Career Guide: Detailing Your Work History
Detailing Your Work History
It is not an easy task detailing your work history. Many of us take the everyday aspects of our role for granted. We don’t give a second thought to the daily tasks that are commonplace to us can be the salvation of a prospective employer.
How you represent your duties and responsibilities is important. Remember that your resume has no place for waffle. It is important to keep sentences short and strong. They need to grab the reader’s attention and to do this they need to be short and punchy yet incorporate the necessary detail.
Sentences should be indicate action rather than read like a post mortem of your working life.
See example below:
| EXPERIENCE: Bayside Technologies, Cambridge, MA 2000 – Present Manager § Expansive scope of responsibilities including the execution of accounting, reporting and financial functions for the operations department. § Responsibility for nipsu accounts – New Product Start Ups. § Developed specialized marketing strategies and sales methods. § Competent in financial planning and analysis including cost reduction and performance improvements. § Served as liaison to operations personnel. § Streamlined the administrative, accounting and reporting functions. § Demonstrated improved accounting and reporting processes. § Improved efficiency through elimination of non-value added tasks. § Liaised with IT to create and introduce a new computerized accounting system. |
These sentences create an image of the role and the individuals working style.
You can get a feel for the approach they take to their job and their work ethic.
By keeping the sentences short you have kept the reader’s attention, piqued their interest and will be in a position to expand on this information in detail during your interview.
Many interviewers use the resume to conduct the interview, which allows you some comfort as you will be very familiar with your own resume and its layout and can anticipate to a certain extent the questions that will be put to you.
See also: Career Guide: Preparing for your Interview
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