Summary:
Make no mistake. The importance of your CV or resume work history section cannot be over-emphasized. So, here’s how to write your CV work experience section to get more interviews.
How to write work experience section: steps to follow:
- Headings
- Positioning
- Sequencing
- Clarity
- Using bullet points
- Key achievements
- Earlier experience
- Current job
- Avoiding gaps
- Dates
- Listing education
- White space
- Formatting options
- Tailoring your CV
- Consistency
- Your WOW factor
- Using Job-specific keywords
CV Work Experience Section
Your CV employment experience section is the most valuable tool to market yourself to employers.
It is not just a section of your CV.
Instead, it is an absolute gold mine if you position it effectively. In addition, it can help get you an interview.
Why?
Surveys show that 91% of employers require applicants to have relevant employment experience.
Moreover, over two-thirds of hiring managers find the professional work experience section the most crucial aspect of a CV.
Be smart! Ensure that your CV work experience section is compelling.
It should grab a recruiter’s attention in seconds.
Even if you have a few years of experience, an employer must be able to see the value you can bring at a glance.
Here is our step-by-step guide to writing your CV Work Experience section:
1. Use a clear heading
Clearly label your CV employment experience section with one of the headings below:
- Employment History
- Work Background
- Professional Experience
- Industry Experience
- Professional History
2. Positioning
- Are you a fresh graduate with little notable employment experience? Put it below your education section.
- Do you have extensive employment experience? Put it just below your CV profile summary.
3. List work experience in reverse chronological order
- Begin with your present or last job.
- Then the job before it.
Naturally, your current or most recent job will get the most attention.
So, lead with it at the top of the work experience section.
The functional resume format can also come in handy for some people.
You could also refer to the functional resume as the “competency-based resume.”
It focuses on your abilities and competencies.
It focuses on your competencies or behaviors.
Here are some great examples of when to use a competency-based style resume:
- If you’re changing your career path
- Or, you may have job gaps
- Or, if you had been doing something unrelated to your current job.
With a functional resume format, you showcase your transferable, technical, or software skills and make short notes about them.
The skills section follows the profile summary.
Principal Features
- Your profile summary will be the first.
- The job’s essential requirements are technical/ software or transferable skills (e.g., systems-oriented, people-oriented, and self-motivated transferable skills (e.g., systems-oriented, people-oriented, and self-motivated).
- Included are brief notes on each skill.
- You can also add other sections to this as you may need them.
For other resume formats, you can check here.
4. Clear work experience descriptions
When you write job descriptions, include the following:
- Job title
- Company name and location
- Year and month started and finished
Employment history example
Bank Teller | March 20xx– July 20xx
The Bank of Scotland PLC, Edinburgh, Scotland.
PRO-TIP
Job market and career experts confirm that attention to detail in your CV is critical to making a good impression.
Be consistent with the layout of each entry.
Begin each entry with either the company name or job title.
Make sure all dates are aligned.
Make sure employers or hiring managers search for necessary details.
They don’t have much time because they receive many job applications daily.
So, ensure your career employment history section is easy to scan for essential information.
How to deal with different positions in the same organization.
Did you transition from one job to another in the same organization?
Creating separate entries for each position is unnecessary.
Do this instead: list your job titles for similar situations and include a short, bulleted list below each heading.
Resume Job Description in Hospitality Sector
The Palms Restaurant, London, March 20xx – Present
Assistant Manager, July 20xx – Present
Barista, January 20xx – July 20xx
- Mention Promotion
- Duties
- Accomplishments
In cases where your work responsibilities were very different, enter each title as a separate subheading followed by specific details.
5. Using bullet points
A career work experience description should include between 3-5 items.
- Demonstrate your tangible achievements and not only your duties in past jobs.
- Ensure your most recent job has more details of your role than the others. As you list previous jobs, minimize the details and include only significant achievements.
- Never add unnecessary details to your CV. Ensure that every entry adds value and supports your suitability for your desired job.
- Remember that the goal is to tailor or customize each work experience description to the competencies listed in the job advert.
How to tailor or customize resume job descriptions
When you look at the job requirements in a job posting, focus on the career or job keywords that apply to the role.
If there are key responsibilities that you have handled in the past, add them as a bulleted list in your CV work experience section.
Here’s a work experience example:
Job Posting | Barista | role requires candidates to:
- Provide in-depth information to customers on beverage preparation (1)
- Offer samples of latest brews(2)
- Memorise recipes for specialty coffee beverages and seasonal offerings (3)
- Complete successful cash audits to correctly balance drawers at the end of each shift (4)
- Operate espresso machines, blenders, and commercial coffee brewers (5)
A well-tailored example of a job description for a CV:
Barista
The Palms Restaurant Inc, London, UK
2012–2020
- Provided in-depth information to over 200 customers on beverage preparation leading to improved customers satisfaction (1)
- Offered 150 samples of the latest brews regularly, resulting in 345 customer increases in the last 7 weeks (2)
- Memorised recipes for 70+ specialty coffee beverages and seasonal offerings. (3)
- Obtained the Associate Accounting Technician (AAT), skillful in auditing, cash management, and balance drawers, saving money from hiring an accountant. (4)
- Operated distinct espresso machines, blenders, and commercial coffee brewers(5)
Key achievement:
Improved revenue from cocktail deals by 52%.
The sample work experience description above shows it isn’t necessary to stuff your CV work experience section with all previous responsibilities.
Instead, highlight your ability to handle the duties listed in the job posting competently and effectively.
In your CV work experience section, bullet points are more effective than paragraphs because they are concise and save space.
But paragraphs may be preferable if you are writing an academic CV.
Each detail of your CV must be critical to your application.
Research proves that over 40% of recruiters impulsively trash CVs that appear generic and not tailored to the specific position.
6. Key achievements
Always include the critical achievement for each job you had.
It immediately grabs the attention of potential employers.
- It should include a value that the prospective employer is looking for.
- Use the Challenge-Action-Result (CAR) format to define your crucial achievement.
Below is an example of the CAR format.
Remember the sample Barista job description above?
Critical Achievement = Improved revenue from cocktail deals by 52%.
Challenge = Low revenue from cocktail deals.
Action = Provided exceptional customer service.
Result = Improved customer retention and increased sales.
7. Earlier Work Experience
Do you have many years of experience, maybe some from more than 10 years ago?
Job market experts recommend listing it in your CV Work Experience section.
But do not specify the year to avoid ageism bias.
Use the heading Earlier Work Experience, as shown below:
8. Current or Last Job
Make sure the details highlight your current or previous work experience by indicating the following three elements:
- Transferable skills
- Technical knowledge
- Measurable results
Transferable (soft) skills
Include transferable skills targeting the potential employer.
These might include:
- Time management
- People skills
- Leadership
- Communication
- Conflict resolution
Technical Knowledge
Include relevant technical expertise in your CV.
This is core knowledge of a field or discipline, or area.
Examples:
- Accounting
- C++ or JAVA programming
- Web and graphic design
- Core technologies in engineering
- Digital marketing
- Mathematical modeling
Measurable Results
Use result-oriented transitioning words such as:
- resulting in
- as evident in
- evidenced by
- demonstrated by
- leading to
- resulting in
- as evident in
- evidenced by
- as demonstrated by
- generating over
- engaging over
- ensuring
- contributing to
These transition words help you to describe the outcomes you achieved in the situations.
Be specific. Here are some excellent examples of CV or resume work history examples:
- A knowledgeable relationship builder. Advanced biological and chemical systems skills, as demonstrated by optimizing 12 different nuclear magnetic methodologies. Set up three cross-functional collaborations, leading to £0.5 million in grant funding.
- Knowledgeable innovator in bioinformatics and nanotechnology, as evident in five patents. And the recent discovery of four new medical treatments involving composite micrometers
- Helped the team recognise over £10,000 in grants. Skilfully led 18 engineers and technicians to complete all projects and studies on time, resulting in yearly grant renewal.
- Strong leadership skills and experience managing research professionals in collaborative projects, resulting in 13 published publications and £135,000 in lab grant funding.
Other examples
- Rounded industry awareness, supporting identifying areas needing enhancement in postgraduate and undergraduate students’ employability and entrepreneurship training. This led to the development of designed programs for universities and business schools.
- Strong project management skills with good oral and written communicative ability, as evident in (also shown by / proven by / annotated in / verified through) completing a PhD with a written commendation from the program head. The thesis is noted for excellence in ‘clarity, contents, and organization.’
- Passionate and experienced researcher and lecturer with solid numeracy skills teaching undergraduate and postgraduate modules, leading to two awards by the university following student surveys.
Non-quantifiable accomplishments examples
- Led help desk to partner with customers, spending more time providing clear and actionable instructions, empowering clients to self-troubleshoot issues in the future
- Initiated a “lunch and learn” series to facilitate knowledge and best practice sharing between the sales, client services, and project management departments
- Mentored analyst to earn promotion to Project Manager by identifying cross-training and development opportunities
- Worked closely with a Data Analyst struggling to perform—identified strengths in client service and facilitated a lateral role change to the account management team, where he now excels
- Designated as the ERP subject-matter expert—contributed to vendor negotiations and was instrumental in securing a lower solution cost
- Invited to serve on the Change Management Committee to evaluate change requests from a risk management perspective, working closely with senior leadership
- Completed the prestigious Leadership Training program, a development opportunity offered only to employees identified as top talent
9. Explain Gaps
Always explain gaps in work experience. A simple sentence is enough.
Example:
Took seven months off to complete a CFA III professional exam.
Example:
Took maternity leave to have a baby.
10. Show relevant dates for work experience
Example
January 2015 – June 2017
Jan 2015 – Jun 2017
11. List your highest educational level first
Yes, the more college or university qualifications you have, the more you should forget about listing any lower academic qualifications.
12. Use white space to focus attention
White space relaxes the readers’ eyes.
Don’t clutter your CV or resume with too much information, some of which may be unnecessary.
Use white space to make critical information like strengths and traits stand out.
13. Upload the correct file format
Are you uploading your CV or resume to an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
Then format our CV as a PDF (unless the advertiser requests otherwise).
Formatting it as a PDF will ensure your CV layout or design remains unchanged.
14. Tailor your CV for each job application
You don’t need to include details of every job you’ve ever had, mainly if some aren’t relevant to the job you’re applying for.
15. Maintain consistency
When applying to companies within the same industry, maintain a consistent design layout in your CV or resume.
For example, highlight your technical skills over soft skills when applying for coding or programming jobs.
Some positions may emphasize more transferable or soft skills than in-depth technical knowledge.
16. Include your WOW factor
You can do this by writing your CV to highlight your uniqueness.
- made money for your previous company
- saved money by designing an innovative approach
- helped the business operate more effectively
- For PhDs and academics, you can show the number of:
- publications
- presentations
- reports
- discoveries
- innovations
- volunteer experience
- optimized, innovative systems
- collaborations
- completed projects
- teams led
- teams mentored
- students taught
- certifications
- grants
- patents
- grant funding
17. Write your CV based on the job posting
Customize your CV for each specific job application.
Ensure you identify the keywords in the job posting.
PRO-TIP
Try using Jobalytics – a resume keyword application designed for the job market.
It quickly views the most important keywords for a job application. It also shows you how to optimize the design of your CV or resume.
You can also include these job-specific keywords in your cover letter.
Remember, your goal is to get your CV or resume to pass the ATS that many companies use.
So, it passes from HR to the hiring manager.
The best scenario is to get your CV or resume directly to the hiring manager and avoid the ATS altogether.
If you can use a referral in the job application process, it increases your chances of getting an interview.
Closing Thoughts
Many recent graduates worry about the lack of extensive work history to put in their CV Work Experience section.
What can you do if you don’t have much employment experience?
Don’t forget that any volunteer experience or internship history counts as experience.
Even if it was only for a few days, years ago.
If you feel the experience is relevant to the job you’re applying for, include it in your job application.
This can be particularly useful for new graduates or young professionals without years of work experience.
Ready to get more interviews?
