How to describe work experience on a resume

Knowing how to write about your work experience and show your achievements to an employer can seem like a daunting task. There isn’t much space to write everything, so every word has to count.

No need to worry – all you need to know is right here.

Layout and format

Your resume only needs to be a 2-page document, so every word matters!

This is not the time to be writing lots of paragraphs. When you describe work experience on your resume, it needs to be concise and get to the key points. This will make it easy for the employer to quickly scan through your work experience and see what you have done.

Write each job starting with the job title, then employer, on one line.

Underneath, write the dates you started and finished your employment. The details of the tasks can be written as bullet points – no need for full sentences. Recruiters don’t have time to read lots of details, so make it easy for them.

Start with your most recent job

Start with the job you do now and work your way backwards in order of dates.

For example:

Mentor – May 2008 – May 2012

Advisor – April 2005 – April 2008

Every month or date should follow on.

Gap in employment?

If there was a period when you were unemployed or on long-term sick leave, add this in with the dates, including month and year.

You can find out more about how to explain gaps in employment here.

List achievements, rather than tasks

Rather than writing about what you did in a job, try to write about you achieved as much as possible.

It’s hard to think how best to describe the responsibilities in your job. If you had a retail job, you may think that all you were doing was working at the checkout, stacking shelves and helping customers. While it’s important to include these, try to think about all of the customers you helped quickly, how you had to work under pressure.

In an office job, you might have been updating information, working with IT programmes and managing emails. You could describe this work experience as:

‘Managing emails, setting up automated processes, automating email responses and organising emails by client name to save time and create filters.’

This shows that you are doing more than just a job – you were helping your employer save time and run more efficiently.

These are the the ways

Use actions verbs to describe tasks

Use words that demonstrate the actions you took, which show the skills you have. If you have worked in admin, you might want to use words, such as:

– Processed

– Collated

– Organised

If you have worked in retail, you could use words such as:

– Communicated

– Managed

– Handled

So, instead of saying ‘I updated a spreadsheet’, you could say

‘Collated information and organised it onto a spreadsheet and shared with the team for everyone to update.’

This explains what you did and how it helped everyone.

Use numbers or percentages wherever possible

This is one aspect I learned to include as much as possible early on in how to describe work experience on a resume.

As much as you can, think about how your work achieved a saving or helped save an amount of time for colleague.

For example:

Instead of: ‘I worked with a number of businesses and built positive relationships’, write:

‘I increased partnership working by 10% establishing solid, positive partnerships with local businesses contributing to overall company goal of boosting partners.’

What if I haven't worked for a long time?

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What if I want to work in a different industry?