💼 Work Experience

List in Reverse Chronological Order

• Your most recent job should appear at the top.
• Resume reviewers read from top to bottom and prefer seeing the most recent experience first (since it’s the most relevant).

Use General Job Titles

• It’s better to use general job titles rather than the company-specific ones to help reviewers understand your role. For example, if your official title was IT Admin but you were doing Software Engineer work, list yourself as a Software Engineer.
• It’s common to leave out the “Junior” in job titles and use levels like Software Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, or Staff Software Engineer to reflect your experience and role.
• For instance, in the finance industry, “Associate” or “Vice President” might be used instead of Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer, which can confuse reviewers unless you’re applying for another finance job.
• Avoid internal company jargon (product names, project titles) that resume reviewers won’t understand.

Recommended Date Format

• Use Jan 2025 - Dec 2027 with a mix of letters and numbers.
• Avoid 09/10 - 08/12 since it can be unclear whether 09/10 means September 2010 or October 2009.
• If the position lasted more than five years, it’s fine to just list the years, like 2020 - 2025.

Use Bullet Points

• For readability, use bullet points instead of paragraphs. Resume reviewers are more accustomed to reading bullet points in the Work Experience section.
• Avoid sub-bullet points, as they make your resume more complicated and harder to read. If necessary, limit yourself to one level of sub-bullet points.
• It’s best to use either dots (•) or dashes (-) for bullet points. Avoid using colons (:).

Don’t Use Personal Pronouns

• Since your resume is about your work, there’s no need to use I, We, or Our.
• Everything listed on your resume is assumed to be something you did.

Use Power Verbs

• Starting your bullet points with Power Verbs (or Action Verbs) is a basic but essential resume writing technique. For example, instead of saying Made, use Developed, and instead of Developed, use Led the development of or Spearheaded the resolution of to convey responsibility and initiative.
• You can easily improve your verbs by asking tools like ChatGPT for suggestions. Just input your sentence and ask: “Can you suggest stronger verbs for this sentence?”
• Here’s a helpful resource: Power/Action Verbs for Your Resume and Cover Letter.

Leave Out Routine Tasks

• Don’t include routine tasks in your Work Experience. For example, “Collaborated with team members using Git to develop a web application” is too common to be useful to resume reviewers.
• If this is the first thing a reviewer notices, even well-written sections can be overlooked. Resume reviewers often use a “see one, know all” approach, which is why they can assess a resume in about 7.4 seconds.
• Rather than filling your resume with routine tasks or generic details, focus on readability by using proper spacing and clear formatting.
• Avoid mentioning irrelevant tasks or miscellaneous duties anywhere on your resume.