What Does Relevant Experience Mean on a Resume?

Watch our video below to learn six ways to include relevant experience on your resume, brought to you by our career expert Eva:

What is relevant experience?

Relevant experience is any experience that has prepared you to step into the new job you’re applying for.

Companies look for candidates who have knowledge or skills that fit their job descriptions, so including relevant experience on your resume tells employers you’re:

• aware of the job criteria they’re seeking
• qualified for the target role
• easy to train
• capable of handling the work

Employers receive several job applications during busy hiring seasons. That means including relevant experience when making your resume for a job is important because it emphasizes the transferable skills you’ve gained from your previous roles and helps you stand out from other candidates.

Where can I gain relevant experience?

You can gain relevant experience by developing professional work experience through full-time or part-time positions.

Besides your work history, relevant experience can also come from less traditional roles.

Below are other ways to gain relevant experience:

1. Internships

Internships give high school students, recent college graduates, and entry-level candidates a chance to gain short-term work experience at a company.

Paid and unpaid internships on a resume are effective ways to showcase your relevant experience because they:

• provide opportunities to learn more about a company or industry
• give you hands-on experience in the professional world
• teach you several valuable hard and soft skills

And after gaining some work experience and successfully completing your internship, your company can become a work reference or even rehire you for a more permanent role.

2. Volunteer experience

Even though volunteer experience is unpaid, you’ll learn several skills to develop yourself personally and professionally. For instance, volunteering at a kid’s summer camp teaches you valuable hard skills such as event planning and supervising children.

Volunteering also tells employers you’ve gained many soft skills that affect how you interact with your colleagues in professional settings.

These examples are relevant soft skills for the workplace:

• Adaptability
• Communication skills
• Leadership skills
• Management skills
• Organizational skills
• Teamwork

3. Contract or freelance work

Including contract or freelance work on a resume is another way to highlight your relevant work experience for a job and show employers you’ve got the qualifications they’re looking for.

And in addition to sending your resume, you can present employers with a portfolio of your most relevant work as well as recommendations from your previous related jobs.

4. Relevant coursework

Employers know a college education teaches several marketable skills, so mention any coursework that directly applies to your target role.

Including relevant coursework on your resume such as projects, extracurricular activities, or academic achievements communicates that you have the knowledge required for the position, even if you lack professional experience.

5. Hobbies and interests

Adding a relevant hobbies and interests resume section demonstrates to employers you’re a good cultural fit for the team and are passionate about the role or industry you’re applying for.

Just make sure your hobbies and interests are directly applicable to the position or company.

For instance, listening to coding podcasts and building PCs are great hobbies to list on a resume if you’re applying for a developer position, while cooking and singing aren’t as relevant.

How to describe relevant work experience on a resume

Unsure how to present your relevant experience effectively?

Follow these three steps to highlight specific roles and prove to a prospective employer why you’d be a valuable addition to their team:

1. Compare the job description to your current qualifications

First, review the job description for your target role. Read through the requirements and highlight any skills, education, or key duties the company is looking for in a candidate.

Then, reflect on your previous roles and search for any similarities between the job description and your experience or abilities.

2. Be aware of specific keywords

Having relevant experience often means modifying your resume’s specific phrases and keywords to fit what a company is looking for.

Modern companies use applicant tracking software (ATS) to filter applicants’ resumes by scanning for matching keywords from the company’s job criteria. So write an ATS friendly resume by adding the exact keywords from the job description.

For instance, if a company requires “customer care” and “active empathy” for a receptionist role, include those two keywords and follow the exact wording as much as possible when writing your resume.

Here’s an example of a Starbucks Store Manager job description with highlighted keywords and phrases:

3. Modify your work experience section and skills section to reflect the job ad in your resume

After you’ve gathered enough information, tailor your professional experiences and skills section on your resume by removing any irrelevant positions or skills that don’t add value to your target role.

Then, think of ways to reword or modify your skills, achievements, and work experience resume bullet points to fit the job description’s requirements.

Irrelevant skills or examples take up valuable space on your resume, so avoid mentioning skills or experiences that don’t relate back to the job position.

Here’s an example of an applicant’s resume skills for the Starbucks Store Manager role without any relevant experience:

Here’s our applicant’s modified skills list for the Starbucks Store Manager position after using optimized keywords and aligning their relevant experience with the role:

And if you want to put more emphasis on your previous positions, try naming your work experience section “Relevant Experience” and placing your most related and recent work experience at the top of your resume.

Here’s how our applicant’s relevant experience is shown in the work experience bullet points of their Starbucks resume: