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Resume/CV Work Experience

Disciplines > Job-finding > Resume / CV > Resume/CV Work Experience

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

This section is used to describe what you have achieved in each job you have had. Items covered here may include (depending on the norms of your industry and region):

Dates of employment
Name of employer
Employer's business
Job title
Location of work
Responsibilities
Activities undertaken
Achievements
Benefits delivered to company, customers and others
Salary
Reasons for leaving
Reference

If you have had more than one job within one employer, use one section per employer. The sections may be indicated with such as horizontal lines, spacing and/or a larger font for the employer name.

Separate out each activity/achievement. Bullet points are a good way of doing this.

Avoid weak words and phrases such as 'tried', 'was orked on' or 'did my best' that show you in a poor light. Use positive language in describing your work and where possible quantify the benefits, converting if you can into hard financial gains or savings. A useful structure is abbreviated as 'PARs'.

Avoid phrases such as 'responsible for' and 'duties included' which do not tell the reader what you actually did. Start sentences with powerful verbs that show action, such as 'initiated' and 'created'. These may be prefixed by adverbs which intensify the verbs and link them to results, such as 'successfully' or 'effectively'.

If you do not have a separate skills summary, include nouns that describe your skills and knowledge (these may be sought by electronic scanning systems).

Example

Wilkinson Lighting, Apr-05 to Feb-08

Provider of own-brand domestic light fittings to major retail outlets.

	Sep-06 to Feb-08	Lighting Manager	Redesigned lighting development process, resulting in two new product launches per year. Managed corporate product strategy team, introducing DFM and concurrent engineering methods that engaged manufacturing engineers throughout the process, resulting in a 70% drop in manufacturing errors.
	Apr-05 to Sep-06	Lighting Engineer	Developed new range of fittings that became a best-selling system with over 20% sales increase. Drove purchase of new CAD system to halve development times.

Discussion

You do not need to include all of your jobs nor all of your experiences within jobs, particularly if you have a long and varied career behind you. In such cases, pick the more recent examples where you can demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed by the job.

It is common to use strong words in work experience text and it can be a difficult line between reasonable description and wild exaggeration. Take care to find the right words that portray you well but which will not later lead to you losing the job.

Sometimes, resumes/CVs separate Work Experience into two parts, with one describing the jobs that you have had and the other giving descriptions how you were successful in the job.