Category: Work Experience

Should You List Every Job on Your Resume?

One of the questions I’m asked frequently is whether a job seeker should include every job on their resume. You should provide a complete and honest picture of your background. For most job seekers, this means listing everything. There are a few exceptions. One significant exception is when a person makes a major shift in their career.

One of the questions I’m asked frequently is whether a job seeker should include every job on their resume. You should provide a complete and honest picture of your background. For most job seekers, this means listing everything. There are a few exceptions.  One significant exception is when a person makes a major shift in their career.

This week, I read the resume of a job seeker that had held an entry level admin position at the start of his career. He then joined the military. The candidate’s work experience prior to the military totaled less than a year. The candidate served in the military for twenty years and is now transitioning.

The admin experience prior to the military has no relationship to the progression within the military or the career objective the candidate is currently pursuing. It is also more than twenty years old. There is no reason to include the work experience prior to the military service on the resume. Omitting this information will not mislead an employer and will not change the impression the resume makes. It will make room for more relevant and important information.

Where do you draw the line?

An entry level admin position held for less than a year more than 20 years ago isn’t significant to a person’s career progression. Making this position more recent, a longer duration or related to the job seeker’s career field could make it important to include on the resume. The challenge is knowing when the position becomes significant and when it isn’t.

Generally, you should list any positions you have held in the last ten to twenty years. If you had a full-time position and a part-time position at the same time, you may omit the part-time role, especially if it is unrelated to your primary career.

An entry level position early in your career may be important to list even if it is twenty or more years ago if the position establishes the start to a career progression. Individuals that stay in the same career field, progressing upward to increasing levels of responsibility can show a consistent pattern of success through the promotions they have received. To do this, you need to show the starting point – an entry level position where you got your start.

In the case of the resume I read, the initial admin position had nothing to do with the military career. Omitting it wouldn’t detract from the career progression. The job seeker should show all of his military positions. This establishes the start of the career progression.

If you need help determining what to include in your resume, get help from a resume writer.

Reverse Chronological Order

The most common resume structure is the Chronological resume. The name is a misnomer though. A chronological resume should be in reverse chronological order, with the most recent information at the top and oldest at the bottom of the resume.

The most common resume structure is the Chronological resume. The name is a misnomer though. A chronological resume should be in reverse chronological order, with the most recent information at the top and oldest at the bottom of the resume.

There is a good reason why this structure is so common and effective. A resume is a sales pitch for the job seeker. The sales pitch should start with the most persuasive and impressive information at the top. The most recent experience usually makes the the best impression.

For the vast majority of job seekers, listing the most recent job first is not news. Despite this, there are job seekers that continue to make mistakes. I’m currently conducting a resume study, similar to the resume benchmarking survey we did last year. So far, I have run into several chronological resumes that either start with the oldest job or have the jobs in an order unrelated to the dates of the jobs.

The reverse chronological order is so common, you should not deviate. Choosing a different order for your work experience will draw attention away from your skills and experience and cause the reader to question why the order is different from normal. You only have a short time to make a good first impression. Wasting even a few seconds can hurt your chances. The time the hiring manager spends thinking about the structure is time they are not thinking about the content of your resume.

Choosing something other than reverse chronological order for work experience is rare, but is more common with other sections the resume. I’ve read a number of resumes that list training and education in unusual orders. For example, one resume listed the bachelor’s first, then the master’s degree.  This wouldn’t have been as big a problem if the degrees had not be mixed in with a list of training classes. This caused me to almost miss the master’s degree.

When listing your education, degrees are listed separate from training classes. They should also be listed in reverse chronological order. This should place the most advanced degree at the top of the education section. Training classes can be included within the education section, or in a separate training section. These should also be listed in a reverse chronological order. You may want to put your degrees near the top of your resume, but your training classes should be at the end. They are far less significant and should be placed after more critical information.

If you have other sections that list experience, place these in reverse chronological order. For example, someone in the construction industry might have a section of their resume with a project list. This list should be in reverse chronological order.

Now there are other organizational options that need to be considered. Dates are important, but grouping information by type and function is also important. I mentioned that a person’s education should be organized with degrees and training classes separate. The same can happen with the construction example. Projects in construction may be organized by building type. Within the building type sections, we go back to the reverse chronological order.

The work experience order can have one major issue that may cause a person to break their experience into different sections. There are job seekers that concurrently have two different careers. This is common with military reservists. The job seeker can have a civilian career at the same time they have a military career. Listing two work experience sections, one for military and one for civilian work can make the resume easier to read and understand. Other individuals may have a business they run outside of work. Others may have significant volunteer work. Separating these roles from their career is good idea. In both experience sections, the reverse chronological order should be maintained.

When you write your resume, group information in the sections that make it easiest read.  For most people, this will include a summary, work experience, eduction, skills and training.  Each of these sections should then be in reverse chronological order.  If you consider breaking up information into other sections or a different order, get someone to do a resume review.  Make sure your organization makes your resume easier to read, not harder.  It is likely your resume will only get a 15-30 second look before the hiring manager decides to keep reading or throw it away.  Don’t waste a second.

Should My Education or Work Experience Go First on My Resume

Deciding the order of information on your resume is an important step in your search.  The order indicates the relative importance of information.  The content at the top of the first page is most likely to be read.  As you progress to the end, it becomes less likely the hiring manager will read everything.

This is similar to the way a newspaper is organized.  The most significant and important stories are put on the first page at the top.  On TV, you see this with lead story in a news program.  In fact, almost every media, including books, magazines, movies and music, is structured with the most appealing content at the top.

Your resume should be organized in a similar manner.  What is the most important aspect of your background?  This goes at the top.  Let’s look at a few examples:

New College Graduate:  Individuals that recently (in the last year or two) graduated with a bachelors, masters or PhD should put this at the top of their resume.  This is the most significant element of their background and demonstrates their potential for a new career.

Technical Experts:  Engineering, IT and other technical specialties prioritize technical skill very high.  Often, the skill level with specific technologies or disciplines is more important to a hiring manager than anything else.  In this case, the technical skills should be featured.  This can be done by starting the resume with an executive summary or a skills section that demonstrates these skills.

Experienced Professionals:  Individuals that have worked in a field for a number of years usually will want to lead with their experience.  Starting the resume with an executive summary and then the work experience section makes the most sense.  It highlights the experience doing the job that the job seeker is pursuing.  Often, prior experience in the same role is the most important attribute a hiring manager wants.

Career Changers:  If you are attempting to change career fields, your decision of what to prioritize may change.  Your experience won’t be as significant in the new field.  In this case, you may want to highlight your transferrable skills or your education first.

Unusual Specialties:  There are some experiences, skills and abilities that are unusual and in high demand.  Being able to speak a foreign language, possessing a government security clearance or experience managing hospital construction projects are examples of specialties that are rare.  They are often non-negotiable requirements for some positions.  There are a lot of specialties that are rare and in demand.  If you possess have experience in one of these areas, it should be highlighted on your resume.

Bottom line: Approach your resume as a sales pitch for your background.  Lead with your strengths and make the best impression.

Resume of a Failed Business Owner

I read a resume today from an individual that had been running a company they started more than five years ago.  The company was in the movie industry.

The job seeker had successfully started their company and kept it alive for over five years.  They also have produced several multi-million dollar films in that time, raising the required capital along the way. 

This is good experience and shows the scope of this individual’s responsibility.  The problem was that the performance of the company was never discussed. 

Having a large budget doesn’t make someone a success.  Controlling costs and producing a profit are critical to a business’s success.  This information was left out of the resume.

It’s likely that the job seeker is looking for a job because their business has failed or is in the process of failing.  This isn’t a career stopper, in fact, keeping a business running for as long as this individual did and going through the decline and failure was probably one of the best learning experiences in this person’s career. 

So what should they do?  The first thing is to not hide what happened.  By not saying what happened to the company, a hiring manager is going to assume it failed – so confirming that isn’t going to make a worse impression.  It’s likely that the reality of the situation isn’t as bad as the image a hiring manager will imagine.

The next thing to do is discuss some of the successes along the way.  When a person has a business fail, it’s easy to dwell on the failure. Getting hired requires recognizing and promoting the successes. A business doesn’t survive as long as this one did if it never turned a profit.  Talking about the specific projects that were successful will help demonstrate the capabilities of the job seeker.

On this resume, there were lots of numbers stating how big the projects where and how much was spent.  There was nothing about revenues or profits – just expenses.  Anyone can have expenses – generating sales and profits are the key.

The job seeker should emphasize their strengths.  It is likely the individual was very good at one or more aspects of the business – promotions, production, administration, etc. – unfortunately, their resume isn’t clear on this.  Identifying these strengths and highlighting them in the resume will help make the case that this individual could be a valued employee.

The job seeker didn’t highlight any successes and they didn’t explain the failure.  All we know is that they worked on building this business and it didn’t last.  That’s not a selling point. 

If you are in this situation, highlighting your strengths and accomplishments will help you get interviews. In an interview, it will be important to show what roles are good for you and what roles are similar to the failed venture. You and the employer will want to match your skills to the right role. If you can clearly explain this, the failure will not be career killer.

Resume Work Experience

One of the bullets I see on a lot of sales resumes is very similar to what this sales person wrote:

Create relationships with all levels of personnel as well as cultivate relationships in the managed care arena.

The problem with this is that it does nothing to differentiate the job seeker. I would hope that a sales person would create and cultivate relationships. The added detail of “all levels of personnel” doesn’t stand out either.

The big problem is that the text is very general and appears on a lot of resumes.

Now, this is a candidate that received awards for their sales performance and was the leading sales person in their company. A little more detail would make a huge difference. For example, these bullets make a much bigger impact:

  • Created and developed client relationships resulting in ## new customers totaling $$$K in sales.
  • Maintained excellent customer relationships, with ##% repeat business.
  • Negotiated a contract for $$ million with the CEO of a new account

These bullets require a little more data on the job seeker’s performance.  This extra information makes a huge impact, though.  Not only do they help the job seeker stand out by themselves, they provide the background that validates and reinforces the awards that the job seeker had listed.