributes, and academic achievements. Remember, if youve just recently graduated, the employer doesnt expect you to have a lot of experience. So, dont be worried too much about it. Focus on what you do have that could be important.
Of course, you will still need to add some work history. Consider the summer gigs youve done, internships, volunteering experience, personal work, and university projects handled.
Headings And Formatting Matter
Your work experience subheadings must include the following information:
- Company
- Your job title
- Start and end dates
There are different ways you can arrange this information. Some prefer to highlight their job titles and tenure first, for example:
Content Manager, June 2017-PresentJobscan, Seattle, WA
However, some applicant tracking systems automatically parse your resume information into a digital applicant profile. When an ATS cant accurately read your resume, your application can slip through the cracks.
Jobscans first-hand research of top ATS has found that keeping your main heading simple and to the point Work Experience,Professional Experience, etc. can help keep ATS on track. Furthermore, the subheading sequence that works best for most systems is 1) Company name, 2) job location, 3) your job title, 4) start and end dates formatted MM/YYYY.
For example:
Jobscan, Seattle, WA Content Manager, 06/2017-Present
You may choose to bold the top line, right-align your start and end dates, or make other formatting choices. No matter what you do, be sure to keep it consistent all the way down. For example, if you use MM/YYYY in your first entry, dont switch to Month YYYY or just YYYY later on in your work experience. It might seem innocent to you, but its a red flag for recruiters.
The quality of presentation tells me something about you, a healthcare recruiter told Jobscan.
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Work Experience On A Resume: What To Avoid
Always assume that your reader in this case, the hiring manager doesnt need anything explained. You also have very little room to ramble on your resume.
Free up some space by not including:
- What the organization does: your resume is about you. The hiring manager doesnt need to hear about the company.
- The basic requirements of your position: this is implied in your job title and will shine through your result-focused bullet points.
- Filler words: For the most part, save space by cutting out words like I and the.
- Anything irrelevant: If you have smaller responsibilities in a position that do not relate to the new job, leave them out. Every bullet point and every word takes up precious real estate on your resume – make them count.
How To Keep Work Experience On Your Resume
The work experience sector will play a significant role in offering oneself the best. So if you want to sell yourself in the true sense then the work experience sector must be equipped with detailed information.
In this case, you can highlight your best qualities to equip the experience sector in a beautiful and smooth way. One thing you must keep in mind is that in order to get a job, you must face numerous candidates. And you have to get a job by separating yourself from them. So in this case, of course, presenting the unique qualities to the employers can bring a good message for you. Try to present the list of the most relevant experiences properly. Your work experiences resumes list will be enough to illuminate your resume if it is relevant and standard to the desired position.
Mind it, the work experience department is reflected in front of employers as a very important sector of resume. So to offer yourself in the best way in front of the employers or to sell in a real sense one must be sure that every actual information is true as well as your format is professional and meaningful. However, in this case, you first need to cover the basic formatting of the resume work experiences sector. Then you have to be careful about presenting detailed information.
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Where To Put Your Work History Section On Your Resume
Short answer: If you have any work experience at all, this section is the #1 most important thing on your resume and the first place hiring managers and recruiters look. It should be on the top half of the first page.
Dont put your Skills section before it. No hiring manager or recruiter wants to see a general list of your skills before they see your work experience. You can read more about how to write your resume Skills section and where to list it here.
Dont put your Education section before it, either, unless you are a Doctor or have a Ph.D. and are in a profession where this educational background is a hard requirement to obtaining any job in the field.
For everyone else, which is 95%+ of people, just put your name and contact details centered at the top of your resume, then put a one-paragraph career summary, and then go right into your work experience.
You can label the section whatever you want: Work History, Employment History, or Work Experience, etc.
But the point is your work history should be extremely easy to find, without the hiring manager having to search or scroll down.
Resume Work Experience Example #:
This is another employment history sample showing a great balance between attractive styling, but not going overboard and making it too busy or distracting.
Only one color is being used: blue . And the styling is simple enough to keep the readers attention on your accomplishments.
Contributed by: Virginia Franco, Founder of Virginia Franco Resumes and Forbes contributor
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Formatting A Work History Resume Section
When writing a resume, each section should be labeled right, and it should all have a clear, legible font. You can label your work history section as work experience,job history,work history,professional history, or experience.
Underneath the label, include the following components for each job youve had:
- Professional title
- Relevant responsibilities of the job
- Key achievements with numbers
As you write your resume, you can choose the exact work history resume format based on your personal preference. Usually, highlight your previous employment titles in bold or italics to let them immediately stand out to hiring managers. Many employers will see a job title and draw certain conclusions from that alone, so make sure it is easy to find.
Job history on a resume should be in reverse chronological order. Start with the most recent positions you held and then list the next most recent job, etc. If you are currently working for a company you can leave out the end date or write present to show that you still hold the job title.
You should include work experience within the last 10 years. If you have been working for less than 10 years, thats okay! Include all relevant work experience you have.
Now you have the layout for the work experience section of your resume, so its time to talk about content. Keep reading to learn how to write effective work history on a resume.
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Where To Put Internships
Work Experience Section: Because internships provide important work experience, you should include your internships in the Work Experience or Work History section of your resume, along with other jobs you have held.
Internships Section: If you have held multiple internships, you can include a separate Internships section on your resume. Put this section towards the top of your resume. Put your Internships section above your Work History section if your internships are particularly relevant to the job you are applying for.
Whatever you do, dont put your internships at the bottom of your resume or in the Education section. Internships are real-world experiences, and should be given as much weight as a job.
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Ok So How Do I Know What Experience Is Relevant
Relevant experience is simply experience thats applicable to the type of jobs youre pursuing. For example, if youre a software engineer, youll want to include your current and previous engineering jobs and internships, but you might decide to leave off your long-ago stint as a paralegal Or if youre applying for a senior marketing role in publishing, you might decide to trim the first marketing job you had out of college in the beauty industry in order to make more space to highlight your publishing industry experience.
Besides which roles youre listing, think about how to describe what you did and achieved. Suppose you currently work as a server in a restaurant, and youre applying for receptionist jobs. In this case, youd want to include experience interacting with customers, answering incoming phone calls, and managing schedules on your resume because those skills are highly transferable to the job you want. And you might skip less relevant job duties like busing tables because you probably wont be needing those skills in a receptionist role.
If you arent making a big career pivot from one type of job or industry to another, chances are, most of your work history is relevant. But every job posting is a bit different, so youll need to be more discerning about which of your past responsibilities are most relevant.