Every resume you make will include your employment history. Your employment history will include four main details that provide crucial information to the potential employer.
How you order these items on your resume is up to you, but keep in mind which of your professional life items is most impressive. Try to think like a recruiter; What do you want employers to notice and what do you want them to ignore?
company name
The first item on the resume work history checklist is the names of the companies you have worked for. If you’ve worked for a company that has strong brand recognition or just a good reputation in the industry, you may want to emphasize the company name in your employment history.
Be thorough if you have to when including the company name. I have asked job seekers when the background job search matches the name of the parent company rather than the one on their resume.
Dates worked
The next item we want to cover on our resume work history checklist is the dates you worked for a company. The more stable your employment history, the more you’ll want to emphasize this section on your resume.
Depending on how specific you want to be, there are a number of ways to include dates on your resume.
- September 2010 – August 2014
- 8/9/2008 to 10/15/2013
- 1998-2013
You can certainly better manage gaps depending on how you include date information on your resume. However, no matter how hard you try to hide this information, the three or more applications you will complete will eventually ask for specific dates.
I think it’s better to be honest and open with your flaws. Just detail how you’ve improved.
Lease
The third item on your resume work history checklist is the location of the job you worked. This is usually listed as the city and state (Hollywood, CA, for example).
Pretty straight forward information but make sure this information is 100% accurate according to the company as it will make the background check process smoother.
Job title
The last piece of information on your resume work history checklist is your job title. Depending on your previous employers, you may or may not have had an official job title. If you did, stay with him. Even if it’s not the most glorious-sounding job title, it makes things easier when employers call your previous jobs.
If your job title was more up in the air, there’s no reason not to assign yourself an appropriate job title that corresponds with your duties. If you managed others, use manager in your job title. If you led teams of people and staff, use the job title of director.
The most important thing is to be able to explain these job titles by referencing your duties and responsibilities, so make sure they match up.
Organize your work history
With those four points in mind, there are several ways you can list your past employment. Once again, as you look at these examples, keep in mind what you want to emphasize and what you’re trying to gloss over.
company name – hollywood california August 2011 – September 2014
Customer Service Representative
JOB TITLE | Company name 8/2011 to 9/2014
hollywood california
Company name | Job title 2011 – 2014
hollywood california
There are many different ways that you can organize your information. No matter how you put together the employment history section of your resume, make sure that all of your information is correct and consistent. The recruiter should be able to easily identify every piece of information in your employment history just by taking a look at your resume.
