What Is the Work Experience Section?
The work experience section is the most important part of your resume. It is where you prove, with concrete evidence, that you can do the job you are applying for. This section lists your previous positions in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent role, and uses bullet points to highlight what you accomplished in each one.
How to Structure Each Entry
Every work experience entry should include four elements:
- Job title - Your official or functional title.
- Company name and location - The employer and city/state.
- Dates of employment - Month and year for start and end dates.
- Bullet points - Three to six accomplishment-focused statements per role.
Example Entry
Senior Product Designer | Acme Corp, San Francisco, CA | Jan 2022 - Present
- Redesigned the onboarding flow, increasing new user activation by 28% within 90 days.
- Led a cross-functional team of 5 to ship a design system adopted by 3 product teams.
- Reduced average support tickets related to UX confusion by 40% through usability testing.
Writing Effective Bullet Points
Strong bullet points follow a simple pattern: action verb + task + measurable result. Start each bullet with a powerful action verb like "led," "built," "reduced," or "generated." Then describe what you did and the impact it had, using numbers whenever possible.
Weak: "Responsible for managing social media accounts." Strong: "Managed 4 social media channels, growing combined following by 15K and increasing engagement rate by 22%."
How Many Jobs to Include
List the last 10 to 15 years of relevant experience. For most people, that means three to five positions. If you have earlier roles that are directly relevant to the target job, you can include a brief "Earlier Experience" section with job titles and companies only.
Common Mistakes
- Listing duties instead of accomplishments. Hiring managers want to see impact, not a copy of your old job description.
- Including every job you have ever held, including irrelevant part-time work from years ago.
- Using vague language like "assisted with" or "helped to" instead of strong, specific action verbs.
- Omitting dates, which raises red flags for recruiters and can cause ATS parsing errors.
