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Work Experience on a Resume: 20+ Examples of How to List It

Your work experience is the resume section hiring managers look at first. And if they’re busy, it’s often the only part they review. To get the interview, you need to pay extra attention to your resume work history section. In practice, this means you should spend roughly 80% of the total time spent on your resume on the work experience section. As with other resume sections, there are some simple rules to follow.  In this guide, we’ll unpack them for you and help you create a resume that stands out every single time.

Here’s what you’ll master today:

• How to describe your work experience on a resume (plus how to format it)
• Extra tips on how to make your work history super-memorable
• How to sell yourself on a resume in different situations
• How to draft your work experience section based on real examples for the most common scenarios and jobs

Let’s dive in!

How to List Your Experience on Your Resume

• Put it under a clear, legible heading
• Place it right after the resume summary or objective
• List your most recent experience first
• Include relevant experience
• Be clear, concise, and consistent with your formatting
• Use bullet points to describe your responsibilities and achievements

1. Put it under a clear, legible heading

Make sure your work experience section is clearly visible and has its own heading. You can name this section “Work Experience”, “Experience” or “Employment History”.

2. Place it right under the resume summary or objective

It’s best to place the experience section right under your resume summary or a resume objective. However, if you’re fresh out of college and have little or no work experience, you can fit the work history under your education section.

3. List your most recent experience first

You typically list your work experience in reverse chronological order — put your current or most recent gig at the top, followed by the previous one, then the one before that, and so on.

This is effective because it gives the hiring team the most relevant information instantly. If you’re a UX designer looking for a new opportunity, the hiring manager will want to know about your most recent accomplishments to see how you progressed, where your expertise lies, and how your latest experience can translate into success in your new role.

4. Include relevant experience

Do you need to put all your past experience on a resume? By no means. Professional resume writers and career coaches advise that you include up to 15 years of relevant work experience. Including every single job you’ve done (like that pizza delivery summer gig when you were 16) can actually work against you.

Remember, this is just a general rule that can be broken in certain situations.

For instance, if you’re looking for a job in tech, where skills, frameworks, and tech stacks change often, your experience from 13 years ago may not be truly relevant today.

Also, if you’ve had a major career change, e.g. switched from teaching to copywriting 10 years ago, you could omit your teaching roles. However, if working in that position gave you relevant skills and experience that you still consider useful and valuable (e.g. clear communication, time management, or presentations), you can definitely include it in your resume.

Read on if you’re changing careers, switching from the military, or are freshly graduated (we’ll cover those scenarios in a bit).

5. Be clear, concise, and consistent with your formatting

This is a big one. It’s crucial to format your entries properly so that the information is easy to spot and read. Also, consistency is hugely important. Maintain the same order of information in each entry for a polished, organized, and harmonious look.

Here’s how you can order the items in a single work experience entry:

• Your position (usually written in bigger font or in bold)
• Company name
• Dates worked
• Bullet points highlighting your responsibilities and achievements

6. Use bullet points to describe your responsibilities and achievements

Instead of writing a paragraph or description explaining your role in detail, make sure to use a bulleted list (it’s way clearer, better organized, and memorable).

Next, it’s always wise to focus on your most important accomplishments and achievements, rather than simply listing your everyday responsibilities. After all, the point of this section is to gently persuade the hiring team that you’re equipped to do the job and that you have an excellent track record.

In other words, this is where it pays to take a moment to think back to your biggest career wins and corroborate that with some data (more about this later).

Finally, make sure to limit the number of bullets as you go back in time. While it’s perfectly fine to have 5–8 points for your latest job, 3–4 will be enough for older entries.

Now let’s put theory into practice and look at two great examples of work history on a resume that follow the steps we discussed above.

Sample resume work experience section (senior candidate)

Vice President of Marketing Vue 03/2017 – Present

• Helmed website overhaul, resulting in increase of organic traffic by over 300%
• Spearheaded the team of 7 full-time employees and 12 contractors
• Tracked email, PPC and display marketing performance to optimize cost per lead
• Hit 541% and 137% return on marketing investment for organic and email, respectively

Sample resume work experience section (junior to mid-level candidate)

• Responded to up to 20 tickets a day, resulting in 97% first touch resolution score
• Maintained a >9.0 monthly average satisfaction rating each of last 12 months
• Resolved 7 escalations with the IT/SysDev teams in the last 3 months
• Wrote 24 knowledge base articles to reduce ticket resolution times by 1.3 minutes

How to Take Your Resume Work Experience Section from Standard to Job-Winning

Now let’s zoom in on your work experience section even closer and help you take those bullet points from average to outstanding. To sell yourself on your resume, just follow these simple tips.

1. Focus on achievements over day-to-day duties and quantify wherever possible

This is precisely where most candidates get stuck. A lot of you are probably thinking: yes, I’ve heard this piece of advice many times. But I don’t have any stellar achievements. I just do my job well .

Precisely. That’s enough to be sure you do have achievements. You might not even know it. And the best way to showcase those is by hard numbers.

Again, don’t freak out. You don’t have to be in the data and numbers game to be able to come up with quantifiable results and statistics. There are simple strategies to present tangible results to back up your accomplishments. And just so you realize how miserably bad people are at showcasing their accomplishments —

Here’s a real-life story that a resume-writing consultant friend told me.

He was hired to revamp a spacecraft engineer’s resume (btw, how cool is that!). When she walked him through her resume and explained what each item meant, one caught his attention — ” Optimized and automated the procurement and invoicing flow. ” Optimizing and automating? That always means something cool.

She eventually explained how she made a highly complex process fully automatic, and in doing so, saved around 18 work hours a month for 7 people each. These people were paid an average of $200/hr. That’s $1.3 million a year saved for the company. And that was not on her resume.

Why am I telling you this?

Because this is proof that you’re not alone in being horrible at framing duties as achievements. Apparently, even the most extraordinary candidates are. Bottom line: you will most definitely stand out if you know how to do it!

So here are a few tips on how to really stand out from the crowd:

Mention the scale , e.g. how many people you managed, or the size of the budgets you handled

• Provided consultations for 120 students a year over 7 consecutive years
• Managed a shift of 70 workers in a 250.000 square foot facility
• Standardized the Sales process in a 2000-employee company averaging 300M annual ARR
• Controlled an annual marketing budget of $30K

Mention the frequency , e.g. how many tasks you performed within a time frame

• Wrote 14 new SEO-optimized articles in the last quarter
• Onboarded 17 Fortune 2000 clients in 2021
• Performed 13 weekly technical website audits and resolved 25 issues
• Hosted 5 company webinars attracting a total of 790 B2B leads

Mention specific results , e.g. money and time saved

• Reduced the employee turnover rate by 5% in 2021
• Tripled the number of Instagram sales since 2019
• Reduced cost per sale from 3.8K to 2.7K in two years’ time
• Attracted 2.6 new LinkedIn followers in the last quarter

Pro tip: Record your accomplishments as they happen. This is how I do it. Every time something cool happens (e.g. 89% of email subscribers click on the CTA button in an email and read my article or 5 product demos were booked on a blog page that I wrote), I take a note in a Google document. Even if I’m not actively looking for a job. (Or not even thinking about it.) In time, you’ll have a killer list of accomplishments to add to your resume, cutting your writing time in half. Otherwise, you’ll either forget the details or spend hours digging through your old projects to find the right info.

2. Use action verbs at the beginning of your bullet points

If you take a closer look at all the examples we listed in this guide so far, you’ll notice a few common themes — none of the bullets start with “I” and they sound super descriptive although we used zero adjectives.

The secret lies in action verbs, the powerful verbs that are used at the beginning of each bullet to draw the reader in and show your impact.

Take a look at these examples again:

• Responded to an average of 20 tickets a day, resulting in 97% first touch resolution score
• Received 9.1 satisfaction rating in the last 365 days
• Resolved 7 escalations in the last 3 months with the IT/SysDev teams

Combined with numbers and specific results, these verbs show the recruiting team exactly how you accomplished things and attained goals at work.

There are extensive lists of power/action verbs you can find on the web, but here’s a short list of our favorite ones to get you started.

Top 50 action verbs to use in your resume work experience section:

• Coordinated
• Established
• Facilitated
• Implemented
• Standardized
• Streamlined
• Strengthened

Expert tip: Vary your power verbs to avoid repetition. Keep your bullet points as short as possible and avoid the use of pronouns, articles, and adjectives.

Here’s an example of a bland work experience section turned amazing and catchy by applying the 3 tips above.

• Responsible for all content marketing activities in the company
• I was in charge of the link-building project
• Proofreading of the copy before publishing.

Why we think it sucks:

Let’s dissect this Frankenstein.

• Consistency issues: Although the candidate uses the bulleted list to provide more information about their recent role, they are not consistent. The first bullet starts with an adjective, the second uses a pronoun (“I”) and looks like an actual sentence, while the third one starts with an -ing form. All in all, it’s a mess.
• No details or real info: The candidate uses overused phrases like “responsible” and “in charge of” combined with little other info. All in all, super bland and nonspecific.

Now let’s see how you can transform this meh work history section into an unforgettable one by using action verbs and quantifiers.

• Designed annual content marketing strategy, resulting in 247 SQLs (500+ employees)
• Oversaw a team of 10 writers, resulting in 60 do-follow links in the last 90 days
• Increased content downloads website-wide by 78%
• Conducted quality assurance for 100% of content

Why we love this version:

First, it’s super specific and it tells us exactly what this Content Marketing Manager did. Next, they listed the results of their efforts in a consistent and persuasive way. Finally, a nice mix of power verbs (designed, oversaw, increased, and conducted) leaves the reader with the impression that this person knows what they’re doing.

3. Customize your employment history section to the job description at hand

We’ve been saying this forever and we’ll say it again: don’t expect to have a single resume that can win you endless jobs. Heck. Don’t expect a generic, all-purpose resume to land you more than 1 interview out of 50 applications.

That’s not how the pros do it.

Instead, you’ll need multiple versions that you’ll then further customize by tailoring your work experience section to the exact position you’re targeting.

The easiest way to do this is to peruse the job description, identify which skills and requirements matter to the employer and then have your resume prove that you possess those very skills.

Here’s how it works in practice.

Let’s say a MarTech company is looking for someone to join the Billing Customer Support Team.

Here is a sample job ad and some of the requirements and duties listed in the description:

After carefully reading the job description details, this candidate found 5 points they have previously excelled in. Next, they’ll use them as guidelines to tailor their work experience resume section to match the requirements 100%.

Customer Support Engineer Omnis

• Solved a daily average of 20 Zendesk tickets over a 3-year period
• Maintained the internal knowledge base 100% clean and up to date
• Prioritized feature requests and worked with AppDev and PO until implementation
• Hit company-record ticket response times (11 hours Zendesk; 2 minutes live chat)
• Authored a total of 56 technical articles in the Help Center

Why we like this answer: The candidate relied on the information from the job ad to highlight their accomplishments in a clear and convincing way. They showed their familiarity with Zendesk, their dedication to keeping the internal company wiki updated, and proved that they are independent and proficient enough to write technical documentation. Finally, they illustrated most of their efforts with relevant metrics and KPIs and used power verbs to convey authority and skill.

How to List Work Experience on a Resume for Different Scenarios

This may make perfect sense to someone who’s had 10+ years of experience and few job gaps. But what if you’re applying for a job outside your industry or aren’t sure whether to include your volunteer experience? Here are all your questions answered.

How to show a promotion on your resume?

If you’ve held multiple positions in the same company or if you’d like to highlight your growth and change in roles, you can approach this in two different ways.

1) List them as a single entry if similar and if the career path is clear. Start with the company name, dates worked, and then list your positions together with the from-to period when you held them. Like this:

Acme Technologies Inc. 03/2017 – Present

Content Marketing Manager (01/2021 – Present) (a bullet-pointed list of accomplishments)

Content Writer (03/2017 – 01/2021) (note the promotion, followed by a bulleted list of responsibilities and achievements)

2) List them as two separate entries if you made a bigger shift or changed departments (e.g. started in a call center, then switched to Business Development).

A note of caution: When using stacked entries (1), there’s a chance that the ATS software won’t recognize your promotion as such, and may list your skills and experience under the earlier position. To ensure your resume will be well-parsed by the ATS and look good, it’s safer to stick to the format shown in (2) and list your promotions as two separate entries.

How to put freelance work on a resume?

Absolutely include your freelance work in your employment history, as it shows your versatility, skill set, and soft skills like client management, negotiation, and independence. Here’s an example of how a writer and illustrator listed their freelancing experience.

Content Writing Consultant (alternatively, you can use Contractor ) Freelance

• Contributed original blog content to businesses (include most notable clients)
• Increased organic traffic by 250% with a 6-month blog project
• Helped generate 14 Fortune 2000 leads through Google AdWords over a 6-month period
• Illustrated for both web and printed media
• Provided 50+ illustrations for clients such as NewYorker Magazine, CondeNast, Monocle
• Won Best Book Cover Award (Illustration Category) in 2021
• Collaborated with 20+ teams with an average UpWork score of 4.8

Should I include volunteer work on my resume?

If you can supply at least 5 years of paid work experience, you can skip your volunteering experience altogether or add them to other resume sections.

If your employment history is short or if you’re just starting your job search after being a stay-at-home parent or a student, then definitely include the volunteering gigs in your main work history section. After all, recruiters love seeing this type of experience — it tells a lot about who you are as a person, what you’re passionate about, and that you’re not entirely motivated by money.

How to list part-time jobs on a resume?

When adding your part-time jobs to your resume work history, treat it like any other entry. However, make sure to add that you worked part-time. A simple note next to your position works just fine. Like this:

Online Marketing Specialist (part-time) Forwa

• Posted 5 blog posts weekly in WordPress over a 2-year period
• Set up an average of 10 email marketing campaigns/week
• Assisted 2 Lead Gen Specialists to clean 14 lists over a 2-year period

How to put internships on a resume?

You can include your internship just as you would with any other work experience, no matter if it was paid or not. Add your official role, the company name, and then provide a bulleted list of your responsibilities and accomplishments. Here’s how one candidate did it:

• Used javascript, HTML, and bootstrap to build UI pages
• Worked closely with frontend developers to solve more complex issues
• Collaborated with backend developers and UX/UI designer to assess requirements

How to explain employment gaps on a resume?

I’ll start with a general note here: people freak out about their employment gaps way more than they should. Yes, employment gaps on your resume can be considered red flags, but not by default.

As a matter of fact, a recent study published in the American Economic Review reveals that “long-term unemployment spells in the past do not matter for employers’ hiring decisions.” The study also found that all subsequent experiences canceled out the gaps in employment, as well as that employers didn’t treat short-term and long-term unemployment much differently.

So no reason to panic, okay?

You’d normally have the chance to explain the gaps in your employment in an interview. To get there, it’s wise to address them in your resume work experience section and provide a bit of information and context.

This is especially valid if the gaps are bigger and happened for a good reason like getting a degree, being a full-time parent or caregiver, or for medical reasons.

And here’s how you can integrate that smartly into your resume employment history.

• Took time off from professional career to provide care for a baby and a toddler and manage the household
• Used the gap years to complete 3 B2B Sales courses

(In case you need more inspo, here’s what else you can put on a resume .)

Resume Work Experience Examples for Different Careers

Here you’ll find some of the best resume experience examples for the most common professions.

Customer service and tech support

• Assisted customers and troubleshot technical issues on 30+ calls/day on average
• Resolved 90% of issues without transfers or escalations
• Decreased cancellations by 11% over a one year period
• Ran regular customer satisfaction surveys resulting in 9.6/10 satisfaction rating
• Built close relationships with CIOs and CTOs from prospective companies
• Provided software demonstrations to 52 companies in the last quarter
• Closed 36 new deals, hitting a 69% closing rate in the last quarter

Software engineering

• Worked with PO team to update and rearchitect 50+ page web app
• Built 5 additional features in the last 12 months
• Cooperated with a team of 8 agile developers to prioritize biggest impact features

Office administration

• Provided reliable administrative assistance to the Regional Manager
• Organized 2 conferences for 2000+ attendees
• Managed 7 workshops and 10 local events over a two-year period
• Interviewed 6 potential new candidates and trained 3 new team members

Digital marketing

• Posted daily on 5 company social media profiles
• Interacted with 10 LinkedIn HR influencers every day
• Grew the LinkedIn account by 525% over a six-month period
• Provided emergency health care to 20 patient per shift on average
• Participated in 300+ emergency procedures over a one-year period
• Exceeded standards of care to hit 9.7 patient satisfaction rating in an anonymous survey
• Prepared and delivered 100% of lessons to second year students (<20 students/class)
• Coordinated 30+ extra study sessions to prepare students for state exams
• Increased assignment completion by 40% via technology-based learning during Covid19

Business analysis & data science

• Reduced the cost of IT infrastructure by 24% via alternative software solutions
• Relocated budget from social to organic for 30% increase in ROI
• Restructured the Sales department, resulting in 45K of new revenue

Find out how to write a next-level resume work experience section for 100+ other professions in this free resume library .

Need a bit more guidance?

You can hop over to Big Interview’s Resume Builder, where you’ll get to enter your information section by section (basic info and contact details, summary, work experience, education, certifications, skills), choose the design and then have the tool create a resume for you. Here’s what you’ll find inside:

This is super useful because you can easily create many iterations (for different job ads) and save a bunch of time in the process.

Once that’s done, you can also use ResumeAI , a new feature that assesses your resume for various criteria hiring teams use in real life – how easy it is on the eye, how you used action words to convey experience and skills, and whether it’s ATS-friendly Basically, you’ll get a rating based on how effective you were in showcasing your skills and experience.

And if you need a bit more support, we created a short course on resume writing, designed and led by our own co-founder, Pamela Skillings (aka *the resume and job interview guru*). In this curriculum, you get 8 video lessons with Pam (with a transcript), after which you’ll be 100% sure to crush that resume.

Key Points Summarized

TL; DR? Here’s the essence of a killer resume work experience section that you can copy in no time.

• A well-written employment history section directly impacts your chances of being shortlisted. Take some extra time to do it right.
• Always present your work experience in a clearly separated section and place it under your resume summary.
• Begin with your current (or most recent) job and work backward from there.
• Include the following information, in this order: your position, company name, and dates worked.
• Back up this information with a bulleted list of up to 5 achievements and responsibilities. Forget false modesty and show your excellent track record. Quantify and provide tangible results wherever possible. Use power verbs to convey authority and entice the hiring team.
• When applying for multiple jobs in different companies, custom-tailor your work experience section to each job opening. Browse the job requirements and duties and match them with examples from past experience.
• Bonus tip: Keep the high standards in other resume sections too. Learn how to best showcase your skills on a resume.

How many years of work history should I describe on a resume?

List 10–15 years of experience, depending on your individual circumstances. The key thing here is to include only relevant work experience, so if you’ve been in the job market for 10 years, but only 6 are relevant to the job you’re applying for, focus on those 6 years. You can still list the previous experience, but there’s no need to go into great detail.

How many bullet points should I use per entry in the work history section?

A common guideline is to have 3–8 bullet points per entry. This way you can give plenty of relevant information about your achievements and responsibilities without overwhelming the reader with excessive detail. You can use 5–8 for your most recent and penultimate positions. As you work your way backwards, 3 bullet points is usually enough. Remember to aim for quality over quantity — if you can fit your best accomplishments into 3 bullet points, there’s no need to write 2 additional weak ones. Make sure to refer to your “strongest” qualities in the first 2 bullets.

What work experience should I not include in my resume?

Here are some examples of work experience that should not be included in your resume: irrelevant experience, experience from over 15 years ago, high school jobs, or volunteer work. However, this all depends on where you are in the career journey. For example, for first-time job seekers, school jobs, part-time jobs, and volunteer experience will matter.

What should I do if I have little to no work experience?

If you have no or little formal work experience, include other types of experience and focus on your qualifications and results. Some ideas to consider: internships, volunteer work, academic projects, freelance or contract work, leadership roles in student associations or sport clubs, and community work. Don’t worry about your title or if it was a formal experience. Instead, focus on the relevant skills and tangible results you accomplished in these roles.

Should I put volunteer experience in my work history section?

You can include it if you have little to no relevant professional experience. Otherwise, you can put it in a separate resume section or omit it if your resume is already full.

How to address gaps in employment in my work experience section?

If there’s a significant gap in your resume, address it proactively in the document and don’t wait for it to come up at the interview (imagine you miss out on one because of that gap!). This way, your potential employers will know you have nothing to hide. Briefly explain the reasons for the gap, keep your language positive, and mention if you did any coursework or upskilling during that time. If you took a sabbatical to travel, take care of a family, or get degrees to prepare for a career change, say it proudly.

When should I take a job off my resume?

A general rule is to remove a job from your resume if it’s no longer relevant to the position you’re applying for. For example, if you’re applying for a marketing role, already had 4 marketing roles, but had initially worked as a history teacher for 1 year, it’s safe to assume your history teacher experience can be taken off. The point is to not overwhelm the resume with unrelated experience. You can also remove some short-term jobs or jobs you had a long time ago, especially if your resume is already getting longer than 2 pages.

Should I include a job I was fired from on my resume?

That depends on several factors. If this was a recent position you held for a long time, you should include it. Otherwise, there would be a big employment gap that you’d still have to address (and it may come up anyway during a background check). If you can come up with a tactful, honest explanation behind the termination, and especially if you’ve gained new relevant skills in the meantime, don’t hesitate to include that position. On the other hand, if the job was a long time ago or if it’s unrelated to the position you’re currently applying for, feel free to omit it.

Pamela Skillings

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How to Write Work Experience on a Resume

Writing the work experience section

Writing the resume work experience section is one of the most influential and often trickiest resume sections to get right. Some employers will even cut right past the summary at the top of a resume and scan the employers, job titles and work dates to see if the resume is worth reading in detail. How much text you include for each section will also create a significant first impression. A lot can be understood during that mythical 6-second scan.

The work experience/job history on a resume is where past job descriptions and professional experiences give credibility to an application or interview. All the other information and sections on a resume, from hobbies to the personal statement , frame the list of relevant work experience over the last 10 - 15 years. So, how do I describe my work experience on a resume?

This guide will show you everything you need to know about including work experience on a resume, including:

• Why the work experience in cv matters
• What to include (and not include) in work experience on a resume
• The best format to follow for describing your work history
• Examples of work experience in cv across industries
• Practical tips for resume work experience
• How to list your current job and previous positions

The five-word rule. Think about five words that would be sum up your career. How would you describe your experience? Those five words should then come across incredibly strongly in the work experience on a resume. A hiring manager is not going to remember the sentences that you write, but if they stop reading with those five words (or more) in their minds, your resume will have done its job.

Why is work experience on your resume so important?

Before we jump in to the ins and outs of writing work experience on a resume, here is why it matters. A hiring manager or employer looks at a resume to answer one question:

Does this person’s work experience qualify them for this job?

The work experience section of your resume is the foundation that either qualifies you or disqualifies you for an interview or the next step in the hiring process. This resume section uses the last 10 - 15 years of relevant career history to tell a prospective employer whether you have the work experience in your cv that will fit the requirements of the role. The work experience section gives credibility to your application and should compliment every other aspect of your application materials (other sections in the resume, cover letter, portfolio, etc).

Be careful not to write your work experience section like a list of job responsibilities , though. The hiring manager knows what they want you to do. They are far more interested in evidence from your previous work experiences that you have what it takes to perform and take your next employer forward. Focus on offering compelling accomplishments, plenty of context and quantifiable results that your competition will not be able to match.

How do I add experience to my resume: What to include

In most cases, choosing which jobs to include on your resume should depend on your work history and the type of job you’re applying for. In general, work in a backward chronological order (in a resume format often known as reverse chronological format ) starting with your most recent position at the top of the page and include the last 10-15 years of employment history. The backward chronological order works best for most job seekers.

If you have a scattered work history, don’t stress. Job hopping is both more common and more widely accepted today, especially among the younger workforce. Including short part-time stints and side projects is good if those professional experiences directly relate to the job or feature skills that overlap with the position. Be prepared to answer questions about your career choices while considering work experience in cv, have a confident answer about your career path, and be forthcoming about the level of commitment you’re looking for. Once you’ve chosen the positions, let’s dive into the specific bullet points about work experience in a cv. Each one should include:

• Results-focused facts: The hiring manager already knows the basics. These bullet points should focus on how you specifically managed the position with innovation.
• Action Verbs: Strong action verbs hook in the reader. Negotiated! Pioneered! Transformed! This also keeps you away from falling down the adjective rabbit hole.
• Quantitative information: Numbers stand out to a hiring manager. They are specific and tangible. You grew a client’s reader base by 300% or managed 200 silent auction items. Let your accomplishments shine!
• On-Site Training: Weave skills and certifications gained on the job. This shows initiative and otherwise overlooked abilities.
• Awards and honors: If you were called out on the job for great work, go ahead and brag. Your work experience resume examples should be designed to impress.

Ideally, each position should include a mix of free-flowing text and achievement-led bullet points. The bullets will catch the eye, but you can only really tell a deeper story when you are not constrained by the width of the page.

How do I write a student CV? A student CV for a first job should contain full details on your education (as that will testify to your ability to focus and achieve) and ideally also contain details on any student jobs or volunteer work that you have done while you were studying. It doesn't matter how menial this work was, the most important thing is that you understand the responsibility of doing a paid day's work.

Volunteer work can be a wonderful way to feature a variety of valuable skills, Here's a list of how to add volunteer work to your resume.

Work experience on a resume: what to avoid

Always assume that your reader — in this case, the hiring manager — doesn’t need anything explained. You also have very little room to ramble on your resume. They will assume more about you than you think - especially if you have worked for a while in their industry.

Free up some space by not including:

• What the organization does: your resume is about you. The hiring manager doesn’t 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.
• Chaired a project team through a change process, trimming 5% of our cost base.
• Outperformed sales team in quarterly new business attraction by 67%.
• Executed the software rollout to twelve departments within two months.
• Resolved a company-record 150 customer complaints a week.
• Rectified a list of outstanding issues that had been dormant for more than a year.

If you are a recent graduate with little or no work experience , you can consider adding your GPA or cum laude on your resume. As you acquire work experience over the years, you should replace your GPA or cum laude with relevant work experience. 

What is the most effective format for work experience on a resume?

On a basic level, the work experience layout typically includes:

• Job title, company name, location of employment
• Month and year started and left the position
• Between three and six bullet points briefly outlining your impact at the company

Work experience/job history on a resume should also include:

• Clear and concise bullet points that demonstrate the positive results of your work
• Powerful verbs
• Clear numbers and facts
• Growth between positions
• Specific keywords pulled from job description

Examples of work experience on a resume

Here are a few examples of work experience on a resume to see the differences between a first draft and the final draft. How do you describe your experience in the most succinct way possible?

Example #1: Work Experience in CV for a Teacher . Let’s say you’re applying to be a middle school science teacher at a popular independent school. The new job description emphasizes the importance of involvement outside the classroom. They specified that they’re looking for teachers looking to grow through professional development throughout their time there.

First Draft:

• I taught 5th-grade science classes
• I advised students outside of class
• I attended a conference on social-emotional learning

Final Draft:

• Developed and carried out a student-driven curriculum in three sections of Earth Science
• Annually advised 20 students to track growth and address individual challenges and strengths
• Invited to attend NAIS annual conference to develop modern social-emotional learning classroom tactics

Example #2: Work Experience in CV for Content Marketing Manager . Content Marketing Managers encompass a very wide range of responsibilities. The recruiter will have a general sense of your job experience — no need to start from scratch — but results-based, specific bullet points will thrive here.

• I manage a team of freelance copywriters at a major NYC marketing agency and ensure they got their work in on time
• I talked to clients and figured out what would be best for their brand
• Before everything was published, I proofread it all
• Oversaw a team of 25 freelance writers and streamlined content pipeline from ideation to publication
• Advised clients on both short- and long-term content strategy tactics while clarifying their personalized brand voice
• Edited and polished copy to maintain content consistency across multiple channels

When you have moved up the career ladder at a previous employer, you should be proud to showcase it on a resume. But how can you display multiple positions for the same company?

Example #3: Work Experience on a Resume for a Waiter . Food service moves quickly. Anything that cut a manager’s search time in half is more likely to land you the job. Be sure to look for keywords in the job posting such as “craft cocktail bartending experience” or “fine dining.” Sure, you can learn — and will learn — on the job, but restaurants have minimal time to train you on the basics. Be confident and clear about your background.

• I waited tables at a busy NYC Midtown restaurant
• Most of the time, I tended bar on nights and weekends
• Trained a few hosts
• Served lunch and dinner for four years in a Michelin-star-rated Midtown brasserie
• Acted as primary bartender during peak weekend and evening hours, specializing in craft cocktail creation
• Managed and streamlined training methods for new hosts and servers

Example #4: Work Experience Resume Example for an Executive Assistant . Personality plays such a large role in calmly managing a busy executive’s schedule and lifestyle. The tone of your resume should be both level-headed and confident in what is expected of an EA. Try to always be a step ahead of what your boss needs before you even begin the job.

• I made travel plans on behalf of executive team
• Budgeted for the office and managed expenses
• I trained other assistants and helped with hiring
• Managed complex domestic and international travel for five, C-level executives
• Decreased expense management costs by 35% and perfected expense tracking system for all office management accounts
• Hired, trained, and guided a team of five team assistants including a seasonal team of sales interns

Example #5: Work Experience Resume Sample for Sales Rep . Provable facts and figures are your largest asset as a sales representative. Did your last position measure your personal or team sales growth? Dig up these numbers to work them into your work experience section. Then, explain the methods you applied in the job itself to make it happen. This work experience resume example offers some ideas:

• Grew sales revenue every month
• I signed several new clients
• I changed the way we talked about our product
• Exponentially increased monthly sales revenue, surpassing 150% growth for the department after just 6 months
• Developed and signed 10 new key clients by researching previously undiscovered corners of our industry
• Redeveloped brand voice and sale representative script for efficient and personalized customer care

What skills do I put on a resume? when you are considering the work experience in a resume, you should aim to make the best possible use of space. There will always be a separate skills section where you can list one-word hard and soft skills , so make sure that this is related to the experience that you have mentioned with each employer, but it should add to the overall picture rather than simple repeat it. If you add an interesting skill that you have not mentioned in the work experience section, an employer is bound to ask about it at interview.

Grammar tips for listing job history on a resume

Do you write sentences? Phrases? Declarations? Writing resumes for first job? Here are some nitty-gritty grammar rules for writing your work experience bullet points.

• Write in phrases, often beginning with a strong verb. No need to write “I” to start off the sentence — that is implied and work experience in a CV is often conveyed in the third person as this is more professional.
• Tense : If you are still at your current position completing the work described, use present tense. For past positions or completed projects, choose past tense.
• Don’t be afraid to break out the thesaurus — especially for synonyms of “lead, managed and trained” — but stick to words you’d use yourself. No need to ace the SAT verbal section.

Filling your resume with exclusively truthful statements about your career is harder than you might think. Lying on a resume can take many forms. Don’t give in to temptation.

Tailoring job history on a resume for each application

Instead of mass applying to every job ad on the internet with the same resume, take the time to tailor it. The work experience section might require the least tailoring (as it will tick the boxes of most jobs if you are targeted in your approach), but there may be a few accomplishments that you may want to include for certain roles and exclude for others. View yourself as a meticulous editor cutting and pasting your career story to make it as attractive as possible.

Besides the fact that 36% of hiring managers throw out resumes that don’t seem personalized for a particular role, a tailored resume and application:

• Shows the hiring manager you took the time to apply and their job wasn’t one of 50 different places you sent your resume.
• Get past the automatic keyword filtering larger companies might use to automatically screen candidates in their Applicant Tracking System (ATS) . Your work experience samples need to be scanned by the machines first.
• Tweak diverse experiences to focus on the most relevant experience for a particular job. For example if you’ve ever had a job “wearing many hats” unless you’re applying for another “many hats” position, this strategy gives you a chance to focus your work experience on the hats that are most relevant for the new role.

Restarting this process every time you apply for a new job may seem excessive. Ideally, the more time you put into tailoring your resume, the less jobs you’ll need to apply to.

• Ignited a fire under the management team to deliver an extra $950k sales.
• Scrutinized the market and doubled market share by launching a new product.
• Implemented a new software solution that shrunk build time by 34%
• Initiated a recruitment drive that hired fifteen people within three months.
• Minimized surgery wait times by 15 mins, increasing patient satisfaction by 25%

How far back should your resume work experience go?

Your resume work experience should contain every piece of information that is relevant to you securing the role. This will dictate the amount of work experience in a CV that you might include. 

If you have a 30-year career, you might choose simply to list the employers for the first 10-15 years and use your precious resume space to describe the most recent resume experiences. However, if your career is 15 years or less, you should definitely include resume work experience about everything. 

In terms of the amount of work experience on your resume, try to give more information on the more recent roles. Make use of bullet points and solid text after your have listed the employer and date details - as you can see in our many resume samples .

Including a list of roles that were more than 15 years old might be possible, but only include the headlines. It is interesting for some business leaders to see where a senior manager spent their early career, so while you may not be asked about this much during an interview, it does add a certain depth to your application.

Should I put seminars on my CV? Typically, a one or two-day seminar would not be included on work experience in a CV. If the training or educational event has a certain prestige or lasts more than a week, then you might consider including it in the education section, but as anyone can attend a seminar, it will not give a huge indication as to your individual level of suitability for the role. You will certainly have more important information to share.

Your transition out of the military requires a resume that expresses your talents in a way that civilian employers will understand. The blog below offers tips for making the most of your service in your post-military resume.

Key takeaways

• Focus on results of your job history in the past. Only list work experience on a resume that is relevant to the job you’re applying to.
• Stand out with strong action verbs
• Get specific: use numbers, facts, and figures
• Speak in the past tense when the job is complete, present when you’re still doing the work.
• Cut out unnecessary filler words or adjectives.
• Align your job history bullet points to match the job description.
• Make sure that the work experience in CV goes back an appropriate amount of time

Work experience on a great resume helps employers know in 10 seconds or less if you are qualified for the job. It should sound a lot like the description in the job post. If the work experience in CV doesn’t sound like the job description or follow these rules, be prepared to pull out some creativity to get noticed. For example, use a resume builder to build a perfect resume in the exact format potential employers are looking for.

The Right Way to Include Your Work Experience on a Resume (With Examples)

We all know resumes are important. They’re your first impression. The highlight reel of your qualifications. The tool that you can use to land an interview (and ultimately a job).

Your past experience takes up the bulk of your resume and tells future employers what you’ve done up until now that qualifies you for your next job. So when it comes time to write about your experience on your resume, the pressure is admittedly a bit high. Determining what, exactly, belongs in there, let alone how to write about it and how to format it can be trickier than it sounds.

But fear not. As a recruiter and career coach, I can say—without exaggeration—that I’ve laid eyes on thousands (and thousands!) of resumes. So I know my way around an experience section. Allow me to answer all your questions:

What Belongs in My Experience Section?

Ok, so how do i know what experience is relevant, how should i format the experience section of my resume, is it ever ok to tweak my job titles, how far back should my experience section go, what if i have a gap in employment, can i see an example experience section.

When you think about which experience should be included on a resume, you usually think of past jobs. And rightfully so—your full-time work history will often be the primary source of material for your resume. But your experience can encompass so much more than the traditional jobs you’ve held. Internships , volunteer work , freelance assignments, temporary gigs , and part-time jobs all count as experience, too.

What types of experiences you include on your resume will depend on where you are in your career journey. More established job seekers who aren’t looking to make a significant career change can likely fill their experience section with their most recent full-time jobs. But if you’re new (or newer) to the workforce, looking to break into a new industry, or making a career pivot, it might make sense to incorporate less traditional experience. Before you include something on your resume, ask yourself: Is this relevant experience for the jobs I’m targeting?

Relevant experience is simply experience that’s applicable to the type of jobs you’re pursuing. For example, if you’re a software engineer, you’ll 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 (unless you’re applying to work as a programmer at a law firm or legal services startup!) Or if you’re 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 you’re listing, think about how to describe what you did and achieved. Suppose you currently work as a server in a restaurant, and you’re applying for receptionist jobs. In this case, you’d 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 won’t be needing those skills in a receptionist role.

If you aren’t 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 you’ll need to be more discerning about which of your past responsibilities are most relevant.

To tailor your resume for each specific job, spend some time reading through the posting and take note of the skills and job duties it mentions. Then make a list of the responsibilities you have experience performing. And voilà! You’ve identified your most relevant experience.

When you write about this relevant experience on your resume, make sure you’re incorporating keywords from the specific job posting. This is essential for two key reasons. First, most applications will be scanned by an applicant tracking system or ATS, which helps recruiters search resumes for relevant keywords to find which applicants are the best match for an open role. Second, a well-tailored resume will make it easy for the recruiter reviewing it to understand why you’d be a good match for their open job.

Every experience section should start with a clear section heading. You might simply call it “Experience” or “Work Experience” or “Relevant Experience.” Or maybe you’d prefer to highlight your specific role or industry with a header like “Accounting Experience” or “Entertainment Industry Experience.” The key is to make it easy to spot for anyone who may be quickly scanning your resume.

In some cases, you may want to showcase experience from a previous career or otherwise include experience that’s not directly related to the job you’re applying for. To do this, you can simply create another section with a header like “Additional Experience” or “Additional Professional Experience.” You can also pull out a section such as “Volunteer Experience” if it doesn’t make sense to include volunteer roles under your main experience section or if you prefer to list them separately

For most job seekers using a chronological or combination resume format, you should list your past jobs within your experience section (or sections) in reverse chronological order. For each item you list—full-time jobs or other types of experience—include the following:

• Position details: List your job title, company name, location, and employment dates (month and year) for every position on your resume. Here’s one way it might look:

Graphic Designer | Evergreen Industries | San Francisco, CA | May 2018 – April 2020

• Job duties and achievements : Aim to include three to seven bullet points under each position describing what you did there, starting with a high-level overview of your role and common responsibilities and then drilling down into more specifics. These bullets should highlight your most applicable experiences for the role you’re applying to. You can either include your most relevant achievements for each job alongside your job duties or you can create a dedicated subsection for “Key Achievements.” Quantifying everything you can will lend context to your work history and can be a great way to wow prospective employers. Use this magic formula to craft eye-catching bullet points:  Compelling verb + job duty = tangible number and/or result.  So you might say:  Redesigned new hire onboarding program to include welcome week, 1:1 mentoring, and interactive training, resulting in a 60% increase in 90-day retention.
• Promotions: If you were promoted during your tenure with an employer, you can either separate the two roles (if your job duties were distinct enough) or group them together into one entry that shares a set of bullet points. For example:

UX Designer | Caterpillar Collective | Kansas City, MO | July 2019 – Present Associate UX Designer | March 2018 – July 2019

• Collaborated with marketing team to create user-centric graphic designs for print and web that contributed to a 30% increase in customers over 2 years.
• Conducted 50+ IDIs and created and completed 12 surveys of 200+ users each; compiled and analyzed results to make recommendations to stakeholders.
• Led website redesign with a focus on accessibility, increasing retention rate of customers with visual impairments by 50%, per self-reported survey.

While it’s never OK to straight-up lie about (or even embellish) your work history, there are cases when tweaking your job titles is permissible. Just remember: The key is to use your job title to clarify your role—not to mislead. Two situations where adjusting your job title is generally above board are:

• Your employer gave you a funky title . A startup might hire a “Data Guru” while an established e-commerce organization would employ a “Data Scientist” to perform the same duties. In this case, it’s probably safe to tweak that job title on your resume.
• You wear lots of different hats. If you’re in a role where you juggle lots of different responsibilities (like an office manager who also supports a marketing team), you might adjust your job title to give recruiters more context. For example, if said office manager wanted to pivot into a marketing assistant role, they might list “Office Manager - Marketing Support” as their job title.

If tweaking a title feels like a stretch, you can instead focus on crafting strong bullet points to clearly convey your responsibilities or use your summary to lend additional context to your qualifications.

Keeping your focus on relevant experience means you probably won’t need to include all of your past jobs—and that’s a good thing. Recruiters and hiring managers are going to be most interested in your most relevant and recent experience. They also love a concise, single-page resume that’s easy to scan (they get a lot of applications and don’t have time to read through years and years of work experience). So it’s OK to keep your resume short and sweet.

As a general rule, you don’t need to include more than 10 to 15 years of experience on your resume (with some exceptions). Check out this guide for a detailed breakdown on how far back your resume should go depending on where you are in your career and any special situations.

If you took time away from the workforce, know that you’re in good company. Plenty of successful people have gaps in their employment history for myriad reasons, like caring for a loved one, raising children , going back to school, or losing a job. If your employment gap is brief (less than six months or so), you probably don’t need to address it on your resume. But if it’s a bit longer (more than a year), you may want to add a bit of context in the form of an additional “experience” entry—no more than a line or two.

Here’s what it might look like:

Professional Sabbatical | June 2016 – August 2019

• Provided full-time care for a sick family member.
• Traveled throughout Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
• Authored a memoir about growing up on a Christmas tree farm.

Whether or not you include an entry like this on your resume, you can use your cover letter to explain any special circumstances in more detail.

If you took time away to go back to school, listing your education (and including relevant projects or coursework) will also suffice to bridge the gap on your resume.

Below is an example of how a tailored, quantified experience section might look on a sample resume. This job seeker has already made a career change from accounting to writing (notice how they leveraged their transferable accounting expertise to write for financial publications, first as a volunteer and then a freelancer before landing a full-time writing job). Now, they’re hoping to find a new staff writing role covering different topics—ideally lifestyle or wellness.

The types of jobs this job seeker will be applying for require at least three years of experience pitching and producing SEO-focused articles, preferably with a lifestyle focus. Notice how this job seeker uses the “Key Achievements” subsections to highlight their most relevant project work. (They’d also include a link to their personal website on their resume so that potential employers can easily see their portfolio!)

Download sample resume experience section  

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How to Describe Your Work Experience on a Resume? [+Examples]

Your work history section is the most important part of your resume. It's also the most difficult part of your CV to address. Keep reading to find out how to properly describe your work experience on your resume. 

Because while a well-written work experience section can land you a job, a badly written one can easily sabotage your chances of getting an interview. You must know how to write it and what to include in it. 

And that's what this guide is for! It will show you:

What is a work experience section?

• Why bother writing it?
• Where to put the work experience section on your resume?
• …if you’re a student or a fresh graduate?
• …as an experienced professional?
• …if you’re an artist or creative?
• …if you’re changing careers?
• How to overcome an employment gap?
• How to address maternity leave?
• Plus some final tips and tricks

Too long, don't wanna read? Watch this 60sec video guide

The work experience section or employment history is a detailed summary of your past work experience . In other words, a comprehensible report of all jobs you’ve held in the past.

Depending on your background, you can include full-time positions, part-time jobs, temporary roles, internships, or even volunteer work.

In the work history section, you should list key information such as: 

• names of companies
• positions held
• dates of employment
• responsibilities you've held

But more importantly , it should highlight your main achievements and provide specific examples.

Side note: The experience section often goes under other names. Some people call it Employment history . Others refer to it as Work experience or Work history. All of these terms are interchangeable and all of them are correct. So you don't have to worry about picking the right one. 

Oh, and if you have a LinkedIn profile filled with all the important details, including your work experience, academic background, skills, and qualifications, you can easily  turn it into a polished resume with just one click.

Why should you include the work experience section?

We hate to use the word “important” , but…

… work experience is super important, if not a key section of your resume. 

When you think “resume ”, the work experience section is probably the first thing that comes to your mind. And you’re not alone. Based on this section employers determine whether or not you have what it takes for the job.

It provides an overview of your experience. A well-written work experience section is a crucial element because it shows that you have the necessary qualifications.

Where to put your work experience on a resume?

In most cases, your work experience section should come right after your contact info and professional summary.

But this isn't always the case. In some situations, you want to put your key skills, key achievements, or education section first.

For example, place your education first if you’re a student, fresh graduate, professional who recently went back to school, Ph.D. researcher , doctor, or another profession where the educational background is very important. Or if you’re writing an academic CV.

Generally speaking, the role and importance of your employment history section depend on where you're in your career and the type of resume you choose to write.

You can choose to write either a chronological, functional, or combination resume:

A chronological resume  

The most common resume type . 

It’s built around the employment history section. This makes it great for seasoned professionals with several years of work experience. It presents information in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent events being placed first.

Order of sections in chronological resume usually looks like this: Contact Information > Professional Summary > Work Experience > Education > Skills > Others .

A functional resume

This resume type draws attention to and puts forward your skills , accomplishments, job traits, and personal characteristics. 

It works best for fresh graduates, students, people returning to work after parental leave, and people who are changing careers — in other words — for those who might already have the skills but lack experience (or have an employment gap in their resume).

Order of sections in functional resume usually is the following: Contact Information > Professional Summary / Resume Objective > Skills / Projects > Work History / Education > Others .

A combination resume  

A combination resume contains elements of both the chronological and functional format. It does so by including your relevant skills and accomplishments first and then detailing your employment history and education. 

It's great for students, fresh graduates, or career changers who don’t really fit elsewhere. 

A combination resume also gives you a chance to order sections in a way that works best for your unique career path. You can, for instance, place the key achievement section first if there's a success that you truly want to highlight. 

How to write a work experience section?

In summary, you should begin with listing your current (or most recent job) and then continue with the previous ones. Your first job should close the section. 

The description of your most recent job position should include the following information:

• name of the company
• responsibilities and achievements

The more recent the job, the more detailed information about it you want to offer. On the other hand, you don’t really want to waste space on jobs that took place years ago. So, don’t go into too much detail. 

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Despite that, the employment history section is probably the most difficult to write. Why though?

The answer is quick — the main challenge of describing your work experience on your resume is the sheer amount of information you have to include in this section. You have to choose wisely what to include so you won’t overwhelm the recruiter. 

Another problem arises once you stop writing it. You look back to your finished work history section and you may wonder:

Is your work experience section too short? Is it too long? Does it look somewhat chaotic? 

There’s no reason to worry though. We’ve got you. Here are some tips on how to make your job history section more orderly and appealing: 

• Use action verbs. As opposed to buzzwords, there are some powerful words you DO want to use. These include expressions such as “achieved,” “advised,” “negotiated” and others. See the pattern there? Instead of adjectives, use verbs you can support with evidence.
• Tailor it to a specific opening. Your accomplishments should match the employer’s needs and priorities. This is one of the quickest ways to get noticed and invited to an interview. Do your research and re-arrange your bullet points to show exactly the type of experience they want.
• Keywords. Reread the advertised job description and carefully pick the most important keywords. These are the words that best describe the position you’re applying for. Pack your resume with these keywords. Not only will it help you get past applicant tracking systems (ATS), but it will also leave a lasting impression on the hiring manager.
• Show your problem-solving skills . In the end, hiring managers want to know how effective are you when it comes to solving real problems. There’s no better way to prove your problem-solving ability than to briefly describe how you solved difficult problems in the past. Follow the PAR scheme: What was the Problem? What Action did you take? What was the Result?
• Quantify your past results. Managers love measurable results. A single number is often worth a thousand words. Don’t say you “increased the company’s revenue by, like, a lot”. Instead, don’t be afraid to brag about “increasing the company’s revenue by 20%.”
• Use bullet points. Bullet points help you structure your sub-sections. It also takes next to no effort on your part. Use them in combination with short paragraphs. First, describe the scope of your responsibilities, then use bullet points to list your top contributions for each job. Add 2-4 bullet points for each job.

Then, there are also common work experience section mistakes that you should avoid: 

• Don’t include the job description. Wait, what? Isn’t that the whole point? Well, no, employers usually know what the job should entail. Instead of listing what you were supposed to do, tell your potential employers what positive results you were able to bring about.
• Avoid buzzwords. Some phrases have been used so much in resumes that they became meaningless. Avoid words such as “thinking outside the box,” “creative,” or “problem solver.” These words always sound insincere. You want to inspire confidence. If you're using too many buzzwords, try to rephrase your content to make it more results-focused and skill-based.

Christy's word of advice

When it comes to the Work Experience sections, many resources say you should only highlight achievements and omit duties. What's your take on this?

“ I usually say have both. I recommend putting a few most important duties first because that's adding the context, and then the achievements. You can maybe get away just with the achievements if you're in an achievement-focused role, for instance, sales. But in general, I'd recommend having a mix — context plus impact. ” — Christy Morgan , Kickresume's Resident HR Expert

How to list work experience if you’re a student or a fresh graduate?

Naturally, you don’t have tons of experience if you’ve just finished school. Yet, being young is no obstacle. It comes down to how you present the experience you already have.

As a student or fresh graduate, you should place your work experience after the education section. Then list key skills, volunteer experience, and other voluntary sections.

Why list education first? Because your education and educational results are your strongest weapons right now.

Also, try to think of any job-relevant experience that you could put on your resume. Do you have any related experience at all when you worked as an intern? Have you done some volunteer work for a local charity? Or attended a conference? 

All of these things belong on your resume. Treat your internships and extracurricular activities as regular jobs.

These activities can showcase your motivation and skills. They also help recruiters gauge your professional aptitude. Each one of them should come with a few points that detail your responsibilities and accomplishments.

Here’s what you can include in your employment history section:

• Part-time jobs. If you’re fresh out of school (or still studying), part-time jobs are probably your primary type of experience. Even if the job isn’t super-relevant to the job you’re applying for now, there are valuable transferrable skills you’ve acquired in that job. Highlight them.
• Internships. Paid and unpaid college internships are one of the best weapons against the “experience required” line in a job posting.
• Volunteering . Most recruiters look at volunteer experience similar to paid work experience. Just because you didn’t get paid doesn’t mean you didn’t do a good job. Go ahead and list your volunteer roles as you would a full-time job. Detail the length of time you volunteered, relevant tasks you undertook, and the skills you gained through the experience.
• Extracurricular activities. If you’re applying for copywriting job, for example, recruiters will be more impressed to hear that you wrote a handful of articles for your student newspaper than that you had a summer job in a local fast-food restaurant.
• Leadership roles: Any leadership roles, even from clubs or sports teams, can demonstrate leadership skills and teamwork — both of which are highly valued by employers. 

How does this look in practice? Take a look at this fresh graduate sample below! 

How to list work experience if you’re an experienced professional?

Even if you’re an experienced professional, the hiring manager is going to put your work experience section under scrutiny. Because of that, you want to make sure your work experience section is tight.

To help employers navigate this section, list your work history in reverse chronological order. Put the most recent — and therefore the most relevant — items first.

Side tip: If you’re working a full-time job and freelancing at the same time, it’s only up to you to decide where you want to draw attention first.

Most importantly, don’t just state where you worked and what was your job title. Rather, also use 2–4 bullet points for each job to describe your duties and specific achievements. 

Here’s an example of how to do it:

Work Experience Section Example

Automotive Technician, Icahn Automotive, Rotorua, New Zealand (03/2017 – 09/2019)

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

Mind the length

Executives can use more than one page of their resume to present their extensive work experience. But that doesn’t mean that you should let your resume become a 700-page-long autobiography.

You may be wondering how to filter the information then. Especially if you have years of substantial experience. 

Well, as we already said earlier, if something’s recent, it also means it’s more relevant. That’s 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.

Finally, remember that you should never ever make your resume longer than two or three pages. Recruiters are busy and they can easily get overwhelmed by an overly long document. It would be sad if only this killed your chances of getting called for an interview . 

How far back should your employment history go?

Generally, it’s okay to include up to 15 years of experience, but try to avoid going further back in time than that. An exception would be a truly unique experience – such as being the one who started a successful company. 

Or, if a job requires 20 years of experience, then you should also definitely include more than 10–15 years of experience on your resume. 

However, most industries change a lot in 15 years, rendering any experience older than that obsolete.

If you have been working for less than 8-10 years, go back to the beginning of your work history and try to tailor your resume to be relevant to the job you’re applying for now.

Avoid writing about every single job you’ve ever held. This can easily overwhelm an employer and make them lose interest. Instead, only use previous work experience at least a bit related to the opportunity you want.

If you’ve worked more than 10 years as an executive, consider starting your work history at the point you became a manager. Most hiring managers don’t care what your first job was. They want to see how you progressed since you started as a manager.

How to write a work experience section if you’re an artist?

If you’re an artist, you know that your life and your job are a little different from the rest of the people. Because of that, it probably comes as no surprise that your work experience section should be different, too.

In short, as an artist, you should say goodbye to wordy descriptions and focus almost entirely on your portfolio . 

Consequently, your artist resume can be quite short and mostly focus on listing your training or education, courses you've taught, or artist residencies that you've been accepted to. 

See the sample below for what a good artist's resume should look like. Also, notice the fun creative resume template ! 

Finally, don't forget to polish up your social media profiles , as this is one of the most convenient ways of finding new clients today. Create your own website, and make sure to upload your portfolio to sites like Behance or Dribble. 

How to list experience if you’re changing careers?

If you’re pursuing a career change, your resume shouldn’t revolve entirely around your employment history. After all, that’s all in the past now. 

Instead , you should highlight your transferrable skills. You need to show how you can use the skills from your previous career in the new one.

Because of that, the hybrid resume format is the way to go.

How to do this? 

• In the employment history section, briefly outline your work history. Only mention those positions where you acquired skills that are relevant to the new position. You can also mention any relevant volunteer work.
• Try to find any keywords that relate to your experience. Look closely at the qualifications in the job description and tailor the bullet points in your work history to highlight that applicable experience.
• Focus less on the duties and more on your transferrable skills . These are any skills that you can transfer from one career to another. For example, if you have a background in journalism and want to apply for a copywriting position, the obviously shared keyword here is writing . Even though you don’t have any copywriting or marketing experience, you do have expert-level writing skills that you can use in the new field. That's a transferable skill. Try including these in your work experience section.

How to overcome an employment gap in your work history?

While many see a gap in their resume as an issue that's hard to overcome, that isn't necessarily the case. You just have to know which gaps should be addressed and which can be ignored.

If the resume gap is worth addressing, you can also learn how to give your resume gap a little “glow up.” 

Generally speaking, there are two basic criteria you need to consider when thinking about the seriousness of an employment gap on your resume: its duration and how recent it is.

• Short gaps don’t matter. Work gaps don’t generally become red flags unless they lasted for more than six months.
• Old gaps don’t matter either. Recruiters are interested in recent history and won’t investigate things that no longer have an impact on the present.

If your resume employment gaps are recent and quite long, what can you do?

• Change the way you write dates. Simply exclude months and the gap might disappear. So, instead of writing (October 2017 – August 2019), (September 2014 – January 2017) , you write (2017 – 2019), (2014 – 2017). Obviously, this technique works best for employment gaps that took place within a single calendar year.
• Consider changing the format of your resume. You should use the functional resume format. It shifts attention to your strengths and job-relevant skills rather than your work history.
• Make the most of your employment gap. Starting a business, freelancing, studying, volunteering, taking a purposeful sabbatical — all of these count as valuable experience. List these experiences along with other positions you held in the work experience section. Describe how you expanded your skillset.
• Boost your credibility with references . Ask your former employers, ex-colleagues, and other industry professionals if they’re willing to vouch for you. Include their names and contact information directly in your resume or attach an additional page to your resume.

How to address a maternity leave on your resume?

A very specific type of employment gap is maternity/parental leave. 

If you find yourself in the situation when you're trying to enter the work world after you took some time off to give birth or take care of your offspring, you may be a little worried about how to address it in your resume. 

The best thing to do is to use the functional or combination resume format , rather than chronologically list your previous work experience. 

Both formats allow you to attract the employer’s attention with your skills before addressing the elephant in the room.

Once you’ve done that, briefly mention that your career gap was due to the maternity leave. You can do it like this:

Example: How to address maternity leave in the work experience section

Maternity leave (January 2019–present)

That's it. You don't have to go into great detail. After all, you're not the first person in the world who has ever taken a parenting leave.

You just have to make sure to emphasize the work you did before you took some time off. Write about it as if it were yesterday and you still remember the details of the projects you worked on. Recall your accomplishments and the projects you're proud of from that period of your life. Time doesn’t devalue those experiences and skills that you've learned in the past.

Alternatively, if you've volunteered or completed a course during your leave, don't forget to mention it! Make sure to write about any relevant community service or voluntary work that you engaged in during your time away. Any freelancing projects or short-term gigs work as great resume enhancers.

See the example below: 

Example: How to update the work experience section after maternity leave 

During my maternity leave, I focused on maintaining and enhancing my skill set. That involved enrolling in an online course, continuing my education, and participating in a sales conference to ensure that I remained up-to-date with industry happenings.

Sales Success Summit, Boston (June 2019)

• Joining fellow sales leaders, trainers, and enablement professionals to learn expert secrets about sales and marketing.

The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process (Northwestern University) – Online course (March 2019 – June 2019)

• Coursework focused on standing out in the crowd, attracting customers, and building support for initiatives within one’s company.

If you'd like more tips on how to do this, go and read our article on how to tackle maternity leave on your resume.

Final resume tips

• Don’t be afraid to use bold whenever you want to highlight important bits of information within the section.
• Include key achievements subsection. Pick the biggest achievement from each job and highlight it in a subsection. You can also write it in bold. This will catch the attention of the hiring manager in an instant.
• Keep it simple and easy to read. Don’t overdo it. Pick 1-2 colors maximum, 1-2 fonts, and 1-2 heading sizes.
• Remember it’s not only about you . It’s also about your future employer. Look at the job description again and determine what are his needs. Address these in your work experience section.

FAQ: How to describe your work experience on a resume

1. Is it ever ok to change the title of my past jobs a little bit?

While we always advise against lying on your resume, slightly altering the name of your past position shouldn't hurt you. Especially, if the name of the position didn't fit your responsibilities (which happens more often than you'd think). 

Additionally, if your boss thought they were being original but you ended up with a stupid-sounding work position name, you've also got the green light to change it in your resume.

2. What should I not include in the work history section of my resume?

• A wall of text. Always opt for bullet points.
• Too much information. Keep it brief. 
• Personal information. Your age, relationship status, or sexual orientation are all private information (and should stay that way during the recruitment).

3.   Should I include a job that I was fired from in my resume? 

Yes, if it's relevant to the prospective job position, there's no reason not to mention it. Even if you were fired (for various reasons), you've managed to get the job in the first place and you've learned some valuable skills. 

This article was recently updated. The original article was written by Nikoleta Žišková in 2021 .

Is it ever ok to change the title of my past jobs a little bit?

While we always advise against lying on your resume, slightly altering the name of your past position shouldn't hurt you. Especially, if the name of the position didn't fit your responsibilities (which happens more often than you'd think). 

What should I not include in the work history section of my resume?

• Too much information. Keep it brief. 

Should I include a job that I was fired from in my resume?

Yes, if it's relevant to the prospective job position, there's no reason not to mention it. Even if you were fired (for various reasons), you've managed to get the job in the first place and you've learned some valuable skills. 

Should I include my GPA on my resume?

As a rule of thumb, you should include your GPA if it's 3.0 or above and you're a recent graduate. If you're further along in your career, recruiters typically care more about your work experience than your academic performance.

I've already graduated. Should I still list my high school under the education section?

Usually, once you have a college degree or higher, you don't need to include your high school education in your resume.

Kaja Jurčišinová

Kaja Jurcisinova is a fresh graduate and a junior copywriter at Kickresume. Kaja completed her undergraduate degree in Art History at the University of St Andrews in 2018 and graduated with a Master’s in Arts and Culture from the University of Groningen in 2021. She was an intern at multiple cultural institutions across Europe, including the Dutch Museum Association in Amsterdam, the Matter of Art Biennale in Prague, and the European Cultural Centre in Venice. At the moment, she resides in Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland.

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• Work Experience for a Resume:...

Work Experience for a Resume: How to Add it to Get Hired

14 min read · Updated on June 12, 2024

Present your work experience well and you'll blow other applicants out of the water!

For most professionals, the Work Experience section of their resme will be the most important part of their most important career document. This is the part that proves to a hiring manager that you have the knowledge, background, and experience to excel. But, given that it carries so much weight, how can you write and format it for maximum impact?

In this article, we'll examine how to lay out your resume work experience section, what to include, and how to word it. There are plenty of examples too, so that you can visualize how your resume could look. In short, we'll give you the crib sheet that teaches you how to produce a stellar resume that gets noticed for all the right reasons.

Where should I position my resume work experience?

While your work experience is likely to make up the bulk of your resume, that doesn't mean you should put it right at the top. Start with your contact details and headline , followed by a profile summary and your key skills .

Then, you have a decision to make. If you're a recent graduate , or you're aiming for your first job, your qualifications are probably more impressive than any work experience you have. Therefore, put your qualifications section directly under the key skills and position any work experience you have underneath that.

If you're established in your career, however, it's your professional experience that should take center stage. Relegate your qualifications to the bottom of the resume and promote your work experience to start just below your skills.

Pro tip: When you're writing a resume, put yourself in the mind of your reader. Make sure it's easy for them to find the most impressive and relevant information!

How to lay out your resume work experience

First things first – you need to create a basic layout for your resume work experience that you can then replicate for every role. You'll need the following elements:

Section heading

To ensure your resume is easy to navigate, begin with the section heading. You can choose from any of the following:

Work experience

Professional experience

Career history

Career summary

The heading should be in a larger font than the body of the text, so that a reader can immediately identify and jump to the section they're interested in.

Next up, you'll need a subheading for every role you've held over the last 10-15 years. Within that subheading, include:

Your job title. Ideally use your official job title, but if you're going for a similar role with a slightly different title, it's fine to tweak it, or to put the target job title in brackets. The key point is that the job title should accurately reflect what the job actually entails.

The name of your employer. Use their formal name, e.g. “Ford Motor Company” rather than just “Ford.”

The start and end dates of your employment. Just month and year will do – or even just year if you've held each role for a long time. Keep the format consistent, whether you chose “12/2023” or  “Dec 2023” or “December 2023.”

The location. Add the state or country you worked in, unless you've always worked, and will continue to work, locally - in which case location is less important.

When you've laid out this sub-heading, duplicate it for every role so that you have a uniform presentation that looks professional.

Role and responsibilities

Below the sub-heading for every role, you'll need to briefly explain your overall role and responsibilities. You don't need to go into much detail on this – 3 to 4 lines or bullet points should be plenty. The key here is to ensure that someone from outside the company, or someone unfamiliar with the role, can immediately understand what you were employed to do. Quantify whatever information you can, so that the reader can understand the scope of your duties, too.

Achievements

Now we come to the star attraction of your resume work experience section – your achievements! Aim to list a minimum of 3 achievements for every role you've held over the last 10-15 years. Remember, an achievement in this context doesn't mean something personal to you, such as learning to use new computer software. It means a benefit you've delivered to the company.

Start every achievement with a dynamic verb , such as reduced, exceeded, improved, increased, won… the options are endless. Again, quantify everything you can so that the hiring manager can appreciate the impact you've had on the business.

Which work experience is listed first on a resume?

Always write your resume work experience in reverse chronological order – that means your current (or latest) job first, working backwards in time as you go down the page. By doing that, your most recent, high-level, and impressive experience will be the first thing the reader sees.

Resume work experience example

Let's put all that together to see how it works:

Professional Experience

Head of IT                                                                                                                       May 2015 – date

Big Business Inc.

Led a team of 25 Software Engineers and controlled a $30million annual budget to provide IT services to 5,000 users across 15 locations. Directed transformation projects and contributed as a key member of the senior leadership team.

Key achievements

Enabled $5million of savings by overseeing a project to implement a time management system for 2,500 staff

Reduced average support resolution times by 20% by upskilling and expanding the team

Reduced printing costs by $30,000 per year by renegotiating contracts with suppliers

Senior Systems Engineer                                                                                      Jan 2013 – May 2015

Small Business Inc.

Held full accountability for all IT requirements in 3 UK offices, supported 50 users and managed a portfolio of IT projects.

Improved data retention and retrieval by 4 hours per request by transitioning from tape to cloud back-up

Won Manager of the Year for 2 consecutive years

As you can see, the focus of the resume work experience section here is on the value added to the business. By quantifying the scope of the role and the achievements, it's easy for the reader to understand this person's previous experience and how they can make a positive impact in the role.

How much work experience do I put on my resume?

As you'll have seen above, we recommend using this resume work experience format for all the roles you've held in the last 10-15 years. That doesn't mean any earlier work experience is useless and should be discarded! No, it just means that this level of detail isn't required.

Recruiters are usually most interested in your most recent experience. Earlier roles can simply be summarized in an Early Career section, giving just job title, employer name, and years of employment (you can omit the years, or even your earliest jobs, if you're concerned about age discrimination).

Similarly, if you've held many roles in the last 10-15 years, you may want to change the cut-off point to 8-10 years. A resume is flexible! Its job is to show your suitability for the role, so if you're repeating yourself or adding less relevant information, you can start summarizing sooner – it will benefit both you and your reader. As a general rule of thumb, 4-5 roles in detail is usually plenty.

How to write a resume with no work experience

Everyone has to start somewhere! If you haven't started your first job yet, that doesn't mean you can't write an impressive resume . Consider these options:

Include volunteering. If you've worked in a voluntary position , that's ideal – your resume work experience can relate to both paid and unpaid work. Present your volunteering experience the same way you'd present paid experience, as we outlined above.

Create a skills-based resume. If you have no work experience to add, you can create a skills-based resume. Add sub-headings for your relevant skills, with bullets underneath giving examples of when you've used each skill (preferably outcome-oriented).

Leverage school and college experience. Were you the Captain of a sports team? Secretary of a society? Mentor for other students? Pet-sitter? If you lack professional experience, you can draw from every other area of your life to demonstrate to a hiring manager that you have the experience and attitude to succeed in their vacant position.

If you're worried that the work experience section on your resume is a bit light at the moment, now's the perfect time to get out there and beef it up. Ask neighbors if they need a babysitter, volunteer to tutor younger students, help out the elderly lady across the street – get creative in finding ways to build up this part of your resume!

Resume example for students with no work experience

The work experience section of a resume for students with no work experience could look like this:

Work Experience

College  Ambassador at XYZ College (ad hoc)                                                    2022 - 2023

Represented the Computer Science course as a subject ambassador, speaking with prospective students and parents about the course and the college. Answered questions politely and shared relevant information, with the course being over-subscribed following every open evening.

Assistant Golf Coach at ABC Golf Club (part time)                                           2022 - 2023

Assisted with coaching junior players aged from 9-15. Drove golf carts safely and with consideration for other players. Enabled players to progress, improve their skills and enjoy a new sport, resulting in additional memberships at the club.

How to tailor your resume work experience

Now that you've written your resume work experience section, you're ready to start job-hunting. But wait! Don't just fire off your master resume to every vacant job! You may have spent time perfecting the layout and the wording, but there's one final step before you hit send.

With the job posting in front of you, you'll need to tailor your resume work experience to your target role. What does that mean? Well, go through the advert and highlight the key requirements for the role, then make sure they're reflected back, very clearly, within your resume. Aim to use the exact words you've highlighted, so that your resume pops up when recruiters carry out a keyword search.

For example, you may notice that the role requires someone who can code in C#, but your resume currently states “programming.” Changing that one word to “coding in C#” aligns your resume better with the role requirements. Do this with every point you've highlighted and watch your resume fly to the top of the pile!

Resume work experience FAQs

Pulling together your resume work experience can be tricky, so we've pulled the most common questions together to make it easier for you.

Do employment gaps on a resume matter?

Employment gaps are a perfectly normal part of life, so embrace the gap! If you've had a break longer than a few months, though, it may help to positively (but briefly) address the gap on your resume. Here are some suggestions on how you could do that:

2020 – 2023 – Planned career break to raise a family

2018 – 2019 – Career break due to redundancy: time spent pursuing an online course and completing home renovations

2023 – 2024 – Career break due to illness: now fully recovered and fit to return to full-time work 

Should I include work experience that's not relevant to my target job?

Sometimes, life can blow you in unexpected directions. If you've had a role that doesn't align with your current career aspirations, it need not be a problem. Consider these suggestions:

Eliminate the role. If taking the role off the resume won't leave a gaping and unexplained hole, you can simply remove it, no questions asked.

Minimize the role. If removing the role would raise unnecessary questions, include it – briefly. Keep the same sub-headings as usual, but don't dedicate more than a line or two to your responsibilities and achievements, just mention the job and move on.

Reframe the role. Rather than focusing on the irrelevant aspects of the role, just write about the transferable parts.

Can you include volunteer experience?

Absolutely! Volunteering is generally very positively viewed. We described above how a student with no work experience can include volunteering on their resume, but what if you have a solid career already? You have four options here:

Use it to cover a gap. Volunteering can be used to cover a gap in your resume if you include it as part of your work experience section. Treat it as you would a paid role.

Create a volunteering section. If your voluntary work uses relevant skills that aren't coming through elsewhere on your resume, create a separate volunteering section, laid out in the same way as the work experience section. While you won't want to go into such great detail, it gives you the opportunity to highlight information that would otherwise go unmentioned.

Add a brief one-liner. If your volunteering doesn't add any relevant skills or experience, but you still want to mention it, you can add a brief line in your Further Details section – that's where you can include any information to support your candidacy that doesn't fit neatly anywhere else – for example, foreign language proficiency.

Ignore it. There's no obligation to include volunteering on your resume, so if you don't think it adds any value, just leave it off!

Can I leave jobs off my resume?

There are certain situations where it's acceptable to leave jobs off your resume. We mentioned irrelevant jobs above, but you may want to leave them off for other reasons. If you held a job back in the eighties, for example, it probably has very little relevance to your career today. A resume is a sales brochure, not a life story, so there's no harm leaving off outdated experience.

What if you were fired, or left on bad terms? Well, ideally a resume wouldn't have an unexplained gap on it, so you can either include it and hope they aren't asked to provide a reference, or you can take it off and find another brief way to explain the gap. The shorter the time in the role, the easier this will be!

Should I put a short-term job on my resume?

It's not unusual to take a stop-gap job to retain an income between permanent roles. Whether you choose to include it on your resume depends on how relevant it is to your current career aspirations. If it's relevant, there's no harm in including it. You could emphasize that it was a “short term contract” or “maternity cover” to pre-empt questions. If it's not relevant, however, you can pick the most suitable option above where we discuss irrelevant work experience.

How can I show a promotion on a resume?

Congratulations on your promotion, it's definitely resume-worthy! A promotion shows that you've performed well and received recognition from your superiors, and that's definitely something a hiring manager will want to know. Make sure that you include the company name within the sub-heading of every role, as that way any reader will be able to trace your progress within the business. 

You may also want to add a line into your achievements section, if there was a particular reason for your promotion – for example, “Achieved selection into a more senior role having reduced customer complaints by 50% in just 6 months.”

How do I list an internship?

An internship can be included just like any other paid, permanent role. Include the same details and focus on the experience you gained and any value you added to the business.

A little effort now can get you far

The work experience part of your resume is arguably the hardest part to write, but it can have a great impact if it's done well. By following our guidelines on including resume work experience, you'll soon have a resume to be proud of that opens doors for you.

Want to check you're hitting the right notes? Why not submit your resume for a free resume review by our experts? They'll make sure you're hitting all the right notes before you apply for your dream job.

Recommended reading:

9 Soft Skills Employers Want

How to List Education on Your Resume (with Examples)

How to Write a Targeted Resume That Lands You an Interview

Related Articles:

Do Hiring Managers Actually Read Cover Letters?

How to Create a Resume With No Education

Why You Lose When You Lie on Your Resume: Learning From Mina Chang

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Resume Examples & Samples

How to write work experience in your resume [step-by-step guide].

Adi Gaskell

Create a Resume in Minutes & Get More Job Interviews

Table of Contents

The work experience must-know, how to format your work experience, how to write a killer work experience section.

• Irrelevant of Transferable Work Experience
• Listing Work Experience With No Experience

The work experience section is an essential part of your resume. It’s the one thing the recruiter really cares about and pays the most attention to.

Your previous experiences are seen as a good indicator of how you’ll handle the new job. This section, however, is not just a list of your previous responsibilities. It's meant to present you as a wholesome candidate by showcasing your relevant accomplishments and should be tailored specifically to the particular position you're applying to.

Education, skills and hobbies are all great but it's the work experience section that ultimately decides whether you get the job or not.

And no, more university degrees doesn’t mean better jobs - creating a killer resume work experience section does.

In this guide, We will teach you...

• How the work experience section “works”
• How to do basic formatting
• How to write a work experience section that will get you hired
• How & why to list different types of work experience.
• How to list experience when you have none

#the-work-experience-must-know

As we’ve mentioned before, the work experience section is the bulk of your resume and is a key part of all successful resume templates .Think of it as the sales pitch that’s going to land you the job.

You can mention anything you've put your time and labor in, including:

• Professional Experience - Your career goes here. Essentially any job you've ever worked that's in the relevant field & industry.
• “Unskilled” Experience - That part-time hostess job during college goes here.
• Internships - Unpaid or paid.
• Part-time Gigs - Did you collect unused stuff on Craigslist and sell it on E-Bay? Anything along those lines.
• Volunteering - NGOs, non-profits, etc.

Before we dive into the details, we’ll explain the most basic and important principles about this section.

Be Brief & Relevant

The work experience section should be the detailed summary of your latest 3 or 4 positions . The “3 or 4” part is important here - the recruiter wants to know how relevant you are for the job without having to read your entire life story.

For example, if you are a programmer with 20 years of experience, would you really mention your very first internship?

VelvetJobs Expert Tip

As a rule of thumb, listing your last 3 or 4 positions is the optimal amount.

On a similar note, you’d want your work experiences to be relevant to the job you’re applying for. Get into the recruiter's head for a minute - you’re reading 2 resumes for the position of financial analyst .

Which of these two statements looks more “relevant?”

Financial Analyst with 5+ years of experience

Marketing Expert with 10+ years of experience

The first one gets a callback. The second gets a confused glance and a trip to the paper shredder. That being said, there are some exceptions . Sometimes, you’d want to include your seemingly “irrelevant” experiences to show your skills.

Confused? Well, let’s say you have these two people applying for a job in sales .

Hard-working student, 2+ years of experience working as a server

Hard-working student

You’d go for the first one because of 2 reasons .

• General Experience - In most cases, the recruiter would prefer someone with some experience rather than none. It shows that they’ve worked before in their lives, and won’t just stand around looking confused on the first day of work.
• Transferable Skills - Every job teaches you skills, be it very basic ones. As a waiter, for example, you've probably learned how to interact with customers. When you apply for a sales associate position, you'll end up using these same skills.

Having previous work experience is super helpful. But what if you just graduated? Not to worry, we've got tips for recent grads as well.

#how-to-format-your-work-experience

While the content of your resume work experience section is important, it’s essential to get the formatting right . The two go hand in hand. How?

Most big companies these days use Applicant Tracking Systems - software that scans your resume and determines how relevant you are for the position.

So if the formatting is somehow messed up or too far from traditional norms, no one’s going to even look at your resume! This is why it’s essential to get the formatting right.

The first thing to do with the formatting is to create the e xperience section . The font size should be the same as any other section headings in your resume, and it can be in bold , CAPITALS, italics , etc. depending on your general theme.

Then, list the basic information about your work experience. Follow this example for each position:

Position + Dates

Company Name

Company Description (Optional)

• Responsibility or Achievement

The company description mentioned here is optional - you might want to mention it in case it's a company most people have never heard of. Otherwise, skip it and use this space for an additional bullet point.

As for responsibilities and achievements , the average number you want to hit is 6 : It’s optimal enough to describe your experiences with a company properly, while leaving room for your other experiences.

This, however, is not set in stone, and is up to you. Let's have a look at an example:

• Oversaw the daily operations of the marketing team
• Led a team of 4 marketing specialists and 2 designers
• Managed the company client-acquisition PPC strategy with a budget of $2,000+ monthly
• Coordinated efforts with the sales team, acquiring, warming & handing over 100+ leads monthly
• Led company re-branding efforts, creating a new website, brochures, Ad copies , etc.
• Took the company from an MRR of $20,000 to $50,000 over the course of 2 years

Now that you know how to format your resume work experience section, have a look at how to format it so that the recruiter sees you're the one right off the bat!

Fun fact - there are 3 completely different ways you can format your resume. In some, you don't even mention your work experience! Learn how the 3 different formats, chronological, functional and combo work with our guide!

#how-to-write-a-killer-work-experience-section

Technically, there is no right or wrong way to list your experiences. There’s no central resume authority deciding on what should or should not be on a resume.

There are, however, some best practices that’ll take you a long way. The most important of which is:

Selling Yourself the Right Way

I hard to say which of your responsibilities & achievements are best mentioned in a resume.

You did, after all, work in that company for months (or years, maybe decades?). You were in charge of so many things , you can barely even remember all of them! So, where do you start?

It's actually quite simple - mention only your greatest achievements. Don't get bogged down by describing your duties. If your resume says that you've worked as a retail manager for 5 years and you're applying for a position of a retail manager, the recruiter already knows what duties the position includes.

It makes sense that what’s really going to set you apart are your achievements :

• Did you manage to save the store from being over-flooded by customers on Black Friday?
• Did your management lead to much lower customer complaint reports than last year?
• Are you literally super-human and can endure 200 hour work-weeks ?

These are the type od things that’ll take you from “ a candidate ” to “ THE CANDIDATE .”

• Increased the regional Customer Satisfaction Index by 10%.
• Managed sales clerks

As for how you’d list your achievements, here's the best advice to keep in mind:

Quantification is King

Saying that you’re good is one thing. Proving that you’re good is what matters. The best way to impress is to demonstrate your achievements with numbers. After you've got your core experience inserted into a resume you're creating from scratch, or one of these resume templates , make sure to quantify appropriately, like this:

Managed a monthly company budget of $200,000 , while cutting $30,000 in unnecessary costs

Managed a monthly company budget, while cutting unnecessary costs

The first shows how good you are. The second gives a general idea , but it doesn’t really say anything.

Quantify your achievements. It will be useful when you make your case for a promotion or when you're looking for the next opportunity.

Now let’s see how all this would fare in a real-life scenario . The position applied for is that of a customer support manager at a retail company.

The ideal candidate will be put in charge of hiring, managing, and ensuring the productivity of 15+ cashiers.

Customer Support Manager, 2015 Sep - 2017 Feb

Boston, Massachusetts

MadeUpRetailCompany

• Hired & trained 25+ new employees over 2 years , reducing yearly regional turnover by 10%
• Increased the regional Customer Satisfaction Index by 4%
• Conducted training on using the POS terminals for all new hires, as well as company culture & behavior
• Awarded MadeUpPrizeForExcellence for the year 2016, out of 20 stores nationwide.
• Hired and trained employees.
• Charged with ensuring customer and employee satisfaction.
• Trained new employees with everything store-related
• Was called an “amazing employee” multiple times

There are, of course, professions and fields where you just can’t quantify your achievements, and that’s fine.

In such case, just list the job responsibilities as usual. But again, whenever you have the chance, use numbers to show the recruiter how good you are.

You can list your accomplishments in other sections of your resume too. Learn how to mention accomplishments with our complete guide!

ATS & Tailoring

We’ve talked about ATS or Application Tracking Systems before. But to refresh your memory, it’s the software that most big companies use filter thru resumes by “ keywords ” and to bring the most relevant candidates in for interviews.

Let’s take a sample job description and see how that would work with an ATS.

MadeUpCompanyInc is looking for an award-winning , money-making m arketing manager. The requirements are:

• 5+ years of marketing experience
• Leadership skills, experience leading teams of 5+
• Experience managing a monthly marketing budget of $20,000 +
• MarketingSoftware Certification

The hiring manager then picks several keywords that are important for the job. Here, for example, would be marketing, leadership, marketing software or any synonyms of those.

In order to be a perfect match, you’d want to mention each of these in your resume work experience section or the skills section.

Now, let’s turn that into an example resume section:

• Managed a team of 5+ marketers .
• Mastered MarketingSoftware , using it for cross-channel integrated marketing

The job title of your previous position mentions “ marketing. ” There’s experience with leadership mentioned ( i.e . managed), and finally, there’s MarketingSoftware mentioned.

Check, check, check.

There's more to resume tailoring than just looking good for the ATS. If you work hard enough, you could turn your resume into the best thing HR has ever seen. Learn how to tailor your resume to the company you're applying for, and become the recruiter's best friend!

IRRELEVANT OR TRANSFERABLE WORK EXPERIENCE

# irrelevant-or-transferable-work-experience.

If you’re switching industries , the resume work experience section can be a tough nut to crack. Which work experience should you mention? Do you start completely from scratch ?

In case you list all of your experience, chances are that you'd get ignored as not all of it would be relevant. In the second case, you’re going to look like you’ve been unemployed for too long.

The best-practice here is to mention the existing relevant experience.

How? Well, instead of listing your achievements and responsibilities as you typically would, you look at the whole thing from a different angle: What skills did your previous career give you that would be useful in the new field?

As a simple example, let’s say you’re a customer support representative with 5+ years of experience . You’re a killer on the phone - even the most disgruntled customer turns into your biggest fan after a 5-minute conversation.

Let's say you want to adapt the skills acquired in one industry to another, for example, going from customer support to sales. How do you do so? Let's have a look at this example:

Customer Support Representative, 2015 Sep - 2017 Feb

MadeUpTechSupportCompany

• Handled 100+ phone calls a day
• Maintained a 5-star customer-satisfaction rating over 2 years
• Achieved customer-experience rating 25% higher than average
• Charged with handling customer complaints
• Calmed down disgruntled customers
• Awarded employee of the month title

Now, the difference between the two examples is that the first specifically mentions all the right skills and experiences you’d need in phone sales.

Hundreds of calls a day? That’s a given.

5* customer-satisfaction rating? If you can talk to moody, unsatisfied customers, you can probably sell a new product.

25% higher customer experience rating? You’re not just any other support rep, you’re good at what you do, and are ready to progress.

LISTING WORK EXPERIENCE WITH NO EXPERIENCE

# listing-work-experience-with-no-experience.

If you’re a student, then this might seem really tricky . You don’t have any work experience, leaving your entire resume as a one giant blank space with your name & education on it.

Well, actually, “work experience” doesn’t necessarily mean professional work . It can be any of the following:

• Internship Experience
• Transferable Experiences
• Extracurricular Activities
• Projects & Portfolio

Each of these can be listed the same way as any other work experience, with exactly the same formatting:

Student resume formatting

Company Description

There’s more to creating a student resume than just listing your experiences. Learn how to perfect your student resume & get that job you’ve always dreamed off with our step-by-step guide!

The work experience section is the hardest part of creating a resume . And now you know everything you need to ace it!

Now it's time to focus on the other sections of your resume. Is your education section , for example, listed the right way?

Or, did you make sure that the formatting of your resume is just as it should be? Maybe you’d even want to brush up on your resume-making skills with our How to Make a Resume [The Visual Guide] ?

Whichever the case might be, we’ve got your back!

Now that you're a master at listing your work experience, how about you put the knowledge to practice! Head over to our resume builder & jump-start your career!

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Hiring Manager’s Guide: How To List Work Experience on Your Resume

Whether you’re writing a resume for the first time or giving yours a much-needed update, here’s the complete guide to making your work experience stand out.

3 years ago   •   10 min read

Your work experience section forms the core of your resume. It takes up the most space, contains the bulk of your experience, and is the most relevant section to recruiters and potential employers. So, how do you go about creating this crucial section of your resume?

What you include in your work experience will depend on your history, the position you’re applying for, and what skills you want to highlight. But the golden rule is brevity, clarity, and relevance; Your work experience should be easy to read, short, and directly related to the position you’re applying for.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to craft a compelling resume work experience section that stands out from the crowd, how to showcase non-traditional and non-paid experience, how to handle gaps in your work experience, and how to update your work experience to be relevant in 2024.

How to list work experience on your resume

Let's start with the basics — here's how to structure a work experience section for your resume:

• List your job title: Write your title as it is officially recognized in your company. If you feel there's a mismatch between your job title and responsibilities, you can clear it up in your bullet points or with an introductory paragraph.
• List the name of the company you worked for: This can be before or after your job title. Listing your job title first is usually more compelling, as it emphasizes what you did more than who you worked for, unless you worked for a well-known company where the name carries significant weight.
• Include your dates of employment — month and year is fine. Always include dates, as leaving them off makes it hard for employers to tell how recent (and therefore how relevant) your experience is.
• Add your location (optional): This doesn’t have to be specific; just the city name is fine. If you worked remotely, list your location as “Remote (US-based).”
• List 3-6 accomplishments in bullet point format: Focus on quantifiable achievements rather than roles and responsibilities. Display your accomplishments as bullet points to make them easy to scan and read. Aim for up to 6 bullet points for recent roles and 1-2 for older positions.
• Use reverse chronological order: List your work experience in reverse chronological order, with your most recent job first.

Here's an example of what to write in a resume for work experience and what that might look like on your finished resume:

For more examples, check out our extensive resume sample database .

A quick way to find out if your resume satisfies these conditions is to upload it to the tool below — It’ll let you know if your bullet points are strong enough and give you detailed feedback and suggestions for improving other parts of your resume.

How much work experience to include on your resume

When deciding what to include in your resume experience section, focus on your most recent roles, ideally 3-5 positions. Positions older than 15 years can often be omitted, as they are likely less relevant to your current career path and skills. Additionally, attempt to keep your resume to one page to ensure that your most significant accomplishments stand out and you don’t overwhelm a recruiter with too much information.

How to make your resume work experience stand out

Now you've mastered the basics, here's how to make your resume work history stand out from the rest:

Target your resume

Your resume should highlight experiences and skills directly relevant to the role you're applying for. It's not necessary to list every job you've ever had . Exclude roles that aren’t relevant, especially short-term positions , and focus on roles that highlight your most competitive skills. Check the job description for the essential responsibilities and hard skills mentioned, and tailor your resume to include these keywords and skills.

For help identifying competitive keywords, use the skills search tool below to get a list of hard skills and keywords relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Quantify your experience

Quantifying your achievements provides a clear, tangible measure of your experience and helps potential employers understand the scope and relevance of your work. To quantify your experience , begin your bullet points with an action verbs , demonstrate a specific task you accomplished, and include metrics and statistics to show the positive result of your work.

For example: “Wrote Facebook posts ” is vague and unquantified; it describes what you did but not how well you did it. “Implemented new social media strategy that increased Facebook conversions by 30%” describes what you accomplished by adding hard data to the statement and sounds a lot more memorable and impressive.

Include the title of the job you’re applying for

Whenever possible, incorporate the exact title of the job you're applying for in your resume to help optimize it for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and resume screeners. Only do this if your position is reasonably similar to the target role — it’s more important to be honest than to look good, but even better if you can do both.

Highlight transferable skills

Transferable skills are valuable across various industries and can include both hard and soft skills. These skills are vital to highlight in your work experience section, as they help potential employers see how your previous experience is relevant to the new role. They are also significant for career changers, as they help bridge the gap between different fields of work.

Identify your transferable skills by comparing your old roles and responsibilities with those of the new position. Highlight and focus on the skills that overlap between your old and new industries, such as communication, leadership, problem-solving, project management, and technical hard skills. Show transferable soft skills through quantified accomplishments, list training courses under education or certificates, and list hard skills in your skills section.

Highlight promotions

If you’ve been promoted or taken on new responsibilities, make that clear on your resume. This is especially important if you’ve been at one company for a long time — you don’t want potential employers to think you’ve stagnated. Show career progression by listing a succession of titles or grouping similar roles under one employer. For different roles at the same company, list them separately with individual achievements.

If the roles were similar, you can group them together like this:

Don’t use resume buzzwords

Use clear, standardized job titles, especially if your original title uses company-specific jargon or vague buzzwords. Vague job titles like "Business Ninja" should be converted to standard equivalents like "Business Analyst" for clarity and professionalism.

Optimize your formatting for ATS

Once you've finished writing your work experience section, make sure your resume formatting is optimized for ATS by getting an ATS resume review to highlight any potential issues. Score My Resume evaluates your resume based on key criteria recruiters and hiring managers look for and gives you actionable steps to improve your resume.

How to update your work experience to be relevant in 2024

As the job market continues to evolve post-Covid, updating your resume to reflect the current trends and expectations is crucial. Here are key areas to focus on to ensure your work experience is relevant for 2024:

• Highlight remote work experience: Given the recent shift towards remote working, it's important to prominently feature any remote work experience on your resume. Showcase your ability to work independently, your proficiency in using remote work tools, and your skills in managing time and communication effectively in a virtual environment.
• Demonstrate digital tool proficiency: Proficiency in digital tools and platforms is more in demand than ever in 2024. Highlight your experience with digital technologies by listing specific tools in your skills section, whether it's software specific to your industry or more general tools like project management software and digital communication platforms.
• Include online courses and certifications: The accessibility of online learning has skyrocketed in recent years, as have employers' attitudes and acceptance of online education. Include any relevant online courses, webinars, or certifications you've completed to demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning and keeping your skills up-to-date with industry standards.
• Embrace the change: Post-Covid, career changes have become more common, and the idea of changing careers to find a better fit for your skills and professional goals is increasingly accepted. If you've switched industries or roles, emphasize the transferable skills you've acquired and how they apply to your new career path.

How to present non-traditional work experience on your resume

In today’s dynamic job market, non-traditional work experiences like volunteer work , internships, personal projects, and freelance experience can be just as valuable as paid work, especially for those with limited professional experience.

Here’s how to effectively incorporate these non-traditional experiences into your resume:

• Present non-paid work experience the same way you would a traditional role. Include your job title, organization name, dates, and location, and use the same formatting, bullet points, and action verbs as described above
• Focus on specific achievements and use quantifiable metrics, such as “Organized a community event with 100+ attendees” or “Contributed to a project that increased social media engagement by 30%.”
• Tailor your non-traditional experiences to align with the job requirements by identifying transferable skills that align with the job description.
• If necessary, explain the context of your work with a brief description of the organization or project to help the employer understand the scope and relevance of your experience.

For students and recent graduates

For students and recent graduates who lack traditional paid experience, emphasize internships and university projects that demonstrate skills related to your field in a real-world setting. Use these experiences to show development of skills like teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, and highlight any leadership roles or significant contributions you made.

Align your non-traditional experiences with your career goals. For instance, if you are aiming for a marketing role, focus on any relevant projects or internships where you employed marketing skills, even if they were unpaid.

For example:

For career changers

Use non-traditional roles to bridge the gap between your past career and your new field, and highlight how these experiences have prepared you for this change by listing hard skills and qualifications you’ve gained. Identify skills from these non-traditional roles that are valuable in your new field. For example, project management or client relations skills gained from volunteer work can be relevant in many professional settings.

How to handle gaps in your resume work history

Gaps in work history are more common than ever, especially in a post-Covid workforce. By directly addressing gaps in your employment history and focusing on the positive aspects of your journey, you can turn potential concerns into a positive example of your adaptability and continuous personal and professional development.

Here's how to effectively manage gaps on your resume:

• Be honest: It's crucial to be truthful about any gaps in your work history and avoid the temptation to alter dates to cover gaps.
• Focus on non-traditional experience: If you engaged in any volunteer work, freelance projects, internships, or personal projects during your employment gaps, include these in your resume. These experiences demonstrate continued professional development and can be highly relevant, especially if they align with the job you're applying for.
• Highlight transferable skills: Reflect on the skills you developed or honed during your gap period and how they apply to your desired role. Skills such as project management, communication, problem-solving, or technical abilities gained through non-traditional means can be extremely valuable to many positions.
• Explain the gap briefly: If the gap was due to reasons such as further education, personal development, health issues, or caring for family members, a short explanation can be helpful. This can be addressed in a cover letter or a brief note in the resume.
• Emphasize professional growth: Use your cover letter or resume summary to highlight how the experiences and skills you gained during the gap contribute to your professional growth and how they make you a stronger candidate for the role.

How to tailor your work experience to different industries

In the ever-changing job market, it's important to adapt your resume for each specific job application. You need to tell a recruiter why your past experiences make you a suitable candidate for the role, even if your experience is in a different field.

Here's how to tailor your work experience to suit various industries:

• Research the industry you're applying to, to understand what skills and experiences are most valued. For example, in tech industries, emphasize your technical skills and projects, whereas in customer service roles, highlight your interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Focus on experiences and skills that are directly relevant. This might mean prioritizing certain roles over others or emphasizing different aspects of the same job.
• Use industry-specific language and keywords that resonate with the job description.
• Tailor your job descriptions and achievements to align with your new industry. This might include emphasizing leadership and team management in managerial roles or creative problem-solving in design-oriented jobs.

Original phrase: Led a team of 10 in developing and implementing a large-scale project, resulting in improved operational efficiency.

Tailored for the Tech industry: Led a cross-functional team of 10 in the agile development and deployment of a software project, achieving a 25% improvement in system efficiency.

Tailored for a Non-Profit: Directed a team of 10 in launching a community-focused project, enhancing operational efficiency by 20% and expanding service outreach to an additional 1,000 beneficiaries within six months.

How to handle sensitive or confidential information in your resume work history

When listing your previous work experience, it's important to be conscious of sensitive or confidential information. This is especially important for positions that involve handling data, client confidentiality, or sensitive company information.

Confidential information can include client data, company strategies, or any information under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Instead of detailing this information, focus on your role and the skills you employed. For example, instead of mentioning specific client data, you could say, "Managed sensitive client data and ensured compliance with confidentiality standards."

Use your experience with sensitive information to showcase your trustworthiness and ability to handle responsibility. If you're uncertain about what constitutes confidential information, seek advice from your employer or legal counsel, particularly if you were bound by an NDA or similar legal agreement.

• Career Changers

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How to Write Years of Experience on a Resume

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How many years of experience should be on a resume?

How to write years of experience on a resume, should you include all work experience on a resume, is it ok to leave jobs off your resume.

When considering how many years of experience to write on a resume, take a look at the job posting you’re applying to. The number of years you show for work experience can be a crucial indicator to the hiring manager. This article explains how you can include years of experience on your resume to accurately highlight your work history.

As a general rule, try to keep your work timeline as solid as possible and without any major gaps or holes. While companies may be interested in your work five years ago, they may not be as interested in unrelated work 25 years ago. You can make your resume more appealing by cutting less relevant experience from your work history and saving it to discuss during the in-person interview.  

Follow these steps to properly include years of work experience on your resume:

1. First, include only the essentials

When in doubt, try to keep your resume as straightforward as possible. One of the biggest problems with having 20 to 30 years of experience on a resume is that it can create a cluttered look and feel. Try to keep your resume free of this type of clutter so that a hiring manager can make their decision as easy as possible. An interesting resume that captures the attention of the reader is a resume that employers are more likely to fully read. This, in turn, makes it more likely that you get called in for an interview.

2. Second, keep the length to no longer than two pages

The ideal length for a resume is one to two pages long, which may mean you have to do some trimming to optimize your space. If you feel like you are running out of room on your application, you can try using a smaller font or removing less relevant jobs from your resume.

To minimize the space that you’re using for your resume, you can also try writing the title and dates for the positions you have worked in the past, without including multiple bullet point details about the job. You can also condense your resume by abbreviating the months for the dates of employment for each position or even listing the dates of employment on the same line as the job title separated by commas. 

3. Third, check the job posting for the required years of work experience

Consider a job posting that requires 20 years of job-related experience. In a scenario like that, you can still apply with 15 years of work-related experience. Ultimately, the reason that companies might list a requirement for someone with that many years of experience is to indicate that they’re looking to hire someone for a senior position. It’s not actually about a specific number of years.  

4. Next, keep some information for the in-person interview

If you are a more seasoned applicant who might have experience stretching beyond 10 to 15 years, you don’t necessarily need to add that older work experience to your resume. Some industries view it as irrelevant for you to share information about job experience that dates back farther than 15 years. 

You should be careful how much information you share directly on your resume so that it doesn’t seem like your skills might be outdated or that you’d be a risk to hire. This information can be kept until an in-person interview when you can mention it as a bonus to your interviewer.

5. Finally, create an impact with relevance

One of the most important keys to having an impactful resume is to include the most relevant information to the position. While it might be tempting to add everything to your resume, quality carries more impact than quantity, and taking the time to edit your previous work experience can be what ultimately helps you get hired for the position. Try to take the extra time to cut and refine the information you do put on your resume to make sure it’s presented as efficiently as possible. The effort is well worth the time, as your resume is often the first impression you give to a hiring manager.

The goal of your resume is to provide insight into why you’re the best fit for the role that you are applying for. This means that if you’ve held positions that are not relevant to the role, you might not want to highlight them in the same way as others. Whether you omit jobs entirely or condense them into title and dates (without the details), be sure to organize the information on your resume so each section is clearly defined.

When you’re considering information about relevant jobs, a good rule to follow is to list your experience without gaps in employment. For example, if you want to include a position that you held 10 years ago, then you should include job information leading up to the present. The purpose of keeping this consistency is so that a hiring manager can see that you’ve been employed consistently for the time leading up to your application. 

If you are trying to consolidate information, you can trim the jobs that are the farthest back in your work history. Showing a solid list of jobs can help indicate that you are a reliable team member. Your work history can be a hidden trait when hiring managers are looking for a candidate who remains loyal to a company over time.

How to write Work Experience in your Resume, including job descriptions [20+ Examples]

An experience section as the name suggests lists out your employment. It is made of employment details of all or some of your most significant employments.

A resume works in your favor to get you your ideal job by describing your skills, qualifications, and the results you have brought.

But which section makes the most impact?

It is the experience section of your resume.

With lists and details about your jobs, the experience section is what employers look at the most in your resume.

As a job seeker, it is one of the most valuable sections for you because:

• You have space to put in the most relevant parts of your career
• Being descriptive in nature, it gives you room for adding the most relevant keywords
• You can easily optimize it as per your future job requirements

Job descriptions for the experience section are the easiest to make, as you know what you have done. Follow this post to learn about

Various aspects of an experience section

Where and how to place the experience section, 10 tips to write job descriptions.

An experience section of the resume, as the name suggests, lists out your employment journey. It is made of employment details of all or some of your most significant employments.

Now what does it contain:

• Job/Position Title: What is the role you were hired for. For instance, Marketing Manager, Content Writer, Software Engineer

How many employments to list in your Resume?

• Dates of employment: These include the month and year of your joining a particular job and the month and year of finishing it.
• Name of the employer and location:   Mention the name of the company you worked for, followed by the location of your office. IF your company is headquartered in the USA, but they have an office in India, where you work. Your location would be the city in India.
• Job description: This is what you did during the job. This is the most extensive part of your entire experience section.

It is usually placed just below the skills and summary section. There are three ways you can format the experience section of your resume.

Reverse Chronological

In reverse chronological order, you list the most recent job first and work it back in time. To put it simply, your first employment will come at the end of the experience section.

This is the most preferred format for writing the experience section.

Why it works:

• Lists most recent achievements and skills on the top
• Shows how you’ve evolved in your career
• Plays an important role in demonstrating that you are updated with the industry trend.

Functional means listing your experience basis the type of work you do. This format is independent of chronology

When to use it:

• You are looking for a career change and what you did in the past resonates moe with your potential job
• If you have gaps in your employment history

Chronological

In a chronological format, you list the events or employment in the sequence it occurred. Your very first job will be on the top.

This is the least used format. Here’s why:

• You do not need the employer to know what you did year’s ago
• Your first job might be irrelevant to your present role and what you are seeking.
• Employers want to know what you are doing right now

It can sometimes be tricky to put your data across in a consolidated yet comprehensive form.

Here are some tips to help you write job descriptions that catch the recruiter's eye.

Follow a Consistent Pattern for all job descriptions

The formatting for all job descriptions should be the same across the entire resume. If you are writing your designation first, it should be on the top for all your employments.

Ensure Proper alignment and spacing

You may write the most impressive and impactful job description. But it is incomplete without proper formatting and spacing.

Leave appropriate and consistent space between the two job descriptions is extremely important to make your resume look structured and readable.  

Do not overcrowd with information

Let’s say you are with a company for more than 5 years, you have wrecked on multiple projects, working with several high ticket clients and there are numerous results to showcase, and your role is broad. You have a lot to write.

But saying it all may downplay you. Even if your role is broad, and there is a lengthy list of responsibilities, pick the few that are most relevant to your new prospective role, or those that best demonstrate your strengths.

Be to the point and specific

Being specific here does not only mean puling out information that is not adding value.

It also implies not making your sentences verbose or beating around the bush.

How to make the content easy to glance?

Include relevant keywords.

You’ve cut down the data that is not required and you’ve also made your sentences short and sweet.

Now is the time to add some value.

Add relevant keywords in all your job descriptions. Each of the job descriptions has at least 4-5 points, which gives you enough space for dropping in industry-relevant keywords.

Quantify information

Quantifying information means making it result-driven, and adding figures.

It involves adding numbers and insights that show what you have done for your employers and you have the ability to achieve similar results for your potential employer too.

Unquantified: Served food and drink and took orders in a fast-paced restaurant

Quantified: Served in a 300-seat restaurant, handling up to 5 tables at a time in a fast-paced restaurant

Use bullets and short sentences

To make your resume easy to read and understand, use bullets and short sentences.

Paragraphs make your content look bulky even it is not. Bullets add structure to it.

Short sentences make it easy to glace.

Talk more about work that relates to your target job

You’ve been in your career for a long now. You know a lot and you are having a difficult time squeezing all of it in a page or two.

But you don’t need to.

Pick up the highlights and what you require the most for your potential role. And you will have limited yet impactful content for your job descriptions.

Refrain from talking about soft skills

Soft skills are as important as your core or technical skills. But job descriptions or the experience section is not the right place for them.

• Soft skills can be developed over time
• They compliment your ability to generate results but they actually don’t, barring dome jobs like customer service

Instead, talk about the results you’ve generated and how.

The right place to show your soft skills is the interview table.

Start sentences with action words

There are many ways to start a sentence. You can simply demonstrate your abilities, without using action words.

But verbs or action words help to create an impact when you're delivering information to another reader. They show what you have already done rather than what can you do.

• Welcome over 50 guests daily and respond to all inquiries. Book and schedule appointments for more than 100 clients every week via phone, email, or in person. Ensure proper upkeep and appearance of the front office.
• Develop front office schedules on monthly basis, and track employee attendance and vacations.
• Maintain inventory of products/supplies, and work with nurses and physicians to set up treatment rooms.
• Monitor pre-purchased services/products by clients. Prepare charts for 30 patients with upcoming appointments.  

Whare the keywords to start bullet points?

Examples of Job Descriptions for common Jobs

Job Description of a History Professor

• Delivered lectures to undergraduate and graduate students on topics such as ancient history, postwar civilizations, and the history of third-world countries.
• Assessed individual strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of each student, addressing issues as needed.
• Maintained working knowledge of state-set standardized tests and prepared students to take and pass each, instilling confidence in their capability to demonstrate knowledge gained during the school year.
• Facilitated classroom discussions and encouraged the participation of all students, incorporating relevant reading and current events

Click here for the full resume of History Professor in text format

Job Description of a Radiologist

• Ensure operation of radiology equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements, troubleshooting malfunctions, calling for repairs and evaluating new equipment and techniques.
• Identify patient service requirements by establishing personal rapport with potential and actual customers to understand service requirements.
• Perform routine and specialised x-ray exams including: fluoroscopy, upper and lower GI.
• Obtain specific insurance and patient demographic information including ICD-9 codes.
• Manage 12 to 15 procedures per shift, while maintaining high quality of care.

Click here for the full resume of Radiologist in text format

Job Description of a Human Rights Lawyer

• Represented the corporation in matters involving human rights breaches, such as political detainees, child abuse, unfair labour practices against women employees, and government service access.
• Advised clients in handling agreements and settlements by thoroughly presenting the case to them and educating them of their privileges.
• Published and reproduced newsletters, brochures and pamphlets advocating human rights and exposing human rights violations.
• Collected evidence through investigations and thoroughly reviewed details in lieu of legal matters and provisions.
• Ensured both parties' agreements, payments, and settlements were carried out properly.
• Handled community relations activities with community groups and participated in meetings as a resource person making speeches to large assemblies.

Click here for the full resume of Human Rights Lawyer in text format

Job Description of a Customer Service Professional

• Analyze and scout opportunities for service improvement through regular quality call checks, phone metrics, and relevant KPIs. Provide regular feedback and corrective action to supervisors and representatives.
• Develop and maintain departmental budgets, and ensure the department meets financial goals and objectives.
• Create customer surveys to track customer satisfaction.
• Handle escalated customer complaints, and ensure proper resolution. Hire and mentor employees. Manage workload and ensure compliance with company directives.

Achievements:

• Reduced TAT for managing escalations from 24 hours to 16 hours. Brought down customer service staff turnover by 50%

Click here for the full resume of Customer Service Professional  in text format

Job Description of a Systems Engineer

• Installed and maintained client networks and workstations ranging from small (10 workstations) to large (2 workstations).
• Provided technical support for voice and non-voice data networks.
• Performed duties such as configuration and maintenance of network services including web servers, and FTP on both Windows and Linux.-based environments.
• Executed software and hardware upgrades as scheduled,  including emergency roll-outs.

Click here for the full resume of Systems Engineering Intern  in text format

Job Description of a PR Coordinator

• Assisted in drafting and editing press releases for sending to targeted media outlets.
• Responded to requests for information release or press conferences from the media.
• Prepared and edited organizational publications, including employees newsletters for internal and external audiences.
• Assisted with managing social media channels and campaigns.  and created content for scheduled posts.
• Attended resource fairs, expos, and events on behalf of the organization.

Click here for the full resume of PR Coordinator in text format

Job Description of a Telemarketer

• Accomplished with a persuasive and confident approach.
• Scheduled appointments for sales executives to meet with prospective customers.
• Adjusted sales scripts to better target the needs and interests of specific individuals.
• Provided timely, courteous, and knowledgeable responses to information requests.
• Screened and transferred calls and prepared official phone log correspondence.
• Created detailed spreadsheets containing information on every call that was summarized for management at the end of the week.

Click here for the full resume of Telemarketer in text format

Job Description of a Branch Banking Professional

• Reconcile assets between finance & operations and ensure verification. Research accounting issues for compliance.
• Maintain detailed records of crucial financial transactions.  Develop/document accounting policies to maintain and strengthen internal control systems.
• Conduct risk assessments and identify controls to mitigate risks.
• Create & sustain a dynamic environment that fosters development opportunities and motivates high performance amongst team members.

Click here for the full resume of Branch Banking Professional in text format

Job Description of an Online Teacher-English

• Developed all online materials for and collected a list of resource links for students.
• Assessed students learning through discussions, projects, and formal assessments.
• Graded lessons, tests, and other assignments, and relayed information to parents when necessary.
• Provide consistent feedback to students related to each lesson taught.
• Combined various English teaching methods and techniques to help students improve their results.

Click here for the full resume of Online English Teacher in text format

Job Description of a School Principal

• Ensured adherence to regulatory funding sources across programs and outcomes.
• Modeled expected and appropriate leadership to promote teaching staff and administrative personnel's positive interaction with students and families.
• Facilitated continued education for teaching staff through implementation of quality curriculum training.

Click here for the full resume of the School Principal  in text format

Job Description of a QA Analyst

• Reviewed programming code for mistakes, and created a test automation framework that is used to drive 400+ automated tests.
• Created performance dashboards to track faults and resolutions and to share information with the product team and client support on a regular basis.

Noteworthy:

• Resolved over 100 defects prior to product launch.
• Implemented security testing procedures, resulting in a 5% reduction in software development project cost.

Click here for the full resume of QA Analyst in text format

Job Description of a Project Manager

• Oversaw end-to-end project management including creating scope and timelines for new projects.
• Managed project budget financial tracking to compare budgeted against actual project costs. Identified the resource requirements, organized human resources, assigned responsibilities and coordinated with staff members to complete the project successfully.
• Prepared reports and maintained documents regarding the progress of the project and communicated the same to PMO.
• Interfaced with other functional areas and managed projects with decisions often impacting several units.

Click here for the full resume of Technical Project Manager  in text format

Job Description of a Network Engineer

• Executed network hardware and software purchase, use, maintenance, security, and backup policies and procedures.
• Established and maintained network users, user environment, directories, and security, and trained users on software and equipment usage.
• Responded to network users' requests and questions about their access to network resources and the operation of various software packages.
• Optimized network speed and reliability by maintaining hardware and software, troubleshooting technical difficulties, and ensuring system users' availability.

Click here for the full resume of Network Engineer in text format

Job Description of an Actuarial Analyst

• Assisted in preparing optimization models for supply chain and operations management.
• Used matrix analysis, operations research, and optimization techniques for solving real-world problems.
• Evaluated performance of various products in terms of market capability.
• Contributed to the development of monitoring tools and analytical methods.

Click here for the full resume of  Actuarial Analyst  in text format

Job Description of a Fundraiser

• Assisted the organization with reaching potential donors through inbound calling, social media, email marketing, and other platforms.
• Created all correspondence regarding donations including proposals, marketing material for fundraising events, and more.

Click here for the full resume of Fundraiser in text format

Job Description of a Construction Engineer

• Identify project budget and schedule, conduct site visits, and monitored the project throughout its lifecycle
• Obtain necessary permits, approvals, and other regulatory prerequisites.
• Document and report the project timeline.
• Ensure proper workplace safety and adherence to quality protocols.

Click here for the full resume of Construction Engineer in text format

Job Description of an Industrial Engineer

• Set production standards using appropriate industrial engineering techniques and coordinated results to concerned production units.
• Recommended production improvement methods to support changes in the production standards.
• Planned manpower requirements that resulted in effective control over temporary manpower headcount and increased direct labor utilization.
• Created and maintained current routings, BOM's, and standard costs for manufactured products.
• Identified methods to improve the value chain process by eliminating redundant activities and following more effective processes and procedures.
• Studied methods and planned utilization of facilities, equipment, and materials to improve the efficiency of operations.
• Prepared charts, graphs, and diagrams to illustrate workflow, routing, and material handling.

Click here for the full resume of Industrial Engineer in text format

Job Description of a Scrum Master

• Refined and evolved agile processes for predictable and rapid software delivery.
• Implemented agile methodologies using a Scrum framework throughout the project
• Led all sprint planning, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives, and daily scrums with the development team.
• Served as the main point of contact to drive effective communication throughout all project phases.

Click here for the full resume of Scrum Master in text format

Job Description of an Animator

• Worked with game designers and developers to assist in developing animations.
• Created models, drawings and illustrations by hand and also electronically.
• Developed timing and pace of movement of characters for a sequence of images and ensured they followed the audio requirements.
• Delivered product-ready graphics in HTML for all marketing assets.
• Worked with art director and immediate creative team to collaborate, visualize and create game-play animations for VR.

Click here for the full resume of Animator in text format

Job Description of a News Presenter

• Obtained and compiled information from various sources that included local police releases, PR releases, and reports from co-workers in the field.
• Wrote new stories in AP style from wire copy, field reports, and conducted telephone interviews to obtain information to be used in stories and bytes to be used on air.
• Performed daily station website maintenance by uploading up to 5 new stories and videos, and cycling out old and irrelevant stories.
• Assisted in anchoring 8 episodes of the show 'Bulletin' for their channel 'ITv news'.
• Generated story ideas, cultivated news sources and provided editorial support in coordination with programming directors.

Click here for the full resume of News Presenter in text format

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How do you count months of work experience on resume?

If I list that I worked from 1/2020-7/2020: will the HR person count this as 6 or 7 months of experience? So:

• is the month of July counted as a full month worked (and so the HR person counts 7 months work experience) OR
• it is assumed this stops at July 1 -- and so it means you have 6 months experience.
• united-states

• 5 If it is important to you that your experience be perceived correctly, you should put in the start and stop days, not just the month. –  ColleenV Commented Apr 18, 2021 at 15:31
• 1 At the very least, this needs a location. In the UK, this is "less than a year" and pretty much equivalent to "zero experience" anyway. –  Philip Kendall Commented Apr 18, 2021 at 15:53
• thank you. From the USA. I have short-term jobs/contracts, so whether a month counts or not is important. Thanks! –  KMJ Commented Apr 18, 2021 at 17:43
• 1 When the period is so short, they're going to write a question mark next to the dates and ask more questions. Either that, or they'll just put your resume at the bottom of the pile and not even bother about the questions. In any case, apply to everything you can. Even if it says one or two years experience required, apply anyway. If you wait until you meet all the criteria on a job posting, it's never going to happen. –  Stephan Branczyk Commented Apr 19, 2021 at 2:33

You haven't specified your location, so I'll answer from my own perspective of the UK.

Recruiters don't look at work experience at that level of detail. To a recruiter, 6 months experience and 7 months experience are equivalent.

If you have multiple short-term contracts, then you can add a summary of the total experience in technologies relevant to the job you are applying for (tailor the summary based on the requirements in the job advert).

When job adverts include requirements for experience, the purpose is to give an idea of the rough seniority of the role. They don't expect candidates to have everything that they are asking for, even experience that is listed as required.

The exception to this is if the job advert specifies "min 1 year commercial experience" for example, and they get so many applicants that it would take too long to read their CVs properly. In this scenario if you don't clearly demonstrate the requirement then your CV could be filtered out. If you had 10 months experience, then you could round that up to 1 year in a covering letter. Your CV should include the actual dates.

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Resume for 10 Years of Experience

In This Guide:

How to get the best out of your resume for 10 years of experience, pick the right resume format.

What sections of your resume need special attention?

How long should your resume be?

You are a professional that is already deep in the working world. But having so much work experience  can lead to some obstacles in the job-seeking process.

What experience should you list? Is your education still relevant? What resume format to use? And, on top of all that – how long should your resume be?

Don't worry, we got you covered. There are a couple of steps you can take to perfect your resume for 10 years of experience In this article, we are going to find how to get the best out of your resume for 10 years of experience.

By the end of this article, you’ll be ready to fire up our resume builder  and write a resume that gets callbacks.

Is your resume good enough?

Drop your resume here or choose a file . PDF & DOCX only. Max 2MB file size.

You want to get that new job you saw, and you want to get it now. It is time to get to work then. You might have tons of experience behind your back already, but that doesn't mean you have that one in the pocket.

Here are a few details that need your attention when writing a resume.

When hiring managers see your resume, they would mainly focus on your work experience and skills . That's great for you, as you have lots of these to show.

But you still need to think about which resume format would be the best fit for you. There are three main resume formats for you to pick from.

Reverse chronological resume format

Most resumes hiring managers to see are in the reverse chronological resume format .

That’s because it is suitable for pretty much every job position. This format is mostly career-oriented – it lists your work history in order, as the most recent position would be at the top.

It is the ideal format for people with lots of work experience, relevant to the job position they are applying for. That's why a reverse chronological resume might be the best pick for you. But don't rule out all the other formats just yet. It is still better to have the knowledge about them

Functional resume format

The second resume format is the opposite of the reverse chronological resume format.

The functional resume format  is also called skill-based resume format.

It does not focus on your work experience that much anymore. The main focus here are your skills. It is a great choice for someone with little to no experience , but when you have 10 years of experience behind you, it is not the best choice.

No matter how great your skillset is, it is not worth it to shift the focus from your work experience. No matter that this resume format is far away from your needs, it is needed to present you the last one, which might be a better fit than the reverse chronological resume format.

Hybrid resume format

The last resume format is the Hybrid Resume Format . As you can guess from the name, it is a combination of the other two. If you want to show off your work experience, but you would want to also have some significant attention to your skills, that format might be the best fit for you.

It includes both reverse-chronological work history and a highly detailed skills section.

It’s mostly used for job positions that require expertise in a variety of fields, and you want to show that you are the right person for the job.

If that is the case, you might want to consider a Hybrid Resume, rather than a Reverse Chronological one. No matter what resume format you choose, your resume should absolutely have:

• Professional summary
• Work experience section

Skills section

Education section.

Make this your resume

Use Enhancv’s Resume Builder and make a resume that stands out.

What sections of your resume need special attention

Now that you have chosen your resume format, let’s focus on all resume sections you need to spend some extra time on.

Professional profile

Your professional summary is your chance to sell yourself to your potential employer. And with 10 years of experience behind you, you have a lot to offer. The professional summary is a short statement that presents your strengths, years of experience, and professional goals.

It might be hard, but try to keep it up to 3-4 sentences. It should only present a glimpse of who you are and attract the hiring manager to keep on reading.

Work Experience Section

In your resume for 10 years of experience, your work experience should be one of the most impressive sections.

Make sure you follow all the usual rules for writing this section correctly. Follow the reverse chronological order of your job positions and list all the important information about each company.

Don’t forget to add a bullet list with your responsibilities and achievements under each job entry.

That’s also a good place to mention any great accomplishments, like landing an important client.

Use hard numbers to support all your achievements to make them even more impressive. However, when listing your work history, you need to know when to stop. Usually, the work experience section should go back no more than 10 years.

You are right on the line, but that does not mean that you should list your internships from 10 years ago. Your work experience should be relevant to the job position, so make sure you only list entries after careful consideration.

Selected Achievements Section

When it comes to achievements, you can always list them under job entries in the work experience section.

But when you are writing a resume for 10 years of experience, you have a great new opportunity. As your achievements over the last decade are probably more than you can count, you can create a separate Selected Achievements Section.

That way, you can show them to the hiring manager in an easy-to-read way, and they wouldn’t have to hunt them down throughout your work experience section. Once again – don’t forget to back up your achievements with some hard numbers.

Anything can be measured in some way, and when you do, you can make it much more impressive for the reader.

In the 10 years of experience you have, you must have acquired tons of skills. It might be a little tough to pick just a few to mention on your resume.

The best thing you can do is scan the job listing for any keywords  you can use. Using them to present your skills on your resume can really improve your chances.

Another thing you can do here is show the employer that you are constantly improving your skillset. That can only make you an even more valuable asset for the company.

When you have 10 years of experience, your education would no longer be that relevant. However, that doesn’t mean you should leave it out completely.

You just need to cut out some irrelevant information. For example, your resume for 10 years of experience only needs higher education. That means that you only need to list any associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees you have.

Furthermore, you no longer need to mention any graduation dates. Having that much experience behind you makes some little details like these irrelevant.

When you have 10 years of experience, it’s best to keep your resume to a single page . Although it may be a bit hard to decide what section to remove from your resume, the way to solve that problem is to think about the best achievements in your career.

While it may seem a bit hard to fit 10 years of experience on a single page, there’s definitely a way. In fact, it’s best to leave off all unnecessary and irrelevant information and focus your resume on the impact and achievements you’ve had in your previous positions.

Expanding your resume to two pages may seem like a good idea, but usually, you’d do that unless you have 15 and more years of experience, and even then you should consider the industry you’re applying to.

Takeaways for a resume for 10 years of experience

When you’re trying to fit 10+ years of experience on your resume, remember to focus on:

• Choose the right resume format.
• Focus on relevant skills and impact in previous positions.
• Don’t worry about skipping the education section if it’s not relevant to the job.
• Try to go with a single-page resume.

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How to add your best professional affiliations to your 2024 resume, cover letter checklist : learn how to impress recruiters, how to use abbreviations on your resume, how to answer the “are you a team player” interview question, what to do if you don't have any references for a job application.

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How to Make a Resume in 2024 | Beginner's Guide

For most job-seekers, a good resume is what stands between a dream job and Choice D. Get your resume right, and you’ll be getting replies from every other company you apply to.

If your resume game is weak, though, you’ll end up sitting around for weeks, maybe even months, before you even get a single response.

So you’re probably wondering how you can write a resume that gets you an interview straight up.

Well, you’ve come to the right place!

In this guide, we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about how to make a resume, including:

• The 8 Essential Steps to Writing a Resume
• 11+ Exclusive Resume Tips to Up Your Resume Game
• 27+ Real-Life Resume Examples for Different Professions

….and more!

So, let’s dive right in.

How to Make a Resume (The Right Way!)

Before we go into detail about how you should make a resume, here’s a summary of the most important steps and tips to keep in mind:

• Choose a resume format carefully. In 99% of cases, we recommend the reverse-chronological format .
• Add the right contact details. Leave your headshot out and make sure to include your job title , a professional email address, and any relevant links. (E.g.: your LinkedIn profile , online portfolio, personal website, etc.).
• Write an impactful resume summary. Unless you’re an entry-level professional, always go for a resume summary. If you do it right, it’s your chance to get the hiring manager to go through the rest of your resume in detail.
• Pay attention to your work experience section. Take your work experience section from OK-ish to exceptional by tailoring it to the job ad, making your achievements quantifiable, and using action verbs and power words.
• Add the right skills for the job. Keep this section relevant by only including the hard and soft skills that are required for the position.
• Keep your education short and to the point. Your most recent and highest degree is more than enough for a strong education section. You only need to add more details here if you’re a recent graduate with barely any work experience.
• Leverage optional resume sections. Optional sections like languages, hobbies, certifications, independent projects, and others can set you apart from other candidates with similar skills and experience.
• Include a cover letter. That’s right, cover letters matter in 2024, and the best way to supplement your resume is by adding an equally well-crafted cover letter to your job application. To make the most of it, check out our detailed guide on how to write a cover letter .

To get the most out of our tips, you can head over to the resume builder and start building your resume on the go as you read this guide.

New to resume-making? Give our ‘7 Resume Tips’ video a watch before diving into the article!

#1. Pick the Right Resume Format

Before you start filling in the contents of your resume, you have to make sure it’s going to look good. 

After all, the first thing hiring managers notice is what your resume looks like, and then they start reading it. So, this is your best chance to make a great first impression.

Start by choosing the right resume format.

There are three types of resume formats out there:

• Reverse-chronological. This is by far the most popular resume format worldwide and, as such, it’s the best format for most job-seekers.
• Functional. This resume format focuses more on skills than work experience. It’s a good choice if you’re just getting started with your career and have little to no experience in the field.
• Combination. The combination resume format is a great choice for experienced job-seekers with a very diverse skill set. It’s useful if you’re applying for a role that requires expertise in several different fields and you want to show all that in your resume.

So, which one should you go for?

In 99% of cases, you want to stick to the reverse-chronological resume format . It’s the most popular format and what hiring managers expect to see. So, in the rest of this guide, we’re going to focus on teaching you how to make a reverse-chronological resume.

Fix Your Resume’s Layout

With formatting out of the way, let’s talk about your resume’s layout , which determines the overall look of your resume. 

Does it look organized or cluttered? Is it too short or too long? Is it boring and easy to ignore, or is it reader-friendly and attention-grabbing?

Here are some of the best practices you should apply:

• Stick to one page. You should only go for a two-page resume if you have decades of experience and you’re sure the extra space will add significant value. Hiring managers in big companies get hundreds of applications per job opening. They’re not going to spend their valuable time reading your life story!
• Add clear section headings. Pick a heading and use it for all the section headers so the hiring manager can easily navigate through your resume.
• Adjust the margins. Without the right amount of white space, your resume will end up looking overcrowded with information. Set your margins to one inch on all sides so your text fits just right on the page.
• Choose a professional font. We’d recommend sticking to a font that’s professional but not overused. For example, Ubuntu, Roboto, or Overpass. Avoid Times New Roman, and never use Comic Sans.
• Set the correct font size. As a rule of thumb, go for 11-12 pt for normal text and 14-16 pt for section titles.
• Use a PDF file. Always save your resume as a PDF file, unless the employer specifically requests otherwise. Word files are popular, but there’s a good chance they’ll mess up your resume’s formatting.

Another thing you need to consider in terms of your resume’s layout is whether you’re going for a traditional-looking resume template or something a bit more modern :

If you’re pursuing a career in a more traditional industry, like law , banking , or finance , you might want to stick to the first.

But if you’re applying to a tech company where imagination and innovation are valued, you can pick a more creative resume template .

Want to Save Time? Use a (Free) Resume Template

Anyone who’s ever tried creating a resume from scratch knows how boring the formatting can be.

Before you can even start filling in the contents, you need to tweak the margins, adjust font sizes, and make sure everything fits into one page while still looking good.

What if you could skip past all that and still create a compelling resume?

Try one of our free resume templates . They’re pre-formatted, so all you have to do is fill in the contents.

They’re also created in collaboration with recruiters from around the globe, ensuring that the templates are visually appealing and ATS-friendly!

See for yourself how one of our templates compares to a resume created in a standard text editor:

#2. Add Your Contact Information

Now that we’ve got all the formatting out of the way, let’s get into what your resume is all about— the information you put on it .

The first thing you want to do when filling out the contents of your resume is to add your contact information .

This section is pretty straightforward but crucial. Your contact details belong at the top of your resume in a designated resume header , so the hiring manager can easily find them.

Even if everything else about your resume is perfect, that all flops if you misspell your email address or have a typo in your phone number. If the hiring manager can’t contact you, it’s a missed opportunity.

So, double-check, and even triple-check your contact information section and make sure everything is factually correct and up-to-date.

Must-Have Information

• Full name. Your first and last name should stand out at the top of your resume.
• Email address. Stick to an address that’s professional and easy to spell, like a combination of your first and last name. (E.g.: [email protected])
• Phone number. Add a reliable number where the hiring manager can easily reach you.
• Location. Add your city and state/country. If you plan to relocate for the job or want a remote position, specify it on your resume.

Optional Information

• Job title. Add your professional title underneath. Write it down word for word, whether it’s “Digital Marketing Specialist” or “Junior Data Scientist.” Just don’t make up job titles like “Marketing Wizzard” or “Data Manipulator.” They’re not quirky; they’re just unprofessional. 
• LinkedIn profile . We recommend that you include a link to your updated LinkedIn profile since over 77% of hiring managers use the platform when evaluating a candidate. 
• Relevant links. Include links to personal websites or any social media profiles that are relevant to your field. For example, a developer could include a Github profile, while a graphic designer could link their Behance or Driblle account, and so on.
• Date of birth. Unless this is specifically required in the job ad, the hiring manager doesn’t need to know how old you are. It’s not important for their decision-making, and at worst, it might lead to age-based discrimination.
• Unprofessional email address. Your quirky, old high school email address doesn’t belong on your resume. Instead of [email protected] , go for a [email protected] type of address.
• Headshot. (USA, UK or Ireland) Depending on the country where you’re applying, it might even be illegal to include a picture of yourself on your resume . While it’s the norm to include a picture in most of Europe and Asia, always check the regulations for each specific country or industry you’re applying to.

All clear? Good! Now, let’s look at what a great example of a resume's contact information section looks like:

#3. Write a Resume Headline (Summary or Objective)

It's no secret that recruiters spend an average of less than seven seconds on a resume .

When you receive hundreds, if not thousands, of applications daily, it's physically impossible to spend too much time on each.

So, what the hiring managers do to go through resumes more effectively is to skim through each resume and read it in depth only if it piques their interest.

This is where the resume headline comes in.

Placed right next to (or underneath) your contact information, this brief paragraph is the first thing the hiring manager is going to read on your resume.

Now, depending on how far along in your career you are, your resume headline can be either a resume summary or a resume objective.

So, how do you choose between a resume summary and a resume objective? Here’s all you need to know:

Resume Summary

A resume summary, as the name suggests, is a two to three-sentence summary of your career so far. If done right, it shows that you’re a qualified candidate at a glance and gets the hiring manager to give you a chance.

Here’s what your resume summary should include:

• Your job title and years of experience.
• A couple of your greatest professional achievements or core responsibilities.
• Your most relevant skills for the job.

Here’s an example of a well-written resume summary: 

Experienced Java Developer with 5 years of experience in building scalable and efficient applications. Contributed to a major project that enhanced application performance by 25%. Strong background in Spring Framework and microservices. Aiming to apply robust coding skills to develop innovative software solutions at XYZ Tech Solutions.

Unless you’re a recent graduate or amid a career change, we recommend you stick to a resume summary. Otherwise, a resume objective might be a better option for you.

Resume Objective

A resume objective is supposed to express your professional goals and aspirations, academic background, and any relevant skills you may have for the job.

It communicates your motivation for getting into a new field, so it’s the go-to headline for recent graduates and those going through a career change. As with a resume summary, a resume objective should be brief—around two to four sentences long.

So, here’s what it would look like if you’re a student:

Hard-working recent graduate with a B.A. in Graphic Design from New York State University seeking new opportunities. 3+ years of practical experience working with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, creating illustrations and UX/UI design projects. Looking to grow as a designer and perfect my art at XYZ Design Studio.

Or, on the other hand, if you’re going through a career change, it might look more like this:

IT project manager with 5+ years of experience in software development. Managed a team of developers to create products for several industries, such as FinTech and HR tech. Looking to leverage my experience in managing outsourced products as a Product Owner at Company XYZ.

#4. Prioritize Your Work Experience

The most important part of your resume is your work experience.

This is where you get to sell yourself and show off your previous accomplishments and responsibilities.

If you manage to master this section, you’ll know most of what’s there to know about how to make a resume.

There are plenty of good practices for writing your work experience . But before we dive into all the nits and grits, let's start with the basics.

The standard format for each work experience entry is as follows:

• Job title/position. Your job title goes on top of each work experience entry. When the hiring manager looks at your resume, you want them to know, at a glance, that you have relevant work experience for the job.
• Company name/location/description. Mention the name of the employer and the general location, such as the city and state/country where you worked. In some cases, you may also want to briefly describe the company, like when the organization isn’t particularly well-known.
• Dates employed. Add the approximate timeframe of your employment at each company. You don’t need to give exact dates since the standard format for this is mm/yyyy.
• Achievements and responsibilities. This is the core of each work experience entry. Depending on your field, you want to list either your achievements or responsibilities. List them in bullet points instead of paragraphs, so they’ll be easier to read.

Here’s a real-life example:

Your work experience entries should always be listed in reverse chronological order , starting with your most recent job and working your way back into the past.

Now that you know how to list your experience, we’re going to show you how to write about it in a way that makes you stand out from the competition, starting with: 

Are you a student with no work experience? We’ve got you covered. Check out our guide to writing a resume with no experience here.

Focus on Achievements Whenever Possible

One of the most common resume mistakes is only listing responsibilities in your work experience section.

Here’s the thing—in most cases, the hiring manager knows exactly what your job responsibilities are.

For example, if you’re a sales manager, your responsibilities would be:

• Reach out to potential clients over the phone or email.
• Maintain relationships with existing company clients and upsell relevant products.
• Tracking and reporting on leads in CRM.

Coincidentally, this is also the same list of responsibilities for every sales manager out there. So, 90% of all other resumes probably mention the same thing.

To stand out from the competition, you want to focus on writing achievements in your resume instead. These can be how you helped your previous company grow, reach quarterly quotas, and so on.

Let’s compare how responsibilities hold up next to achievements for the same job:

• Exceeded sales team KPIs by 30%+ for 3 months straight.
• Generated over $24,000 in sales in 1 month.
• Generated leads through cold-calling
• Managed existing company clients

Keep in mind, though, that in some fields, there just aren’t that many achievements you can mention. Let’s say you’re a warehouse worker .

Your day-to-day responsibilities probably include:

• Loading, unloading, and setting up equipment daily.
• Packaging finished products and getting them ready for shipping.
• Assisting in opening and closing the warehouse.

In fields like this, it’s pretty hard to distinguish yourself through achievements, so it’s okay to stick to responsibilities instead. You can still make them shine by following the rest of our advice about listing your work experience.

Keep in mind, though, that in some fields, there aren’t that many achievements you can mention. Let’s say you work in a warehouse. Your day-to-day responsibilities probably involve:

• Loading, unloading and setting up equipment on a daily basis.
• Package finished product and get it ready for shipping.
• Assist in opening and closing the warehouse.

In such fields, it’s pretty hard to distinguish yourself, so it’s totally OK to stick to responsibilities instead.

Tailor Your Resume to the Job

Tailoring is what sets an amazing resume apart from an okay one.

Hiring managers don’t need to know about every single job you’ve ever worked at or every single skill that you have.

They only want to know about your jobs, experiences, or skills that are relevant to the role you’re applying for.

For example, if you’re applying for a job doing Google Ads, you don’t need to talk about your SEO internship from eight years ago.

By focusing your resume on whatever is important for the specific role, you’re a lot more likely to stand out and catch the hiring manager’s attention.

Let’s take a look at an example of a job ad:

As you can see, we’ve highlighted the most important requirements.

To tailor your resume accordingly, you just need to mention how you meet each of these requirements in your resume.

You can highlight your relevant achievements and qualifications in different parts of your resume, such as:

• In your resume summary, where you should recap your years of experience.
• Throughout your work experience section, where you should list achievements and responsibilities that reflect your social media marketing experience.
• In your education section, where you can let the hiring manager know you have the degree that they’re looking for.

Include the Right Amount of Work Experience

If you’ve got over a decade’s worth of work experience, you’re probably wondering whether all of it belongs on your resume. In most cases, you’d end up writing a novel if you listed everything you’ve ever done, and that’s not how long a resume should be .

If you’re new to the job market, on the other hand, you probably don’t have any experience, and you’re wondering what you could even add to this section.

So, here’s how much information your resume should include, depending on your level of experience:

• No experience. If you’re looking for your first job , you won’t have any work experience to fill this section with. So, you can either keep it empty and focus on all the other sections or fill it up with any experience gained in student organizations, extracurricular activities, volunteering, and other projects.
• Entry-level. List all your work experience so far. While some of it won’t be relevant, it can still show the hiring manager that you do have some actual work experience.
• Mid-level. Only mention relevant work experience to the position you’re applying for. There’s no need to waste space on jobs that aren’t related to what you’re after.
• Senior-level. List up to 15 years of relevant work experience, tops. If your most recent experience is as a marketing executive , the hiring manager doesn’t care how you started your career as a junior marketing specialist 23 years ago.

Consider Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Software

Did you know that over 70% of resumes don’t even make it to the hiring manager ?

Most companies these days use ATS to evaluate hundreds of resumes instantaneously and automatically filter out the ones that don’t meet their criteria.

For example, if a resume doesn’t mention a specific skill or isn’t formatted correctly, the ATS will automatically reject it.

Fortunately, there are some easy ways to make an ATS-friendly resume .

Here are a couple of tips to help you get past those pesky robots:

• Stick to one page. Sometimes employers set a limit on how long a resume should be. This means that if your resume is longer than one page, it might get automatically disqualified.
• Incorporate keywords. Tailoring your resume to the job helps a ton with beating the ATS. Just carefully read the job description to find hints for what the ATS will be looking for. Then, whenever you find keywords related to your responsibilities and achievements, make sure to include them in your work experience section.
• Use an active voice. Passive voice is too vague and unclear, so make sure to use active voice as much as possible when describing your previous jobs. (E.g.: “Managed a team of ten people,” instead of “ A team of ten people was managed by me.” )
• Leverage powerful action words. Instead of starting each of your sentences with “was responsible for," make your work experience impactful by using words that can grab attention. Saying that you “spearheaded” or “facilitated” something sounds a lot more impressive than “helped.”

Want to make sure your resume formatting passes the ATS test? Choose one of our tried and tested ATS-friendly resume templates , and you’ll be good to go! 

#5. List Your Education

The next section on your resume is dedicated to your academic qualifications. Let’s start with the basics!

Here’s how you should format the education section on your resume :

• Program Name. Your major and degree type should be listed. (E.g.: “B.A. in Business Administration” )
• University Name. Add the name of the institution. (E.g.: “New York State University” )
• Dates Attended. Use a mm/yyyy format for the dates you attended. (E.g.: “08/2008 - 06/2012” )
• Location. If your university is less well-known, you can also add the location. (E.g.: “Stockholm, Sweden” )
• GPA. Use the appropriate grading system for the country you’re applying to work in. (E.g.: In the USA, it would be “3.9 GPA” )
• Honors. Add any honors and distinctions you’ve been given. (E.g.: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude )
• Achievements. You can mention interesting papers you’ve written, projects you’ve done, or relevant coursework you’ve excelled in.
• Minor. “Minor in Psychology”

Pretty simple, right? Now let’s see what an education section looks like in practice:

This example includes all the necessary information, plus an eye-catching award and relevant classes this candidate has taken.

Resume Education Tips

Now that you know how to list your education on your resume, let’s take this section to the next level.

Just follow these expert tips:

• If you’re making a resume as a student and don’t have any work experience yet, you can list your education section at the beginning of the page instead of work experience.
• You can add your expected graduation date if you’re still pursuing your degree.
• If you already have relevant work experience, just keep this section short and sweet. Recent graduates can expand on their education more and add optional information like projects, classes, academic achievements, etc.
• Always list your degrees in reverse chronological order, starting with your highest degree on top. Your highest and most recent degree is usually enough, so if you have a Master’s degree that’s relevant to the job, there’s no need to mention your earlier degrees.
• Don’t add your high school degree to your resume if you already have a university degree. It doesn’t have as much weight, and you can use the space for something else.
• Only mention your GPA if you had an impressive academic career. Anything below a 3.5 GPA doesn’t need to be on your resume.

Are you in the process of applying for college? Check out our guide to writing a college application resume to wow that admissions officer!

#6. Emphasize Your Know-How in the Skills Section

After your work experience, your skills are the first thing the hiring manager is going to look for. In fact, together, work experience and skills make up 90% of the hiring decision .

So, this is the place where you want to mention all the know-how that makes you the perfect candidate for the job.

There are two types of skills you can include when writing your resume:

• Hard Skills. These are measurable abilities. What you can list here can be anything from coding in Python to knowing how to cook Thai cuisine.
• Soft Skills. Also known as personal skills, these are a mix of communication skills , personal traits, career attributes, and more. They can include leadership, critical thinking, and time management , just to name a few.

Your resume should always cover both hard skills and soft skills . Here’s an example in action:

Now, let’s discuss how you should list your most important skills on your resume.

There are a few essential steps you need to follow:

Always List Hard and Soft Skills Separately

Your resume should be easy and neat to navigate. The hiring manager shouldn’t have to waste time looking for a specific skill because you didn’t separate it into the appropriate subsection.

So, just create separate categories for your hard and soft skills.

Depending on your field, you could customize the name of your “hard skills” subsection to something like “technical skills," “marketing skills," or something else related to your field.

Let’s look at an example of what skills look like on a project manager’s resume :

Methodologies & Tools

• Agile Methodology
• SCRUM Framework
• Waterfall Project Management
• Microsoft Project
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Earned Value Management (EVM)
• Risk Management

Soft Skills

• Team Management
• Conflict Resolution
• Negotiation

Tailor Your Skills to the Job

You might have some awesome skills, but the hiring manager only needs to know about the ones that are relevant to the job.

For example, if you’re applying for a job as an accountant, your gourmet chef skills shouldn’t be on your resume.

Look at the job ad and list at least two to three essential skills you have that are required for the role. Remember—there’s no need to list every skill you have here; just keep it relevant.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Graphic Design or a related field.
• Tech-savvy, with some background in CMS systems such as WordPress.
• Thrives in a stressful environment and juggles multiple tasks and deadlines.
• Strong organizational and time management skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Self-reliant, with the ability to manage their own work.
• A can-do attitude and an outside-the-box thinker.
• Proficient in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Keynote, and Pages.
• Basic understanding of Office software such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

So, the must-have hard skills here are Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Keynote, and Pages. Other good computer skills to have are WordPress or similar CMS systems.

While you can also mention Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, it’s pretty much assumed that you know how to use them since they’re required for most office jobs.

List Hard Skills with Experience Levels

For each hard skill you list on your resume, you should also mention your proficiency level. This tells employers what they can expect from you and how much training you might need.

• Beginner. You have some experience with the skill, whether it’s from some entry-level practice or classroom education.
• Intermediate. You’ve used the skill in a work environment with good understanding.
• Advanced. You’re the go-to person for this skill in your office. You can coach other employees, and you understand the skill at a high level.
• Expert. You’ve applied this skill to more than a handful of different projects and organizations. You’re the go-to person for advice about the skill, not just in your office but even amongst some of the best professionals in your field.

Just make sure to never lie about your actual skill level. Even if you get the job, once you need those skills you exaggerated, it will be pretty awkward for both you and your employer.

Include Transferable Skills

These are the types of skills that are useful for almost any job out there.

Transferable skills can be both soft skills (e.g.: teamwork, creativity, problem-solving skills, and others) and hard skills (MS Office Suite, HTML, writing, etc.)

Whatever job you’re applying to, chances are you have transferable skills from your experience that can come in handy one way or another. So, feel free to include them, even if they’re not specifically required for the position.

Not sure which skills to mention on your resume for your specific field? Check out our list of 101+ essential skills for inspiration!

#7. Leverage Optional Resume Sections

The sections we’ve covered so far are must-haves for any resume. They’re the bread-and-butter for any job application, and if you get them right, you’ll land any job you apply to.

But if you have some leftover space, there are a few optional sections you can choose from to give your resume a boost!

Are you bi-lingual? Or even better  – multi-lingual? You should always mention that on your resume!

Even if the position doesn’t require you to know a specific language, it can still come in handy at some point. At the end of the day, it’s always better to know more languages than less.

To list languages in your resume , just write them down and assign them the appropriate level:

• Intermediate

You can also use the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) or the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency scales.

As a given, you should never lie about your language skills. You never know—your interviewer might turn out to be fluent in the language or even be a native speaker!

Hobbies and Interests

If you want to spice up your resume, hobbies and interests could be just what you need.

While this section isn’t a game-changer, it can help the hiring manager see who you are as an individual.

For example, if you listed “teamwork” as one of your skills, hobbies like team sports can back up your claim.

And who knows? Maybe you and your interviewer have some hobbies or interests in common!

Volunteering Experience

If you’re the type of person who devotes their free time to helping others while expecting nothing in return, chances are that you’re the type of employee who’s in it for more than just the money. 

Seeing volunteer experience on your resume tells hiring managers that you’re a loyal employee who’s after something meaningful.

Several studies show that listing your volunteer experience can boost your chances of getting hired, especially if you have little to no work experience.

Certifications

Hiring managers love candidates who invest in themselves, and that’s exactly what they see when you list certifications on your resume .

If you value continuous learning and strive to expand your skill set, that’s always a plus.

Certifications can also show employers how much expertise you have.

For example, if you’re a Microsoft Cloud Engineer and you specialize in Microsoft Technologies, you should definitely include all essential certifications on your resume, such as the Azure Solutions Architect Expert one.

Awards and Recognitions

There’s no harm in showing off a little on your resume. After all, you want to be a candidate that shines above the rest.

So, if you’ve received any awards or recognitions that make you stand out in your field, make sure to add them.

For example, if you’ve been recognized for your contributions to data science or received a hard-to-come-by scholarship , mention it in your resume. Just keep your entries here relevant to the field you’re applying to.

Publications

Whether you’re a freelance writer or a distinguished academic, publications are always impressive.

If you have any published works (online or in an academic journal), you can add them to your resume. Just make sure to include a link so the hiring manager knows where to check your work!

Are you looking for a career in academia? Check out our guide to writing the perfect academic CV to get started!

Working on side projects can show off your passion for your field. Whether they’re university class projects or part-time entrepreneurial endeavors, they’re relevant.

For example, if you worked on a mock software product as part of a university competition, it shows you went through every step of product creation, from ideation to creating a marketing strategy.

This project also shows off your organizational skills , and if you mention it in your resume, you stand a better chance of landing the job you had your sights set on.

But projects can also be personal, not academic. For example, you might manage an Etsy store where you sell hand-made arts and crafts to customers online. This is a great opportunity to highlight your creativity, management, and customer service skills .

Overall, hiring managers love employees who do cool work in their free time, so projects are always a great section to add to your resume.

Looking to kickstart your career? Check out our guide on how to get an internship for useful tips and real-life examples!

Extracurricular Activities

Every college freshman knows that extracurricular experience can make a difference in their application.

Especially if you don’t have a lot of experience outside of school, extracurricular activities are a great way to show potential employers your skills and give them insight into you as a person. Different clubs and after-school projects can help you gain real-life skills and considerably increase your chances of landing your first job after college.

For example, joining a student government organization can hone your leadership skills and teach you how to work as part of a team.

For example, if you’re part of a student government or public speaking club, these activities can help you hone your leadership and presentation skills.

11+ Expert Resume Tips

You’ve got the gist of how to make a resume. Now, it’s time to make it really stand out from the crowd!

Follow these exclusive resume tips to take your resume game to the next level:

• Match the professional title underneath your name to the job title of the position you’re applying for. Hiring managers often hire for several roles at once, so giving them this cue about what role you’re after helps things go smoother.
• Mention any promotions from your previous jobs. Use the work experience entries for them to focus on the achievements that helped you earn them.
• Describe your achievements using Laszlo Bock’s formula : accomplished X as measured by Y by doing Z . This way, your work experience can go the extra mile and show the hiring manager what you can bring to the table.
• Always list your achievements and responsibilities in concise bullet points. This makes your resume more reader-friendly, and it’s more likely that the hiring manager will see your impressive achievements at a glance.
• Don’t use personal pronouns like “I” or “me,” and don’t refer to yourself by name. Stick to a slightly altered third person, like “managed data integrity at XYZ Inc.” instead of “he managed data integrity at XYZ Inc.”
• Name your resume sections correctly, or it might get rejected by the ATS. Swapping out quirky names like “career history” or “expertise” for “work experience” and "skills" makes it easier for the hiring manager to find what they’re looking for, too.
• Prioritize important keywords instead of adding all of them. Make sure the relevant skills, qualifications, and experiences you add all make sense in context, too. Your goal is to get past the ATS and impress the hiring manager.
• Focus on transferable skills if you don’t have a lot of relevant work experience. Any extracurricular activities or personal projects can help you stand out here.
• Add a strategic pop of color to headings, bullet points, or key elements you want to highlight. It can help your resume stand out, but don’t overdo it—you want the information to be more impressive than the color palette.
• Don’t include the line “references available upon request.” Hiring managers already know they can request a list of references from you, so there’s no need to waste valuable space on it.
• Make sure your resume is optimized for mobile viewing. Most hiring managers use their mobile phones as often as desktop computers, so save your resume to a PDF file and make sure your formatting stays intact across any device.
• Rename the resume file you plan to send so it includes your name and the name of the position you’re applying for. It’s a small detail that can turn into a crucial mistake if you forget it.
• Read your resume out loud when you’re done. This is a great way to catch awkward phrases or spelling mistakes you might have missed otherwise.
• Use a tool like DocSend to track your resume. You’ll get a notification any time someone opens your resume, and you can see how long they spend reading it.

FREE Resume Checklist

Are you already done with your resume? Let’s see how it holds up!

Go through our checklist for perfecting your resume and see where you stand!

If you missed some points, just go through your resume one more time and perfect it.

And if you ☑’d everything—congrats! You’ve learned all there is to know about writing a resume, and you’re good to go with your job search.

Need to write a CV instead of a resume? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to write a CV with dozens of examples!

9 Resume Templates for Different Industries

Looking to create an effective resume without dealing with the formatting hassle? Just choose one of the templates below.

#1. Traditional Resume Template

Good for traditional industries like finance, banking, law, and manufacturing.

#2. Modern Resume Template

Good for both contemporary and forward-looking industries, including entrepreneurship, medical technology, and engineering.

#3. Creative Resume Template

Good for creative industries, including entertainment, design, and architecture. 

#4. Minimalistic Resume Template

Good for experienced professionals in basically any industry who want to let their achievements do the talking. 

#5. IT Resume Template

Good for any IT-related profession like software development, cyber security, and DevOps engineering.

#6. Tech Resume Template

Good for the tech industry and everything it encompasses.

#7. College Resume Template

Good for college students and recent graduates alike.

#8. General Resume Template

Good for multiple industries, including HR, education, and customer service.

#9. Executive Resume Template

Good for senior professionals across different industries, including hospitality, marketing, and logistics.

17+ Resumes for Different Jobs

Knowing how to write a resume is one thing, but making a resume that stands out is something entirely different. Without inspiration, even top career experts might stumble on a roadblock or two.

Check out the following effective resume examples for specific jobs to get a better sense of what a good resume looks like:

#1. Nurse Practitioner Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a nurse resume here.

#2. Data Scientist Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a data scientist resume here.

#3. Business Analyst Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a business analyst resume here.

#4. Digital Marketing Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a digital marketing resume here.

#5. Software Engineer Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a software engineer resume here.

#6. Construction Project Manager Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a construction project manager resume here.

#7. Customer Service Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a customer service resume here.

#8. High School Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a high school resume here.

#9. Student Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a student resume here.

#10. Server Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a server resume here.

#11. Actor Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing an actor resume here.

#12. Web Developer Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a web developer resume here.

#13. Engineering Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing an engineering resume here.

#14. Computer Science Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a computer science resume here.

#15. Architect Resume Example 

Check out our full guide to writing a data analyst resume here.

#17. Remote Job Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a remote job resume here.

#18. Sales Associate Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a sales associate resume here.

#19. Receptionist Resume Example

Check out our full guide to writing a receptionist resume here.

Want to see more examples? Check out our compilation of 80+ resume examples for different fields .

• Administrative Assistant Resume
• Bartender Resume
• DevOps Engineer Resume
• Executive Assistant Resume
• Flight Attendant Resume
• Graphic Designer Resume
• Paralegal Resume
• Pharmacist Resume
• Recruiter Resume
• Supervisor Resume

Next Steps After Your Resume

Now that we’ve covered everything you need to know about how to make a resume, it’s time to talk about the rest of your job application.

After all, your resume is only the first step in your job search. To land the job you deserve, you also need to write a captivating cover letter and ace that upcoming interview. Here’s how:

#1. How to Write a Convincing Cover Letter

The companion piece to every resume is the cover letter.

Most job-seekers flinch when they hear that they have to write a cover letter. What do you even mention in a cover letter, anyway? If you were good at writing cover letters, you’d be applying for a job as a writer !

In reality, though, writing a cover letter is very simple once you know its purpose.

Think of your cover letter as a direct message to the hiring manager. It’s your chance to briefly explain why you’re such an awesome fit for the position. And with a few cover letter tips to point you in the right direction, you’ll write the perfect cover letter for your job application.

Just follow this structure:

• Add the contact details. Include the same contact information as on your resume, plus additional contact details for the hiring manager, including their name, job title, the company’s name, and location.
• Introduce yourself. Start your cover letter by mentioning who you are, what your work experience is, and why you’re interested in the position. Mention a standout achievement or two, relevant skills, and what you’d like to do for the company you’re applying for.
• Explain why you’d excel at the job. Find the requirements in the job ad that you meet, and elaborate on how you fulfill the most important ones. Research the company so you know what you like about it, and mention it in your cover letter. Make sure to convey your enthusiasm for the job and confidence that you’ll be a great fit for their team.
• Wrap it up politely. Conclude your cover letter by recapping your key selling points and thanking the hiring manager for their time. Then add a call to action, such as “Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at the provided phone number so that we can discuss my application in greater detail.” Then, add a closing line and follow it with your full name.

Sounds easy, right? Here’s a real-life example to drive the point home:

Do you need more help perfecting your cover letter? Learn what the most common cover letter mistakes are and check out cover letter examples for all professions here.

#2. How to Ace Your Next Interview

Once you’ve perfected both your resume and cover letter, there’s only one thing left.

It’s time for the final step—the dreaded job interview.

Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert, you probably hate the interviewing process. No matter how experienced you are, it can be nerve-wracking. Sitting there while someone’s prodding into your past experiences and judging you isn’t fun.

But did you know that most interviewers ask the same questions?

That’s right—all you have to do is learn how to answer some of the most common interview questions, and you’ll be an interview away from landing your dream job!

Just check out our complete guide to the 35+ Job Interview Questions and Answers and learn how to ace your next interview.

FAQs on How to Make a Resume

Do you still have some questions about making a resume? Check out the answers to the most frequently asked questions below!

#1. What does a good resume look like in 2024?

For your resume to look good in 2024, make sure it’s organized and clean and isn’t longer than one page.

Be sure to include information that adds value to your application—leave out the focus on your relevant work experience and skills that you can back up, and list as many achievements as possible. 

If you’re using a resume template, choose one based on your industry. Conservative industries like law, banking, and business require more traditional resume templates. But if you’re going for an industry like design, architecture, or marketing, you can go for a creative resume template . 

Remote work is also big in 2024, so if that’s what you’re after, tailor your resume to match the job you want.

#2. How do you make a resume in Word?

The best way to create a resume in Word is to use a pre-designed Microsoft Word template. To access them, you should: 

• Open MS Word
• Click “file” from the menu bar 
• Select “new”
• Type “resume templates” in the search bar 

That said, Word resume templates are generic, hard to personalize, and overall not very stylish.

Want a resume that looks good and is extremely easy to make? Check out resume templates to get started!

#3. How do I write a resume for my first job?

If you’re writing your first-ever resume for an entry-level position, the hiring manager won’t expect you to have any work experience.

However, you can make up for your lack of experience with your skills and academic achievements.

For example, you can take advantage of extracurricular activities, internships, volunteering experiences, and other non-professional experiences. You can use them to highlight the skills you’ve gained and what you’ve achieved so far.

So, your first job resume should have a resume objective, emphasize your education, and replace your work experience with any internships, volunteering, independent projects, or other experiences.

#4. How to make a resume on Google Docs?

You can make a resume on Google Docs by choosing one of their templates and filling it in on the go.

All you have to do is go to your Google Drive’s template gallery, choose your preferred template, fill in your information, and your Google Docs resume is ready to go! 

That said, Google Docs templates aren’t the most user-friendly choice. You don’t have much flexibility with the layout and formatting isn’t that easy. For example, you tweak a section to the slightest, and the whole resume becomes a mess.

If you want an easier option, check out our resume builder !

#5. What kind of resume do employers prefer?

Typically, employers prefer one-page-long resumes that follow the reverse chronological format. 

Hiring managers receive hundreds of resumes every day, so they don't have the time to read three-page resumes. Try one of our one-page resume templates so you don’t go over the recommended resume length.

Meanwhile, the reverse-chronological format is the most popular because it draws attention to your most recent jobs and professional achievements, which is the #1 most important thing hiring managers look at when evaluating a resume.

#6. How many jobs should you put on your resume? 

You should only include relevant job positions on your resume.

This means that your work experience section should be tailored to the job you are applying for. If you’ve worked five different jobs and they can all add value to your current application, then you should include all five. 

If, on the other hand, you’re applying for, say, a customer service position and some of your past jobs don’t have anything to do with customer service, you should skip them.

#7. Should I put my address on my resume? 

You can put your location (city, state, or country) on your resume, but you don’t need to put your entire physical address.

Putting a physical address on a resume was the norm back when companies would contact you via mail. In today’s world, everyone communicates via email, which is why adding a correct and professional email address to your contact information section is far more important than putting your physical address. 

So, just include your location or-–if you’re a remote worker—specify you prefer to work remotely by writing “working remotely from [location].”

#8. What information should I leave out of my resume?

As a general rule, you shouldn’t include your birthday or your headshot on your resume. This norm varies from country to country but it applies to the USA, Canada, and UK.

If you have plenty of achievements to list under your work experience, then you can leave your basic work responsibilities out of your resume. 

In your education section, you should only include your highest and most recent degree. So, if you hold a Ph.D., you can list that and your Master’s degree and leave your Bachelor’s degree and high school diploma out.

Finally, leave out any skills that aren’t relevant to the job you’re applying for.

#9. Is a resume a CV?

Depending on where you are, a CV (Curriculum Vitae) and a resume might be completely different things.

In most of the world, though, including Europe and Asia, they are used interchangeably for the same document. Both CVs and resumes are one to two pages long, and list skills and experiences relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Sometimes more detailed resumes that go over one page are referred to as CVs. These are typically only used by senior professionals, executives, CEOs, etc.

In the USA, however, a CV is a completely different document. Typically, CVs are detailed and comprehensive documents that highlight your entire academic and professional history. They’re often used for academic, scientific, or research positions, which is why this type of CV can also be referred to as an academic CV.

You can create your CV using one of our CV templates !

#10. Should I write my own resume?

Yes, you should always write your own resume.

Your resume is your opportunity to show the hiring manager your communication, writing, and presentation skills . Employers also evaluate you based on how effectively you can convey information about yourself, and there’s no one that can represent you better than yourself.

Writing your own resume lets you introduce yourself authentically. You have the best understanding of your skills and experiences, and you can personalize them to make your resume stand out.

And, as a bonus, the experience of writing your resume yourself can be reflective and insightful, so it might help you understand your professional journey and career goals better.

#11. Can a resume be two pages?

Generally, we strongly recommend that your resume stick to one page.

Hiring managers go through hundreds of resumes every day, and keeping your resume to one page increases the odds that they’ll see your qualifications faster.

In some cases, like when you have a lot of relevant experience, your resume can go over two pages. But this exception is reserved for senior professionals with over a decade of relevant experience and tons of skills and achievements that simply can’t fit on one page.

#12. Is a simple resume okay?

Absolutely, a simple resume is often more than okay—it's preferable.

Before your resume even gets to the hiring manager, a complicated layout could get it rejected by the applicant tracking system (ATS). A simple resume template can help get your application straight to the hiring manager.

A clean layout can also make sure that your resume is easily readable and looks professional. This can focus the hiring manager's attention on your work experience and skills without excessive clutter or flashy colors to distract them.

Key Takeaways

And that’s a wrap!

If you’ve followed all of our advice until now, congrats! You’re probably an expert on how to make a resume.

To recap, let’s go through some of the most important lessons we’ve learned so far...

• Use the right resume builder to make the process as smooth as possible. You don’t want to mess around with formatting for hours before even starting to work on your resume!
• Focus on your achievements over responsibilities. This can help you stand out from all the other applicants, especially if you back your claims up with data.
• Include all the must-have sections, like the resume summary, work experience, education, and skills. Then leverage optional sections if you have leftover space.
• Tailor your resume for the job you’re applying for. Everything listed on your resume should be relevant to the specific job you’re applying for, and you should write a new resume for every new job application.
• Take the time to perfect your cover letter. It’s just as important as your resume, so make sure you pay as much attention to it!

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