LEO: Literacy Education Online Presenting Your Experience in Resumes

Experience sections of resumes demonstrate specifically what you have accomplished during your paid or volunteer work experience. But to be effective, you must describe your experience in concrete terms using language that presents you as you would like to be seen.

• In general, you need to describe your past accomplishments and current work experience in concrete terms. Clarify results with numbers wherever possible since numbers, especially large ones, impress prospective employers.

  Teaching Assistant Mechanical Engineering Technology; Purdue University, 7/97-12/97 Trained and supervised 83 students in gas and arc welding Provided oral and written evaluation for three major projects for each of these students Supervised 6 work-study students who maintained lab equipment Residence Hall Counselor Windsor Halls; Purdue University, 8/97-5/98 Supervised activities of 51 floor residents Planned, implemented, and promoted talks by 12 academic and community members for special program called "Developing Leadership Skills for the 21st Century" Served as liaison between residents and the administration

• Use action verbs like "organized," "coordinated," or "sold" to start descriptions rather than vague lead-ins like "I was responsible for" that lead readers to wonder exactly what you did or what you're hiding. The partial list below may help you think of your work experience in more concrete terms.

  adapted administered advertised advised aided analyzed answered applied arranged assessed assigned audited collaborated completed communicated compiled conducted coordinated corrected counseled created delegated designed

  determined developed directed edited employed established evaluated expanded guided headed hired identified implemented improved increased initiated introduced led managed negotiated operated ordered organized

  originated oversaw planned prepared produced programmed raised rated recruited regulated researched revised scheduled served settled sold solved started supervised systematized taught trained wrote

• Use common vocabulary to market qualifications related to the career area you're applying for. If this area has special grammatical conventions or technical terms, be sure to use them.

  Bechtel Power Corporation Gaithersburg, Maryland; Summer 1998 Summer Intern with Nuclear Staff Thermal-hydraulics Group Calculated three Mile Island reactor drain-down and dry steady-state simulations, which were part of the successful effort to lift the Unit 2 reactor pressure vessel head Completed Farley Reactor Cavity Analysis that produced force and moment histories for the revision of the Farley Final Safety Analysis Report Bechtel Power Corporation Gaithersburg, Maryland; Summer 1997 Summer Intern with Nuclear Staff Thermal-hydraulics Group Asssisted senior engineers with calculations of simulated main steamline breaks, subcompartment and containment analysis Assisted with hydrogen generation calculations for equipment qualifications and igniter box performance Prepared a post data processor for a subcompartment analysis computer code Fabricated a summary chart of containment and subcompartment analysis results of the Thermal-hydraulics Group

• If you have a great deal of non-professional experience, consider splitting it into job-related and non-related categories.

Although this document has described general guidelines for presenting your experience to prospective employers, you'll also need to decide upon the format you'll use to organize your experience. Experience can be presented chronologically, can be ordered according to skills developed or functions performed (job titles). For jobs requiring creative ability, experience can even be presented imaginatively. For more information about these methods of organizing experience in your resume, select a method listed below:

• Chronological Resumes

• Skills Resumes

• Functional Resumes

• Imaginative Resumes

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