Student Support

Highlighting Your Experience on Your Resume

 

The area that employers focus the most time reviewing is your experience. Experiences can include paid or unpaid opportunities, part-time or full-time work, internships, volunteer/community service work, significant leadership experience, class projects/relevant coursework, service-learning experiences, teaching/shadowing opportunities, field work, etc. If you are submitting your resume to an employer/program, you will want to tailor your information based on the requirements of the job/program. Ideally, you should focus on your direct experiences that relate to the skills and requirements desired by the employer/program, followed by any transferable skills. It is not required to list all of your experiences on a tailored resume being sent to an employer/program. If you are working on your master resume, you will want to include all of your experiences. For more information on creating a master resume, visit From Master Resume to Tailored Resume.

For your resume, unless you are using a functional resume format, list each experience in reverse chronological order (most recent experience first). Include specific information about your experience such as: 

  • Job Title/Position
  • Company/Organization Official Full Name
  • Course name and Institution (if highlighting relevant coursework)
  • Location (city, state)
  • Dates of Tenure (start to end date in month and year format)
  • Responsibilities and Impact
  • Hard and Soft Skills learned and/or used
  • Promotions
  • Awards and Recognitions 

Types of Work Experience Sections/Examples

Your history of experiences can also be listed/grouped together based on similarities. For your tailored resume, make sure the categories you include on your resume are relevant to the job/program.

The following are examples of how you can group your experiences:

Constructing Your Accomplishment Statements

Regardless of what experience you have, employers/programs are drawn to strong and well-written accomplishment statements - also called descriptive statements or action statements. Accomplishment statements highlight the results you have achieved, the skills and competencies you have developed and the contributions you have made that make you ready for a job, internship, or other type of role. For tailored resumes, they show your achievements that are most relevant to the position you are seeking. Hiring managers already have a firm idea of the duties and responsibilities associated with the position being offered. What they want to determine is how well you are able to perform those duties.

When you list your statements, use bullet points versus paragraph format. Use simple, but professional bullets  such as circles and squares. Checkmarks, hand symbols or pencils bullet points are distracting and deters employers away from your accomplishments. Eliminate words such as “I,” “my,” and “we” and quantify experiences, whenever possible. Use action verbs that describe your contributions versus your responsibilities. Always use present tense if the experience is current and past tense if the experience is no longer being done. Only use the jargon of a profession/technical language if you are applying for a job within that field. Don’t be humble. This is your opportunity to promote yourself and sell your skills, even transferable skills.

Constructing  Accomplishment Statements:

When constructing your  accomplishments, try to include statements that explain what you did in the position, how you did it and the results of your actions. You want to set yourself apart from other applicants. Consider the following guidelines to help you guide you in constructing your accomplishment statements:

  • Focus more on what you actually accomplished versus simply repeating the job duties
  • Start each accomplishment statement with strong action verbs to show your actions and results as well as to capture your achievements
  • Emphasize tangible results; Try to quantify/provide measurements when you can. Use concrete numbers and provable statistics to quantify your experiences
  • Tailor your skills and experiences to the job/program
  • Include qualitative statements that measure your accomplishments using quality and characteristics. Show concrete examples of your interpersonal/soft skills
  • Share the project/task/challenge/example + your actions + result/outcome/evidence

Examples:

  • Created and led 5 preschool aged children in activities, following the Reggio Emilia approach to  learning, empowering them to explore their individual interests and learn more
  • Tutored an 8th grade student in pre-algebra, using teacher’s curriculum to raise student grade from a C to B+ over the course of a year
  • Managed the daily operations of a clothing store, including opening and closing operations, inventory management and new employee onboarding
  • Maintained and updated the 100 client business database, records, and distribution lists

Sample Resumes

For example of resumes, view the Career Guides for your Area of Interest.