Employment History

STANDARD SECTION

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

The centrepiece of any C.V or resume, this is the area where you list all of the positions and roles that cumulatively make up the experience known as your employment history. It Is important to remember that this in no way needs to be limited to only paid roles. Any unpaid roles, volunteer work, or any other duties you’ve performed on behalf of organisations you’ve been involved with can be here listed too

There are 2 ways you can structure the employment history section:

Reverse chronological order is where something is listed from the most recent to the oldest. With reverse chronological order you list your employment history in the order your roles started, meaning your most recent listing goes first, and your oldest listing goes last. This is the most common way to present an employment history on your C.V, and if you have a straightforward employment history, it is the recommended way to structure this section on a C.V or resume

When writing out descriptions in this section avoid using terms like “I,” “and,” “the,”

–           Put the company name (Optional, city and country)

–           The Job title

–           The dates you were employed

–           Then a description of the duties you performed

Keep this concise and to the point. You can either list the duties in this section in the form of bullet points, (up to 6 is recommended). Or you can write it out in the form of a descriptive passage. Descriptive passages should be no longer than a paragraph in length (up to 4 sentences is recommended, although they may sometimes be longer). Be sure to outline not only the most pertinent functional aspects of each role, but to also make the most of any achievements and accomplishments by noting them in your descriptions too

It is also acceptable to divide your employment history into relevant experience and other experience sections. As per the example above – this is referred to as a functional based employment history section, and will allow you to place additional emphasis on the most relevant parts of your employment history. This can be useful when applying for specific types of roles or industries, and can also be a very effective way to present your experience to an employer when there are long gaps in your employment history too

With the functional based format, it is acceptable to list jobs on your C.V even if they more than 10 years old. However, this only pertains to roles that are relevant to the position you are applying for. That’s because the whole purpose of a functional based C.V is to highlight any relevant experience you may have pertaining to the role in question, regardless of when it was, as opposed to focusing on the purely chronologically based timeline found in a reverse chronologically ordered listing.
When composing a functional based employment history section, the section with the relevant experience goes first, with the jobs placed in ascending order (meaning your most recent job goes first), exactly in the same way as you would do with a reverse chronologically ordered employment history section

–           Put the company name (Optional, city and country)

–           The Job title

–          The dates you were employed

–           Then a description of the duties you performed. Keep this concise and to the point. You can either list these duties in the form of bullet points, (up to 6 is recommended). Or you can write this out in the form of a descriptive passage. Descriptive passages should be no longer than a paragraph in length (up to 4 sentences is recommended although they may sometimes be longer). Be sure to outline not only the most pertinent functional aspects of each role, but to also make the most of any achievements or accomplishments by noting them in the description too

The “10-year rule” – How far back should you list the Employment history on your C.V or resume?

You should list the last 10 years of employment history on your C.V, but how many jobs should you list on your C.V if you have a work history that’s lasted longer than 10 years?

If you’ve only have one job that’s simple; you would list that single on job on your C.V from the date you started working it – even if that date goes well past the 10 year limit

If you’ve had multiple jobs over the course of your career, you would list your employment history going back for the last 10 years. However, if the last job before the 10-year threshold goes back a long way, then you have a choice to make

If you’ve had one, or even several jobs that have lasted much less than 10 years combined – then another job before this that pushes your work history well back past the 10 threshold, you should still consider listing all these jobs together, especially if they’re relevant to the position you’re applying for

While the “10-year rule” is a guideline that focuses on the most recent 10 years of work experience, it doesn’t mean excluding earlier roles altogether either

Lastly!!! – Remember that it’s also permissible to omit work history from your C.V or resume if it’s not relevant to the position you’re applying for, or if it doesn’t add value to your application – especially where using a functional based format!!!

Where should I include Employment History on a C.V or Resume?

Contact Details

Profile statement – Career statement, personal statement, or resume objective

Employment History

Education

Skills