One of the main functions of your resume is to list your professional experience, but how you do this matters. Learn how to write your work experience in a resume and see work experience resume samples in this guide.
Why Work Experience Is the Most Important Section on Your Resume
A well-crafted resume with work experience can help you showcase your skills and achievements and the ways you’ve progressed in your career. How to describe your work experience on a resume depends on your background and the job requirements, but in general, hiring managers are looking for relevant accomplishments, professional growth, and job consistency.
If you have employment gaps or other issues, consider adding a note explaining why. For example, someone who left their job to raise their children or needed to be a caregiver for a parent or other relative can put that in parentheses where the employment gap is.
Key Elements of a Strong Work Experience Section
1. Job title and company name
Every entry in the work experience section should include the role title, company name, and location. A city and state is enough. Look at work experience resume samples to decide if you want to use italics, bolding, or underlining to make this section more visually appealing but still applicant tracking system (ATS) compatible.
2. Dates of employment
List your dates of employment, including both the month and year. If you’re still working at a company, use “present” or “current” for the ending date. A resume with work experience gaps or multiple short roles can benefit from a note that explains these issues.
3. Concise job descriptions with bullet points
Using bullet points and concise, metric-based sentences is the best way to state work experience in a resume. Focus on the most relevant responsibilities for the new role, and use this space to emphasize key skills and accomplishments.
4. Quantifiable achievements
Adding metrics to your accomplishments can make them more concrete and provide helpful context for the hiring manager. Wherever possible, focus on the results of your achievements when deciding how to list work experience on a resume. For example, include how many team members you managed or how much you increased sales by in what quarter instead of generic phrases like “increased sales” or “managed team.”
How To Write Work Experience Statements Using the Situation, Task, Action, and Result Method
How do you list work experience on a resume? The situation, task, action, and result (STAR) method is a great way to structure your bullet points on a resume with work experience. Each bullet point should give some context (situation), explain what you were asked to do (task), show what you did (action), and provide measurable results (result).
Here is an example:
Led a project to revamp the sales strategy (Situation), targeting a 15% growth in Q1 (Task). Trained a team of 10 on new methods (Action), achieving a 20% sales increase (Result).
Structuring Work Experience for Different Career Levels
How is work experience listed on a resume for each career level?
- Entry-level candidates: Recent graduates, teens, and other entry-level candidates may need to highlight skills and achievements through experience outside of work. This can include internships, volunteer roles, and academic projects.
- Mid-level professionals: At this stage, the work experience section of a resume should show adequate career growth and focus on skills mastery and quantifiable achievements.
- Experienced and senior-level candidates: A senior-level applicant’s resume should display contributions to the organization’s success, detail leadership roles, and highlight measurable accomplishments.
Handling Common Challenges in the Work Experience Section
How to address gaps in employment
How to explain gaps in your work experience on your resume comes down to determining if the break needs explaining and being proactive if so. If the gap was for a legitimate reason, such as to take care of a family member or because of a layoff, adding a note to your resume is fine. However, if you volunteered during that gap or otherwise gained experience or skills, list this as well.
Managing short-term roles and frequent job changes
Some hiring managers are leery of candidates who change jobs frequently or have multiple short-term roles. Get around this by combining similar roles, omitting minor short-term positions irrelevant to the job, or specifically noting contract work.
What to do when you have no work experience
If you have a resume with no work experience, focus on the skills you’ve gained and what you’ve learned from other opportunities. This can include academic projects, volunteer work, or relevant coursework for recent graduates.
Effective Work Experience Resume Samples
Reference these work experience resume samples to help you get started.
Customer service representative
- Interface effectively with a diverse customer base, utilize de-escalation techniques, communicate with patience and understanding, and propose ideal solutions for customer issues, resulting in a 20% reduction in cancellation rates
- Identify opportunities to improve the customer experience, deliver training to new hires on service standards, and achieve customer satisfaction scores of 91% to 98%
- Serve as the escalation point for five to 10 major customer issues per week
Sales associate
- Surpassed monthly sales targets by 9% for all years and maintained 97.5% positive customer reviews over 12 consecutive months
- Deliver exceptional customer service by portraying an accommodating and engaging attitude, building and maintaining professional relationships with clients
- Share knowledge of all types of precious stones and metals and familiarity with designs and trends in fine jewelry
- Prepare estimates, invoices, and warranty certificates
- Collect payment and wrap merchandise
- Maintain jewelry displays, checked inventory, and performed basic housekeeping
Software developer
- Coordinate cross-functionally with the software engineering and product management teams to redesign web application in React for a major credit lender, contributing to over 200,000 new downloads in a three-month period
- Oversee a team of 12 software developers and engineers, develop base frameworks using Java, Python, and C#, and perform code reviews
- Create a new system for the continuous integration of newly developed scripts to improve efficiency and deployment speeds by 10%
Project manager
- Oversee and motivate a 15-member project management team
- Plan, schedule, and closely monitor each project to ensure timely completion
- Prepare accurate budgets based on a careful review of project goals, materials, and labor resources
- Foster lucrative, long-term client relationships
See these resume examples that demonstrate work experience:
Customer Service Representative Resume Example
Emily Carter
(555) 789-1234 | [email protected] | Los Angeles, CA 90001 | LinkedIn Profile
Profile
Customer service professional with five years of experience providing solutions in fast-paced retail and call center environments. Proven ability to enhance customer satisfaction, implement training programs, and resolve escalations to achieve business goals.
Key Skills
- Customer issue resolution
- Customer satisfaction improvement
- CRM system management (Salesforce, Zendesk)
- De-escalation techniques
- New hire training
- Problem-solving
Professional Experience
Customer Service Specialist, GlowTech Electronics, Los Angeles, CA
July 2020 to present
- Interface with diverse customer base, utilize de-escalation techniques, and propose ideal solutions to reduce cancellation rates by 15%
- Train 10+ new hires per quarter on customer service standards, resulting in improved team performance and a 12% increase in resolution speed
- Resolve escalated customer issues with tact and efficiency, handling 10 major cases weekly
Customer Service Representative, BrightMart Retail, Los Angeles, CA
May 2017 – June 2020
- Delivered exceptional service to over 100 customers daily, achieving satisfaction scores of 95% to 98% monthly
- Recommended process improvements that reduced average call handling time by 20%
- Provided feedback to the product team based on customer insights, resulting in two product line adjustments
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA | May 2017
Why this resume is strong:
This resume uses measurable results to demonstrate Emily’s impact, like reduced cancellation rates and improved customer satisfaction. For tips on crafting results-oriented bullet points, refer to this guide.
Software Developer Resume Example
David Martinez
(555) 123-4567 | [email protected] | Austin, TX 73301 | LinkedIn Profile
Profile
Innovative software developer with seven years of experience leading cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality web applications. Adept at improving code efficiency, managing large-scale projects, and developing frameworks using Java, Python, and React.
Key Skills
- Agile methodology
- Code reviews
- Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD)
- Cross-functional team collaboration
- Java, Python, and React
- Web application design
Professional Experience
Senior Software Developer, FinTech Solutions, Austin, TX
January 2020 to present
- Redesign a web application in React for a credit lender, driving 200,000 new downloads within three months
- Lead a team of 12 engineers, oversee development using Python and Java, and conduct code reviews to maintain high standards
- Implement a CI/CD system that improved deployment speeds by 15%
Software Developer, BrightApps, Austin, TX
May 2015 – December 2019
- Developed and maintained mobile applications used by over 500,000 users globally, ensuring functionality and scalability
- Collaborated with product managers and designers to build user-friendly features, increasing app engagement rates by 20%
- Migrated legacy code to modern frameworks, reducing system downtime by 30%
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, University of Texas, Austin, TX | May 2015
Certifications
- Certified Java Programmer (Oracle) | 2016
Why this resume is strong:
David’s resume uses the STAR method to highlight his achievements, such as increasing app downloads and reducing deployment times. To learn more about structuring bullet points with STAR, check out this guide.
Frequently Asked Questions About Resumes With Work Experience Sections
How many years of work experience should I include?-
Your career level depends on how much work experience to have on a resume. A resume for beginners with limited work experience will likely include all positions to show as much work history as possible. More experienced candidates should have 10 to 15 years maximum or as much as the job qualifies for.
Should I use past tense in the resume work experience section?+
A resume with a work experience section should use past tense for previous roles but present tense for your current role.
How do I describe freelance or contract work?+
Add freelance and contract roles like any other positions, including measurable achievements. They were contract, freelance, consulting, or fractional roles — depending on your preferred phrasing — next to the role title.
In what order should work experience be listed on a resume?+
List work experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position.
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