Job Experience on Resumes
June 2, 2008 by Living Life Abundantly
Filed under Career
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This is the most complex section of your resume, and it is required, although you have a great deal of freedom in the way your present your experiences. To get started on this section, make a list of your job titles and the names, dates and locations of places where you worked.
Break each job (paid or unpaid) into short, descriptive phrases or sentences that begin with action verbs. These phrases will highlight the skills you used on the job, and help the employer envision you as an active person in the workplace. Use action words to describe the work you did.
You may choose special fontss, bolding, underlining, or placement to draw your reader’s attention to the information you want to emphasize. When the company you worked for is more impressive than your job title, you may want to highlight that information.
Briefly give the employer an overview of work that has taught you skills. Include your work experience in reverse chronological order—that is, put your last job first and work backward to your first, relevant job. Include:
- Title of position,
- Name of organization
- Location of work (town, state)
- Dates of employment
- Describe your work responsibilities with emphasis on specific skills and achievements.
You should probably not go back more than your three previous jobs so that your resume doesn’t get too long. However, you will want to include any job experience that is relevant to the job you are applying for to show you have experience in that field.
Depending on how you are formatting your resume, there are a couple of ways that you can put this section together. Here are a couple of ways you can try this:
April, 1998 - XYZ Corporation; Anywhere, IL
Present Position: Sales Analyst
Duties: To monitor sales activities for 20
sales people, calculate profit/loss margins,
make suggestions for improvement, hold
educational seminars to insures sales are
progressing as they should, prepare annual
statements, formulate and implement new
procedures to improve efficiency
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XYZ Corporation; Anywhere, IL
April, 1998 – Present
Position: Sales Analyst
Duties: To monitor sales activities for 20 sales people, calculate, profit/loss margins, make suggestions for improvement, hold educational seminars to insure sales is progressing as it should, prepare annual statements, formulate and implement new procedures to improve efficiency
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XYZ Corporation; Anywhere, IL
April, 1998 – Present
Sales Analyst
- To monitor sales activities for 20 sales people
- calculate, profit/loss margins
- make suggestions for improvement
- hold educational seminars to insure sales is progressing as it should
- prepare annual statements
- formulate and implement new procedures to improve efficiency
There are many, many more ways that you can layout this section and it all depends on how your whole resume is laid out. As long as you have the basic information about what company you worked for, when you worked for them, your position at the company, and your job duties, then you should be covered.
Next is the education section.
Education
This section can be set up much like the job experience section – it all really depends on what format you are choosing for your resume. This section is an important one for most students, and it is a required element of the resume. In this section, you should include:
- The name and location of your college or university
- Your degree and graduation date
- Your major(s) and minor(s)
- Grade point average (your cumulative GPA and your major GPA are optional)
Use placement of information, bold type or underlining to highlight the features you want to emphasize. It is sometimes necessary to pinpoint a feature or features that make you standout among other students.
For example, students bold their university or college if they feel like that is a distinctive feature. Others may decide to bold their type of degree.
New graduates without a lot of work experience should list their educational information first. Alumni can list it after the work experience section.
Be sure the following is included in the education section of your resume:
- Your most recent educational information is listed first.
- Include your degree (A.S., B.S., B.A., etc.)
- Your major, institution attended, and your minor/concentration.
- Add your grade point average (GPA) if it is higher than 3.0.
- Mention academic honors.
Here are two examples of education sections, with different information emphasized.
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
Bachelor of Science, May 1999
Major: Supervision; GPA 5.5/6.0
Bachelor of Science in Accounting, May 1999
Minor in Finance, GPA: 5.5/6.0 Major, 5.2/6.0 Overall
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
In your education section, you may want to include a couple of sub-groups – especially if you are a recent graduate looking for your first position. The first sub-group is “Related Course Work”.
This is an optional part of your Education section, which can be quite impressive and informative for potential employers. Students seeking internships may want to list all completed major-related courses.
Graduates might list job-related courses different than those required to receive the degree (employers will already be aware of those). Include high-level courses in optional concentrations, foreign languages, computer applications or communications classes. You may choose more meaningful headings such as “Computer Applications” if you wish to emphasize particular areas.
Remember - employers and recruiters are familiar with the basic courses required in your major. Limit these sections to special courses or skills you have to offer.
Another optional sub-group in the education section is “Special Projects”. This optional section may be added to point out special features of your education that are particularly interesting to employers or that may make you more qualified than others for the job you are seeking.
Students often include research, writing, or computer projects. Limit your description to the most important facts. You may expand your discussion in your application letter.
If you like, you can include any awards you received or special achievements in this section, but most resumes will have a separate section for this to cover not only academic awards but also business awards.
Our next section has to do with your special abilities as they apply to the position you are trying to land.
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