28/07/2022
Make your experience count: How to perfect the “work experience” section of your CV
The whole purpose of the CV is to showcase your skills and your experience. So, ensuring you get the work experience section right is fundamental to your success.
Our team has put together 7 top tips for best highlighting your work experience to create a winning CV.
A mistake that CV writers often make is that think they must write down EVERY single job or experience they’ve ever had – right down to the paper run they had when they were 12.
That’s just not necessary!
A busy recruiter hasn’t got a lot of time to scan your CV – especially in competitive markets. So when it comes to discussing your past roles and experience, it’s about quality over quantity.
Be picky about what experience you include and how you articulate it. Does it align with the job description? Would experience from that role directly offer to the company you’re hoping to work with?
Perhaps if you were applying for a job at the EXACT newspaper that you used to deliver, then nothing down that job would make sense (the old full-circle narrative). But otherwise, leave it out.
The job description or advert should give you the list of required skills and experience and likely some ‘nice to have’ skills, too.
Under each of your past roles, use bullet points to highlight the relevant skills to the reader:
Be specific – if the job description states you must have customer support experience, then give the detail that shows that you have the experience and more:
“I am an experienced customer support supervisor, leading a team of 8 advisers, supporting 10,000 end-user customers across the Asia Pacific market. I produced weekly and monthly KPI reports and as a result was able to introduce new ways of working that increased efficiency and improved end-user experience and thereby, 20% less support calls in the first year after implementation.”
Including a volunteer experience section is a great way to stand out as a job candidate. It shows you're community-minded and gives you the chance to prove your professional skills in a different context.
It also demonstrates that you care about others, and that money isn’t your sole reason for getting your hands stuck in.
You can also include unpaid work placements and internships here – anything that shows relevant experience.
If you’re looking for a job in education for example, then a potential employer would be happy to see that you had completed voluntary work at a school or an after-school club.
Broughton Primary School, Dunedin
Volunteer Teacher Aid for Year 2-3
While completing my Bachelor of Education studies, I volunteered as a Teacher Aid at Broughton Primary. I enjoyed working alongside a dynamic and enthusiastic team. In this role, I was able to contribute to creating a positive culture, while learning more about the ways that strong relationships enhance personal growth for young people. Through this role, I gained experience in providing support to learners with identified needs. My role was to offer empathy and understanding for their diverse needs while encouraging them to demonstrate initiative and independence.
This volunteer role was hugely educational, and the learnings were immeasurable.
Focus on your achievements, not just your duties. Note down your past roles, and find ways to demonstrate quantifiable achievements. What did you achieve in your past role? What did you learn? How did you take this company further? Recruiters love to see the ways you made a tangible impact on the company – not just the WHAT, but the how.
When you’re listing bullet points under your experience section think “What was the action I took in this role + What was the impact this had?” Highlight your achievements in a meaningful and powerful way if you want recruiters to sit up and recognise how valuable you are.
Quantify experiences to express the size or scale of projects, including budgets and results where appropriate.
Wherever possible, use keywords relevant to your desired position.
For example, a recruiter may be looking for an ‘agile’ employee. Here is where you could discuss your experience with working from home, and your ability to connect with fellow teammates from anywhere in the world.
Perhaps you could discuss a remote job through a Covid-19 lockdown, with tangible examples of what you achieved through this time. Look at ways you can show that you have worked in an ‘Agile’ manner, bringing people, processes, connectivity and technology, time and place together for a successful outcome. You could also discuss a role wherein you sought to find the most appropriate and effective way of working to carry out a particular task. Agile working is about working within guidelines (of the task) but without boundaries (of how you achieve it).
Once you seek out such keywords or even the desired behavioural traits of their future employee, then do your best to highlight to a recruiter that you fit the bill.
Positive language involves telling people what you CAN do for them rather than what you CAN’T. Use words that show that you are a positive person and how you will contribute positively to your new team and organisation.
Words like ‘managed’, ‘optimised’, ‘developed’ and ‘reduced’ are all ‘Power’ or ‘Strong Verbs’ and show you are proactive, effective and positive!
Don’t include criticism of previous roles or organisations – that isn’t professional; but if there were challenges, describe positively how you overcame them.
Your career history should be listed in reverse chronological order – that is – most recent first, then going back to your earliest.
If there are similarities between a previous employer or role, make sure you point it out. Provide extra information on the parallels you are drawing. It may be that the person reading your CV, the HR or Hiring Manager has no knowledge of your previous company and isn’t going to go looking for it.
A good example might be that your previous employer had many clients in the professional services sector if this is a sector that is important to the company you are now looking to work for.
Overall remember to keep your Work Experience section clear. Sentences should be concise, factual and focused on accomplishments.
This is your time to shine!