Have you ever thought about what is the most important thing in any resume? The most important section in any resume is the part that grabs the attention of the HR representatives. This section is the work experience. Imagine you are an HR representative, and you have hundreds of resumes, and you have to filter them. The first section that you will take a look at is the work experience as you will see the previous activity of your prospect candidates.
So, as a job seeker, you have to take care about this section, but how to write work experience on a resume professionally, in order to stand out your work experience section and push the HR representative to have a call with you. For this reason, we dedicate this article to help you in your resume building to know how to create a strong work experience part on your resume.
Table of contents
Why is work experience on a resume important?
An HR representative while searching for a new candidate to fill an open vacancy, has some requirements, job role, job description and skills that should be found during his research journey. And to find all these requirements, he has to check the work experience section in each resume in less than 6 seconds to have a quick look about his duties, roles and achievements.
So, the work experience is very important in your resume, it pushes the HR representative to take an action toward your resume, to have a call with you or to reject your resume.
Try to pay attention to your work experience section, but how? Keep reading to know the basic item that you should insert will create your work experience part and how to make your work experience more catchy, creative and clear.
How to Write Work Experience on a Resume
Putting your work experience on your resume is the most difficult part as you want to show up your previous work roles, responsibilities and achievements in a clear, concise and professional way, while highlighting your competencies to be able to compete with other candidates in the job vacancy.
Let’s select each part of the work experience section to know in detail what you should mention on it.
Read more: Resume tips to Land Your Dream Job
Basic Formatting
First, before knowing the components of each part of the work experience, you should know the format of the work experience, and try not to make a difference in this format, as the HR representatives know this format and have no time to make them confused. The format is:
Job Title and Position.
- Company name and location.
- Date Employed.
- Duties and achievements.
Job Title / Position
Start with the job title or the position that you worked as in your last job experience. In this part, mention your job title or a title related to the job vacancy that you applied for.
Avoid making a creative touch to your job title, so that we make your resume ignored, for example if you are a Digital marketing executive, write it this way, no need to write Creative digital marketing.
Company Name, Description, and Location
Second thing you have to mention while writing about your work experience is the company name and its location. If the company was a known company, just mention the name and the location only. But if it’s a small company, write a small brief about the company in 2 or 3 sentences.
Read more: How to make your resume stand out
Achievements and Responsibilities
The most important part in your resume is the achievements and responsibilities, as you will mention and show up your capabilities and what is your value that you could add to any company.
In this part, try to write your achievements instead of your duties and responsibilities, as any HR representative knows the duties of each job title and it’s normal to do these duties. But the differentiation appears on the achievements that you realized in your work, that makes you special, and these achievements make you unique between the other candidates.
While writing the achievements and responsibilities, make sure to list them on bullet points to make them readable.
Dates Employed
Write your start date and your end date in each work experience, list your work experiences in a reverse chronological order, by mentioning the most recent job experience on the top of your work experience section on a resume.
Mentioning the dates will be month/ year, avoid writing the exact date, for example 08/2022 is the right way to mention the dates.
Promotions
If you receive any promotion during your work journey in each company, mention it. It will have a great impact on the mind of the employer as he will see that you work hard, which will make the directors in your last company give you a promotion.
Awards and recognitions
Also, between the parts that could be mentioned in your work experience section is the awards and recognitions, it’s about focusing on any awards that you have received and realized on your previous work experience.
This part will make the employer impressed by your resume as he will see that you deploy a big effort in your work to receive this motivation from your company.
Format the resume work experience section
The resume format is divided into 3 general formats, each format has its own way to show up and highlight some information. But is there a difference while mentioning your work experience in the different resume format?
The answer is obviously yes. Each format has a different way to show up the work experience part, so let’s know how you could fit with each format.
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Chronological format
In this format, you will start by listing your work experience in a reverse chronological way by mentioning the most recent job experience on the top.
It’s the most common format, if you focus on your work experience on your resume.
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Functional format
To write work experience on a resume with functional format will be by collecting your skills and achievements related to the job vacancy where you apply.
Then, in the work experience, you will mention your job title and company where you worked for only, as you mentioned before your skills and achievements.
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Combination format
In the combination format or hybrid format, you have the flexibility to show up your work experience while highlighting your strengths, your achievements, and your skills.
You will start with your skills and achievements, then your work experience.
Read more: 3 Best Resume Formats Tips
Real-Life Work Experience Examples
We will collect some examples of how to write work experience on a resume in different fields, to know the right technique for writing this section depending on your job position.
Marketing Work Experience Example
As a marketer, you should know how to sell yourself by writing your work experience in a catchy way. Mention your achievements in clear bullet points. Also, don’t forget to use strong verbs.
Social Media Marketer
Wellory, Brooklyn, NY
2018-2021
- Contributed to a 15% increase in engagement across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter within my first 4 months at the company
- Analyzed the company’s existing social media strategy and provided recommendations to the marketing manager
- Identified and reached out to 100+ influencers in the health and fitness industry regarding brand promotions and collaborations
- Communicated with customers across platforms, responding to an average of 100 messages and comments per day
Read more: How to write Resume for Undergraduates
Teacher Work Experience Example
If you are a teacher, you will need to write your duties and responsibilities, as you couldn’t have achievements in your work, you couldn’t mention your students as a case. So, the best way in writing the work experience sector in your resume, is to mention your roles, duties and responsibilities.
Teacher
Children’s Middle School, Billings, MT
2011–2018
- Piloted reading initiative that expanded the average student’s vocabulary by 140 words
- Coordinated run–swim–bike events that raised $76,000 for local causes
- Established after-school gaming initiative that cut students’ screen time by 40%
- Introduced SMART boards as Chair of Technology Committee
- Led class to win Best Behaved awards 7% more often than colleagues
Student Work Experience Example
Being a student doesn’t require having many years of experience, and the HR representative doesn’t expect to see work experience on your resume. But you could replace the work experience with your volunteer activities, your student activities, which reflects how ambitious you are.
So, don’t stress yourself, your internship, volunteer activities, or your student activities are enough to catch the eyes of the employers, if you are a student or a fresh grad.
Part-Time Editorial Intern
Faber and Faber, Stanford
2016-06–2017-09
- Assisted in hiring and managing a pool of freelancers as needed, including development editors, copy editors, proofreaders, indexers, recipe testers, and technical editors, including remote and on-site employees.
- Assisted in the development, design, and preparation of sales materials.
- Collected and distributed incoming mail and processed outgoing mail.
- Served as the primary contact for incoming phone calls.
- Provided general and editorial support to the staff as requested.
Resume work experience writing tips
Now, you know all the components of the work experience section in your resume, But to be able to write it professionally, we will give you some tips to help you in your writing process.
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Choose an organized template
Before writing your resume, make sure to choose a template well organized in order to help you in showing up your work experience in a clear way, to let employers reach out all your information, data and previous work.
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Address your prospective employer’s needs
Try to make your resume customized to each job vacancy, don’t do a general resume for all vacancies. Customization will help you to approach the employer’s needs.
But how could you customize your resume?
Customizing your resume will have a place, when you read the job ad, and start to choose some keywords of this ad and put them on your resume by combining it with your experience to be able to catch the attention of the employer.
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Distinguish yourself from other applicants
Being different will help you to gain the position that you want to apply for. The differentiation appears when you start to list your achievements on your previous work, your accomplishments, or your awards. It will show your unique print in the company and how you use your knowledge to realize a great success in your work.
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Keep it brief
Bullet points are a must when you are writing your resume, as it will help you to make small sentences with the idea. Also, choose your words and verbs to express strongly.
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Open or close with your most compelling points
Usually, the introduction and the conclusion catch the eye and let any person be motivated toward the resume. So, try to start with a strong point in your work experience and end by a strong point.
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Check for grammatical and spelling errors
Grammatical and spelling errors will make your resume rejected immediately. You should pay attention to checking the grammar and the spelling in your resume.
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Write Achievements Instead of Responsibilities
Try to avoid listing the responsibilities of your work experience, as it’s normal to do all these responsibilities in your job title. But we recommend writing your achievements to show up your skills in transforming your work into accomplishments.
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Tailoring your work experience to a specific job
Generally, all candidates use the same resume for all job vacancy ads. In parallel, about 70% of HR representatives search for a customized resume.
Is it important to make your resume tailored to each job?
Yes, it will give you the high chance to receive a call from the employer that fixed an interview. Because, they feel that you pay attention to their job vacancy ad, read it and choose some keywords and insert it to your resume, which means that you deployed an effort to become a member of their organizations.
FAQ for write Work Experience on a Resume
To be aware of all the single details concerning how to write work experience on a resume, we select some frequently asked questions, to provide you with an answer for them.
Gaps and Flaws in Your Resume Work Experience Section—Do They Matter?
Gaps and flaws in your resume are considered as a red flag for all HR representatives. To avoid being in question mark status, you mention the reason for this gap in a very short sentence. For example: From Jun 2021 – till 2022: Due to my medical situation, I was forced to stay at home till recovering.
Can you put volunteer work under work experience?
Yes, in case if you have a short work experience, no problem adding the volunteer work in your work experience section in your resume.
But if you have a lot of work experience, we prefer to mention it in your skills section.
How many jobs to list on a resume?
The number of jobs vary depending on your years of experience, but you could list as many as you can of job experience. Generally, we used to have between 3 to 7 job experience on the resume.
Is it good to have small period work experience in resume?
Yes, it will show your background. But try to avoid listing a work experience with less than 6 months.
Should you include irrelevant work experience on a resume?
Yes, no problem to list an irrelevant work experience on your resume, as it will help you to avoid any gap in your work experience. But try to mention the key achievements that you realized in this work. Also, it shows that you could adapt to different backgrounds and work environments and requirements.
By the end of this article, write work experience on a resume is the most important section. You could show all your competences to the HR representatives, in order to grab their attention and push them to take an action toward your resume. For this reason, you should take care of your work experience part in your resume by following all the instructions mentioned during all this article to build your strong and competitive resume and we are waiting for your question in the comments to answer it!
