Work Experience on a Resume - How to List It Right

Work Experience on a Resume - How to List It Right

Learn more

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Basic Formatting A good resume tells a story of who you are, what your background is, and why you’re the perfect candidate for the job at hand. Now, that doesn’t mean you should tell your whole life story, because after all, the ideal resume length is still 1 page. Instead, this is where you sell yourself, brag about your past 

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

achievements and responsibilities. When listing your previous job roles, you should follow a reverse-chronological order (though, also consider other resume formats). To make sure your resume is easy to follow, we recommend going with the standard work experience format, which looks a bit like this:

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

– Job Title and Position – Company Name / Description / Location – Dates Employed – Responsibilities and Achievements

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Job Title / Position Your job title goes first. When the HR manager scans through your resume, this will most likely be the first section they’ll check. Be prepared and make it easy for them to find this. There is not a lot to say here except that your job title should be accurate to what you did. To make things simple, you 

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

can use the exact name you saw in the original job ad.

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Company Name, Description, and Location If the position checks out, they’ll want to know more details. If the company isn’t 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 

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

experiences if you’re running out of space and absolutely can’t remove any other part of your resume.

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Achievements and Responsibilities When listing achievements in your resume, you should add any specific change you made happen (we’ll explore how to do this more in-depth below) that the HR manager can apply to their company. When possible, you should always list accomplishments over responsibilities.

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

After all, the HR manager already knows what your responsibilities are - they’ve probably gone through similar resumes over 100 times now with the same bland responsibilities

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Dates Employed Sounds obvious, right? Simply list how long you worked at your previous role for. And relax, if you don’t remember the exact day you got hired, you can give an approximate timeframe. The standard format for dates employed is mm/yyyy.

Next page

How to Put Work Experience on a Resume

Work Experience Q&A Have some questions on your work experience section? Maybe you have a giant gap in your work experience, or you’re a recent graduate looking for a job with 0 work experience. In this section, we’re going to cover the most common questions about the work experience section...

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

Have some questions on your work experience section? Maybe you have a giant gap in your work experience, or you’re a recent graduate looking for a job with 0 work experience. In this section, we’re going to cover the most common questions about the work experience section... Do You List an Internship? Not sure if an internship 

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

belongs on your resume? Well, are you applying for an intermediate or senior role? If it’s either of the two, then you might want to leave out the internship you did 4-5 years ago. Meanwhile, are you a recent college grad with not a lot of practical work experience? If so, an internship is a great way to show some substance 

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

and that you’re serious about your career path. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if you’re struggling to fill up your resume, you should definitely include any internships, even if you weren’t hired full-time afterwards, or the internship was in a completely different field.

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

What If You Don’t Have a Lot of Experience? If you’re applying for an entry-level job haven’t worked a day in your life, you can focus on other ways to present yourself. For example, you can focus more on your soft skills, university achievements, and other personal qualities. If you’re a recent college grad, the recruiter is most likely not 

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

expecting you to have a whole page worth of work experience - so don’t sweat it. Instead, you might consider including the following contents: Summer Job - Ever worked a summer job? Include it! This can show the recruiter that you have SOME work experience, even if it’s not related to the job you’re applying for.

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

University Projects - Pretty much all team-based project exercises work. Created a mock product for a business class? Add it! Personal Projects - Done anything interesting with your free time? Published videos on Youtube? Coded mini software applications? Add them to your resume!

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

How Do You List Gaps In Your Resume? Gaps on a resume can be a red flag - only if you provide no explanation. If the HR manager sees an empty gap in your work experience section, they’re going to assume the worst case scenario. So, it’s better to ease their expectations and be honest. In a line or two, 

Next page

Work Experience Q&A

explain what happened and move on, no need to dwell on it.

More

Read

10 New Job Fields for Women in 2022

10 Steps to a Resume That Will Get You Hired

10 Important Career Tips for Women

See More