How to Write Work Experience on Your Resume for 2024
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In those six seconds a recruiter spends looking at your resume, the first thing their eyes jump to is your work experience section. Knowing how to write work experience the right way on your resume is critical to crafting a job-winning application.
In this article, you’ll learn tips on how to write a resume work experience with examples from different industries.
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Why Is Work Experience on a Resume Important?
Your work experience section highlights the main achievements from your career history that prepared you for the role you’re currently applying to.
Employers want to feel confident that the hired person has the required experience to do an excellent job. Your work experience section is ideal for convincing the recruiter you are the right candidate. Learning how to write work experience in a resume will help you be precise about the skills and achievements you’ve garnered throughout your career.
How to Write Work Experience in Resume
Writing a work history experience section starts with the easy part, listing the basic details of your past employment and ends with the trickier part: crafting quality descriptions of your work achievements that resonate with employers.
We’ll break it down into three easy-to-follow steps:
Where to list work experience
In order to determine where on your resume to place your work experience section, you first need to choose a resume format, of which there are three types: chronological, functional and hybrid/combination. Each resume layout dictates where your work experience section will live in the resume.
How do you decide which one is best? Your goals and years of experience! Let’s take a look at each one.
The chronological format keeps the work experience section at the top of your resume. With this layout, your most recent experience goes first and follows a reverse-chronological order. The chronological format is recommended for job seekers with more than five years of experience because it will show clearly your career progression.
Far opposite, the functional format prioritizes skills and achievements while the work experience section lives toward the bottom of the page. This layout is better suited for recent graduates or job seekers with little experience who want to showcase their skill set.
The hybrid/combination format is the happy medium between the two. This format gives balanced weight to your work experience and skills regarding resume placement, giving you a chance to highlight your strengths. It works perfectly for job seekers with over a couple of years of experience but less than five and candidates with career gaps.
What to include in your work experience
How do I choose which jobs to include?
If you want your resume taken seriously by an employer, you should focus on your best experience for the job, even if that means cutting down on the inclusion of some jobs.
If you have a few jobs to choose from, include them all. However, remember that the standard resume practice covers the past 10 years of your employment history or the last three to four employers.
Formatting your work experience
Remember, you only have six seconds to make an impression, so make your resume easy to read with simple formatting. The standard work experience follows this format:
Job title
Company name/location
Dates employed
Responsibilities or achievements
If you have work gaps in your employment history, include the dates. However, if desired, the way to draw less attention to your employment gaps is to choose a hybrid/combination or functional resume format.
Listing your achievements and responsibilities
To make your writing catch the hiring manager’s interest, you need to use action verbs and attention-grabbing language!
Write about your achievements in quantifiable results. Include any specific change you made in the company using numbers and statistics. These serve as concrete evidence of your skills.
Incorrect example:
Sales Associate | Pear Inc. | Philadelphia, PA | March 2016 – current
Achievements:
Sold a lot of products, exceeding sales targets consistently.
Helped the company make a lot of money.
Correct example:
Sales Associate | Pear Inc. | Philadelphia, PA | March 2016 – current
Achievements:
Consistently exceeded monthly sales targets by an average of 20%, resulting in a 15% increase in revenue for the store.
Introduced a customer loyalty program that increased repeat business by 30%, leading to a 10% boost in customer satisfaction scores.”
Only list your responsibilities if the nature of your previous jobs did not make quantifiable achievements possible (e.g., cashier, bagger, waiter, etc.) Additionally, use bullet points to maximize the space and avoid using “I” or “me” in your sentences.
How to stand out to employers
Enhance the impact of your work experience section with these helpful tips:
Tailor your work experience to the job: Read the job posting carefully and identify keywords you can add to your work experience. Some companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) that scan the text of your resume, searching for specific words and phrases. Your skills, achievements, descriptions and job titles must match the employer’s expectations. Make sure you’re directly responding to what they’re asking for!
Keep it brief: A resume should be one page, so be mindful of how you use that valuable real estate.
Use attention-grabbing language: Action verbs and power words effectively highlight your skills and add context to your resume while maximizing space.
Work Experience in Resume: 5 Examples
It makes writing your work history section easier by looking at practical samples for inspiration. Here are five examples of how to write work experience:
Rapid City Foundations | Accountant | September 2012 – present | Rapid City, SD
Execute fiscal strategy for company exceeding 1 million in annual revenue.
Discover small business opportunities in tax code to lower annual payout.
Advise ownership on material acquisition based on forecast growth.
Track raw material price charts to reduce overhead costs.
Michaelson Corp | Head Recruiter | October 2016 – current | Athens, GA
Managed recruitment and talent acquisitions.
Filled 86 positions in first six months of hire.
Retained 79% of hires longer than two years.
Partnered with executive leadership to determine workforce needs.
Shady Pines Assisted Living | Nursing Assistant |
Oversaw vitals diagnostics for 30+ patients.
Administered daily medications for patients and maintained schedule.
Voted employee of the month April 2020.
Keep very detailed records and data entry on patients.
Wayside Technologies |Mechanical Engineer | January 2018 – April 2020 | Conway, AK
Increased overall production efficiency by 9% by removing workflow bottlenecks.
Cross-coordinate between design and production teams to ensure top quality.
Designed and executed blueprint manufacturing for new engine, which reduced carbon emissions by 22%.
Maintained a production error rate consistent below 2%.
Lecid Inc. | Financial analyst | November 2018 – December 2020 | Wilmington, DE
Oversaw due diligence for $23 million acquisition.
Conduct studies on the forecasts, demands and capitals of products.
Implement market analyses to lead to 11% growth in sales.
Prepared companywide KPI reports for collective leadership meetings.
How To Write Work Experience FAQ
How do I write a resume with no work experience?
If you're applying for your first job, there are plenty of ways to present yourself. Focus on the talents you've acquired during your academic experience, internship or voluntary work, whether soft, hard or technical skills. Additionally, you can list relevant courses or personal projects that make you an ideal candidate.
Check out our article on how to write a resume with no work experience.
How do I describe my work experience in an interview?
In an interview, you want to describe what you’ve done at other jobs in detail. That extra layer of detail will convince employers that you know what you’re talking about and can do the job. After all, it’s one thing to craft a great resume. It’s another to answer off the cuff during an interview to show your authority and expertise!
How do I write my work experience section If I just graduated?
If you're fresh out of high school, you can list any groups, projects, internships, volunteer work or extracurricular activities you were part of. Including the tasks you got involved in or participated in shows you can be focused, responsible, and work to achieve goals.
You can also follow our guide on how to write a high school student resume.