Experience Section Guide

Your experience section proves you can do the job. It's where recruiters spend the most time, so make every word count.

What to Include

For each position, add:

• Company name - The organization you worked for
• Position/Title - Your official job title
• Start and end dates - Month and year format
• Highlights - 3-5 bullet points describing your achievements

Writing Effective Highlights

The Formula

Action Verb + What You Did + Result/Impact

Weak: "Responsible for managing social media" Strong: "Grew Instagram following from 5K to 25K in 8 months through targeted content strategy"

Weak: "Helped with customer support" Strong: "Resolved 50+ customer tickets daily with 98% satisfaction rating"

Action Verbs by Category

Leadership: Led, Directed, Managed, Supervised, Coordinated, Mentored, Guided Achievement: Achieved, Exceeded, Surpassed, Outperformed, Delivered, Accomplished Creation: Built, Created, Designed, Developed, Launched, Established, Initiated Improvement: Improved, Enhanced, Optimized, Streamlined, Transformed, Modernized Analysis: Analyzed, Assessed, Evaluated, Researched, Identified, Discovered Communication: Presented, Negotiated, Persuaded, Collaborated, Facilitated

Quantify Your Impact

Numbers make your achievements concrete and memorable:

• Revenue: "Generated $2M in new business"
• Growth: "Increased user engagement by 45%"
• Scale: "Managed team of 12 engineers"
• Efficiency: "Reduced processing time by 60%"
• Volume: "Processed 500+ orders daily"

If you don't have exact numbers, use approximations:

• "Approximately 200 customers"
• "Team of 10+"
• "Reduced time by roughly half"

Tips by Experience Level

Entry-Level / Students

What to include:

• Internships (even unpaid ones)
• Part-time jobs (focus on transferable skills)
• Significant volunteer work
• Research positions
• Teaching or tutoring roles

How to write it:

• Focus on skills developed, not just tasks performed
• Highlight any leadership or initiative
• Connect experiences to your target role
• Include relevant projects if work history is limited

Example: "Marketing Intern | Tech Startup | Summer 2024"

• Created social media content that increased engagement by 35%
• Assisted in planning company event for 100+ attendees
• Conducted competitor research that informed Q3 marketing strategy

Mid-Level (3-7 years)

What to include:

• All relevant professional positions
• Key projects and initiatives you led
• Promotions or expanded responsibilities
• Cross-functional collaboration

How to write it:

• Lead with your biggest achievements
• Show progression and growing responsibility
• Highlight leadership and mentorship
• Include scope (team size, budget, etc.)

Example: "Senior Product Manager | SaaS Company | 2021-Present"

• Led product roadmap for core platform used by 50K+ users
• Increased user retention by 25% through feature improvements
• Managed $500K annual budget and team of 3 designers
• Launched mobile app that achieved 4.5-star rating with 10K downloads

Senior-Level (8+ years)

What to include:

• Focus on most recent and relevant roles
• Strategic initiatives and business impact
• Team building and organizational development
• Industry influence (speaking, publications, etc.)

How to write it:

• Emphasize business outcomes over tasks
• Show breadth of impact across organization
• Highlight transformational achievements
• Include executive-level metrics

Example: "VP of Engineering | Growth-Stage Startup | 2019-Present"

• Scaled engineering team from 8 to 45 engineers across 3 offices
• Led technical strategy that enabled company to grow from $5M to $50M ARR
• Established engineering culture and processes that reduced deployment failures by 80%
• Built partnerships with 3 Fortune 500 companies generating $10M in revenue

Career Changers

What to include:

• Focus on transferable skills and relevant accomplishments
• Highlight projects or responsibilities related to target field
• Include relevant certifications or training
• Show initiative in learning new domain

How to write it:

• Translate industry-specific terms to universal language
• Emphasize skills that apply to new field
• Show adaptability and learning ability
• Connect past achievements to future value

Example (Teacher to UX Designer): "High School Teacher | Public School District | 2018-2023"

• Designed curriculum and learning materials for 150+ students annually
• Created interactive presentations that improved test scores by 20%
• Conducted user research (student feedback) to iterate on teaching methods
• Collaborated with cross-functional team of 12 educators on school-wide initiatives

Handling Special Situations

Employment Gaps

Be honest but brief:

• "Career break for family care (2022-2023)"
• "Professional development period - completed AWS certification"
• "Relocation and job search (3 months)"

Short Tenures

If you left quickly, you can:

• Include it if the experience is valuable
• Omit it if under 3 months and not relevant
• Be prepared to explain in interviews

Freelance / Contract Work

Group similar projects: "Freelance Web Developer | Various Clients | 2021-2023"

• Built 15+ websites for small businesses using React and WordPress
• Maintained 100% on-time delivery rate with repeat client rate of 60%

Multiple Roles at Same Company

Show progression: "Company Name | 2019-Present"

Senior Developer (2022-Present)

• Current role highlights...

Developer (2019-2022)

• Previous role highlights...

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Job descriptions instead of achievements - Don't just list responsibilities
• No quantification - Add numbers wherever possible
• Too many bullet points - 3-5 per role is ideal
• Irrelevant details - Focus on what matters for the target job
• Passive voice - Use active verbs ("Led" not "Was responsible for")
• Inconsistent formatting - Keep date formats and structure uniform

Pro Tips

• Tailor highlights for each job application
• Put most impressive achievements first in each role
• Use industry keywords naturally
• Keep older roles shorter (1-2 bullets for 10+ year old positions)
• Have someone else read for clarity

Next Steps

• Add your education
• List your skills
• Get AI feedback