The Work History section is the largest part of the resume, and will provide details of your employer, the positions you held, and your achievements. Before we dive into the Achievement Statements (part 2), It’s worth taking a quick look at the employer and positions details you can provide.
In addition to the employers name, address (city and state) and dates, you can also add an employer summary statement.
An employer summary statement is a short sentence that would give the reader an understanding of what the employer did. Include an employer summary statement if you think the reader is unlikely to know the employer, or you need to add some context for each employer.
For example, listing a company simply as “Hotel Le Grand, Anytown, PA” gives the reader some information. Adding an employer summary statement such as “350-bed, 4 star hotel located downtown” gives the reader a context for your experiences, and they can better see how your experiences relate to their needs.
As the above example shows the key is to include only the most important two or three aspects of the employer, such as their size, industry or locations.
Examples:
A $200m, multi-national manufacturer of precision measuring devices.
or
50 person computer software consulting practice.
or
Large full service bank with 20 local branch offices.
When listing your position, you may want to include a position summary statement, which are similar to the employer summary statements and give the reader a better understanding of the role you performed and your responsibilities.
Position summary statements can be as short as one sentence or as long as two or three sentences.
Based on your actual job description, pull out the key elements of your responsibilities that best match the open position, or would provide a better perspective for your achievements.
Short description examples:
Responsible for creating, enhancing and supporting web-based applications.
or
Actively recruited to set up and manage the companies new integrated customer service department.
or
Provide customers with advice and guidance in their fashion purchasing decisions. Maintain an attractive and welcoming shopping environment.
or
Utilize in-depth knowledge of educational principles and practices to construct lesson plans for 7th to 12th grade students.
Long description examples:
Responsible for creating, enhancing and supporting web-based applications. Maintaining release plans, feature and function lists for each release and shepherding each release through the development life cycle. Evaluating new web technologies for inclusion within the company’s tool-set.
or
Actively recruited internally to set up and manage the companies new integrated customer service department. Responsible for choosing and setting up technology infrastructure, including ACD phone system, email system, web-chat, quality monitoring systems. Designed and implemented employee remuneration and incentive scheme, holiday, vacation and sick policy.
