How to List Work Experience on Your Resume (With Examples)

Your work experience section is an overview of your previous job’s responsibilities and achievements that shows you’re qualified for the job you’re applying for.

According to our Hiring Trends Survey, hiring managers rank work experience as the most important part of a resume, so it needs to be clear and easy to scan.

This guide will show you how to list your past roles effectively, with examples you can reference and tailor to suit your needs.

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What to include in your work experience section

Your work experience section should highlight both the roles you’ve held and the impact you’ve made. Each entry should include:

• Your job title
• Company name and location
• Dates of employment (month and year)
• 3–5 bullet points detailing your key responsibilities and accomplishments

How to format your work experience section

A clean, consistent format makes your resume easier to read and helps hiring managers find what they’re looking for quickly.

1. Create a dedicated section for your professional experience

Create a distinct section specifically for your work experience after your contact information and resume summary and choose an appropriate title.

2. List your most recent work experience first

List your most recent work experience at the top of your work experience section, then go back in reverse-chronological order.

Listing your work experience chronologically on your resume shows hiring managers how you’ve progressed in your career and how your skills have developed over time.

For example:

3. Add bullet points to each entry

Bullet points help break down your experience into digestible, scannable pieces of information. They not only make your resume easier to read but also help highlight the most important contributions you made in each role.

Under each job, add 3–5 bullet points that highlight how you used your skills to contribute to the organization’s success.

Your resume should use the present tense for bullet points in your most recent work experience entry and the past tense when writing bullet points for previous roles.

Here’s an example of effective bullet points on a resume:

How to make your work experience stand out

Think of your work experience section as your personal highlight reel. The goal isn’t just to show where you worked, it’s to prove that you delivered results.

Here’s how to write a resume that showcases the value you’d bring to your target role:

1. Describe achievements instead of responsibilities

Emphasize accomplishments on your resume instead of just listing your past job responsibilities. This transforms your resume from a mundane list of tasks to an engaging narrative of your professional contributions.

Compare these examples to see how effectively listing achievements can strengthen your resume:

2. Tailor your bullet points to the job you want

While it might sound time-consuming, your work experience bullet points shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all.

Take the time to write targeted bullet points that showcase specific skills and experience related to the job you’re applying for.

Carefully review the job posting, identifying important keywords and qualifications to make sure your resume matches what the company wants.

Then, incorporate some of those keywords naturally into your bullet points, like this:

3. Begin each bullet point with an action verb

Hiring managers see tons of resumes that start each bullet point with phrases like “responsible for” and “tasked with.”

Language like this is passive and doesn’t describe what you actually achieved at work.

Instead, you should begin your bullet points with descriptive action verbs that clearly show hiring managers what you accomplished in previous roles.

Here are some examples of action verbs being used to effectively describe a job seeker’s work experience:

• Organized a work safety initiative that saved the company money on worker’s comp
• Developed new communications protocols that improved connectivity between the company and clients
• Optimized product delivery logistics that accelerated order fulfillment for customers

4. Add numbers to back up your achievements

Whenever possible, use numbers to quantify your accomplishments. Hard data makes your achievements more credible and shows the scope, speed, or significance of your work.

Here are some examples of work experience bullet points that include numbers:

• Increased annual sales by 30% by running a marketing campaign in a new market
• Saved the company $280,000 per year on printing costs by purchasing two high-end printers and supervising user training

To quantify your own resume, consider mentioning:

• Clients acquired
• Dollars saved
• Customer satisfaction increased
• Revenue generated
• Employees trained/managed
• Customers served
• Expenses reduced
• Attrition rate decreased
• Sales numbers improved
• Deadlines met or projects completed on time
• Conversion rates
• Compliance scores
• Number of processes automated or streamlined
• Quality control improvements

Real work experience section examples

Use these real-world examples as inspiration when writing your own work experience section.

Entry-level applicant

Mid-career applicant

Senior-level applicant

Volunteer work

Frequently asked questions about writing a work experience section

Here are some frequently asked questions about how to put work experience on a resume:

Can I just put years on my resume?

Yes, you can just put years on your resume. Leaving the exact months you were employed off of your resume is an acceptable way to downplay a gap in your work history and make your experience appear more consistent.

However, don’t imply you worked somewhere for a year when you only worked there a month. If employers think you’re lying on your resume, they won’t hire you.

How far back should my experience go?

A good rule of thumb is to include the last 10–15 years of relevant experience. For most industries, hiring managers are most interested in your recent work. However, you can go back further if the older role is highly relevant to the job you’re applying for.

What jobs should you put on a resume?

You should put relevant jobs on a resume. That includes:

• Full-time and part-time roles
• Internships
• Freelance or contract work
• Volunteer roles that provided you with transferable skills

You can also include other jobs if they demonstrate transferable skills for the position you want. You don’t need to include every job you’ve ever had, just the ones that tell the right story about your qualifications.

Can you leave jobs off your resume?

Yes, you can leave jobs off your resume. Your resume is an overview of your most relevant experience and skills for a specific position, not a list of every job you’ve held.

You can (and should) highlight any position that’s relevant to the job you want, while leaving off any jobs that don’t improve your chances of getting hired. For example, any older jobs that aren’t important to your current career path (like a babysitting job you had as a teenager)should be left off your resume.

How do I explain gaps in my employment history?

If you have a gap in your resume, briefly address it in your cover letter if needed, and focus on how you used that time productively. Examples include:

• Taking courses or earning certifications
• Freelance, volunteer, or contract work
• Caregiving or health-related reasons

Be honest, but keep the focus on the skills and strengths you bring to the table now.