The resume work experience section covers your employment history.
One of the things your recruiters will be looking for in this part of your resume is the impact you’ve made in your previous job position.
It’s not enough to just list out your day to day routine...
Your hiring managers will want to see what you’ve been responsible for. What difference did you make that shows you’re the ideal qualified and experienced candidate to hire?
We’ll go through everything you need to know in this article on how to create a powerful work experience section. Later on, we’ll also be breaking down mediocre examples and comparing them against good examples, and then against even better examples.
How Do I Describe My Work Experience on a Resume?
There are 7 key elements on how to write your job experience on a resume for the best impression and to show your expertise. Shortly after, we’ll answer the common question about what to do if you have no experience.
1. Include Your Job Position, Company and Date of Employment
Your previous job position, company name, and the date of employment are one of the main pieces of information that need to be mentioned in this section. This should be highlighted clearly for each of your previous jobs.
Here’s an accountant resume work experience example from Rezi:
2. Describe What You Did In Your Previous Job Positions
This includes:
- Job responsibilities
- Tasks and duties
- The impact you’ve had
Employers will want to know what you’ve done in your previous job position to get insight into your skills and expertise. Knowing what you’re familiar with will help them make a decision and to see if you’re more of a good fit compared to the other applicants.
However, you should also be including any positive results you’ve accomplished.
3. Describe a Result You’ve Been Responsible For
What role or contribution did you make towards the company you worked for?
Describe how you accomplished something from your previous corporate role. Showcasing the achievements that took place as a result of your contribution will keep the reader engaged. It’s also effective in creating a strong impression and demonstrating your level of ability by highlighting the impact you’ve made.
4. Focus On The Skills You Developed
What skills have you developed in the process from your previous job and work environment?
Check that it’s relevant to the context and that it makes sense. If you developed any new skills along the way because of a particular event in your previous job (e.g. a training session), it’s a good idea to include it on your resume. The more relevant skills you have, the more it adds to your professional background.
At the same time, don’t force yourself to add fluff that doesn’t mean or show much. It’s a common resume mistake.
5. Use Numbers, Figures, and Statistics
Without any evidence, it’s hard to trust everything that someone might say. Be factual and take an objective approach. Numbers, figures, and statistics are your best friend. These will make your statements and points a lot more credible.
6. Use Examples to Reinforce Your Points
If you can’t include a statistic or figure to reinforce your point, at least use an example.
As said in the previous point, you want to take an objective approach. Including examples will reinforce your statements so recruiters know you’re not being subjective. It will also help you stand out from the crowd when you’re using a personal, unique example.
7. Include Power Words and Action Verbs
These can make your resume more impactful and engaging.
You just need to be careful not to overuse them and to make sure they’re used in the right context.
Although your resume is like a report, you’ll want to keep the reader locked in by catching their interest. When recruiters skim through your application in the first few seconds and they notice some of these action verbs and power words, it can emphasise your significance in what you are trying to describe.
What If You Have No Resume Work Experience?
Are you a student or recent graduate, someone new to the workforce with no work experience? There are alternative solutions you can do instead. We’ve listed five things that you might want to consider.
To make up for your lack of experience, we recommend building a personalized cover letter!
Describe Your Corporate Education
It works to go into detail on each of the years from your years in professional education. Take a look at the corporate rotational graduate resume example below:
This candidate still managed to secure their spot with Sony using this resume template from Rezi. If you have no work experience in the real working environment, you can use this section for your corporate educational background instead!
Volunteering
Volunteering is still a valuable thing to talk about on your resume. It’s still work experience that’s helped you become somewhat familiar with what the real working environment would be like even though it’s not the exact same setting.
Internships
If you’ve been a part of any internship programs, this is worth including and you can go in-depth about the skills you’ve developed, as well as what you’ve been responsible for. Experience is experience, so you want to include everything you’ve got and make it relevant to the job posting.
Extracurricular Activities
This can also count as work experience and add towards your preparation for the real working environment.
Consider The Functional Resume Format
If you have literally got no work experience at all, there’s one more option left...
And that is to use the functional (skills-based) resume format.
Rather than highlighting your work experience, your skills will be the main highlight instead. To make up for this gap though, we recommend you to write a personalized and tailored cover letter to complement your resume. Even though you might be lacking the desired work experience, you can still show that you’re more qualified and a better cultural fit.
Resume Work Experience Examples
At Rezi, we believe that each bullet should be able to stand on its own.
Ambiguity in bullet points could lead to situations where achievements are left out, skills are not recognized, and so on. Overall, writing resume content is actually pretty simple. Just tell them what you did (include figures), why you did it, and how you did it (include technical details).
As they say, “the devil is in the detail” yet details give an awesome empirical frame to accomplishments… so include them!
Marketing Manager
Average:
• Responsible for buying ads to increase marketing channel traffic and revenue.
Good:
• Negotiated a $4MM display ad buy with a leading portal at a guaranteed cost-per-acquisition rate that was used to measure the impact of online display ads on paid search as well as other channels.
Better:
• Lead team of six in the negotiation of a $4MM display ad buy at a cost-per-acquisition rate which was used to measure the impact of online display ads on paid search and other channels. Deals increased display ad revenue by 25% in the first quarter.
Email Marketing Specialist
Average:
• Sent all marketing emails and tracked results in dashboard.
Good:
• Tracked KPIs and metrics gathered from segmentation strategies, A/B tests of subject lines, content, images and offers which drove higher open and click-through rates.
Better:
• Created highly-optimized campaigns with A/B testing elements which included subject lines, content, images, and offers resulting in a 15% increase in open rates and 3% in click-through rates. Mastered SalesForce emailing software to automate drip campaigns and gathered user metrics. Used Tableau to create bespoke email KPI dashboards to distribute metrics.
Digital Marketing Specialist
Average:
• Worked on increasing revenue generated from PPC and search traffic marketing campaigns.
Good:
• Developed a new paid search strategy and directed execution of PPC campaigns that resulted in 109% improvement in paid search traffic and 151% improvement in conversation rate year over year.
Better:
• Used Google Adwords Keyword Planner and Adwords Editor to lead the development of new paid search strategies and directed execution of PPC campaigns that resulted in 109% improvement in paid search traffic and 151% improvement in conversation rate year over year.
Social Media Specialist
Average:
• Managed all social media profiles for led generation and referrals.
Good:
• Developed social media profiles across Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, and Instagram to build an email list from 1,200 to 3,500, increased conversions 150%, CTR 49%, and social web referrals 41% in the first six months.
Better:
• Transformed a non-existent social media profile into thought-leader presence across Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, and Instagram to increase led generation building email lists from 1,200 to 3,500. Automated MailChimp campaigns which increased customer LTV, conversions 150%, CTR 49%, and social web referrals 41% in the first six months.
Marketing Analyst
Average:
• Tracked user behavior to increase lead generation on online forms.
Good:
• Conducted A/B, multivariate tests & studied user behavior using mouse tracking & funnels to increase conversions on lead gen forms on 5 web properties.
Better:
• Integrated Optimizely API to allow the analytics team to measure results of A/B testing and optimization in Google Analytics. Analyzed CrazyEgg heat maps to develop front-end optimizations which increased conversions of 5 web properties.
How Rezi Can Help
Rezi has helped over 120,000+ job seekers secure a job. Some of those users were also hired at the most competitive companies including Facebook, Spotify, and Amazon.
When you create a resume with Rezi, you have a 62.18% chance of landing an interview.
We equip you with all the tools needed so you can get past the first stage of the selection process, land an interview, and get hired for the job!
Here’s how you can easily increase your chances:
1. Use Rezi’s Resume Templates
You’re bound to find your job position as we have 182 ready-to-use free ATS resume templates.
Browse through it and pick the one that matches what you need. Take inspiration from what’s already written and use that as a head start.
It’s more effective starting this way and will save you more time!
2. Use Rezi’s AI Writer and Keyword Targeting Tool
The Rezi AI resume writer feature can generate a full tailored resume for you that will beat the ATS. All the main requirements will be included since you’ll be provided with feedback on what the job description is looking for, as well as a list of skills and keywords that you need to include.
Watch how easy it works in the clip below!
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