The Experience-oriented Resume

The Experience-oriented Resume is the type with which most of us are probably familiar. What are highlighted in this format are your past employment positions and your past educational achievements.  Thus, second to this information is what you did in those positions, or what classes you took at that school.

So, if you submit this type of resume you are saying that you have held positions similar to the one you are applying for, and you meet their educational requirements. And this is communicated before the reviewer even reads the page. The format of this type of resume communicates this message without you having to utter a word.

Think of the way this resume looks: it is a list of items that begins with previous employment positions or previous educational institutions. Below or to the side of these headings come the details of the position. But the fact that the title or position is before the duties of that position implies that the position is alike enough to begin with to be located first.

It is especially important, then, in the case of the experience-oriented resume to be choosy about what you include. If you had a job similar to the one you are now applying for, but then your next job was so dissimilar that there is really nothing in common with the one being applied for, it’s not at all unethical to leave the dissimilar one out. We’ll look at a few strategies for doing this later.

For now, what is important is to think about the major sections of this type of resume. The two most important are Work Experience and Education. Following these two, or included within these two sections, come important subsections like Relevant Skills/Abilities, Personal Interests, or Other Skills.

Work Experience:

As the name implies you are going to provide a picture of your past experience and try to show how that qualifies you for the job you’re now applying for. Hence, you want to emphasize that you already have experience in the types of things you’d be doing at the new job.

Start with the title you held for your past job. This can be anything from “Fry Cook” to “Sherriff’s Deputy” but it is important to establish your role at that organization. Next is the name of the organization. Make sure to call it by its most commonly known name. For example, if you worked for IBM, call it IBM, because International Business Machines, Inc. is not as widely recognized. And following the organization’s name list the dates for which you were employed.

Notice that there are a couple of things missing here. First, I don’t suggest you list the place of employment unless it is absolutely necessary. If the organization has many locations, and the location you worked at would somehow be relevant, then list it. Otherwise, leave it out because it’s really not important. The second thing missing is why you left. This is something normally found on applications, but left off of resumes. Again, the relevancy of the information is the key. If they are interested in why you decided to pursue other opportunities, let them ask you at the interview.

Following the dates of employment, we now need to mine the job ad to search for words we can use to describe what we did at this job. A lot of my students fail to see why then need to list this part if they list their title. It should be obvious, they tell me, what a “fry cook” does. I normally counter this with a personal example. I worked for a company one time where my official title was “information developer.” This is the only company in the world where this title exists. In most other organizations that same role is called “technical writer.” So if I was to simply list my title and assume people would understand what that meant I would be wrong, because only someone who’d worked for this company would understand.

So try to identify two or three things that correlate with the responsibilities listed in the job ad. Be sure to use as many of the keywords from the ad as possible. If, for example, you read and corrected files as part of your normal work, and one of the responsibilities of the job you’re applying for is to review office forms, then use the word reviewed, instead of “read and corrected” to describe what you did. It is important for me to point out that I don’t under any circumstances want you to lie or exaggerate about your qualifications. Instead I want you to think creatively about your past jobs and see how duties or responsibilities in those jobs may have been similar to this one. Then, make those similarities clear by using their language.

Once you’ve listed all of your relevant jobs you have a couple of choices, you can either move on to education or include subsections you think may be important. Within work experience I’ve found it’s a good idea to list those attributes important to the work you’ll be doing. For example, if the area in which you’re trying to get the job uses any standard tools or methodologies, add a subsection called “Tool and Methods Proficiencies” and then list those items. You can also list foreign languages you know, computer software or hardware you’re familiar with, etc. 

For technical, professional and business communication help in the Las Cruces, NM area, visit Lanier Infomedia.

Last update: 27-03-2009 13:34