Resume Writing 101 (Part 2)

Employment history, experience, knowledge, skills…and the kitchen sink

Aug 21, 2006 Angela Thomas-Jones

This article contains the kitchen sink in regards to what you should put in your article regarding employment history, knowledge skills and expert knowledge.

In the first resume writing article in this series, I covered personal details and education. In this article I will cover the different category titles that can be utilised for different types of resumes. Employment or Employment History are probably the standard category title(s) used in most resumes. While this is a good title to begin with, and is ok for a generic resume, you may want to play with the wording if you are creating a job specific document.

One example is if you are an arts sector worker the category of Experience may give you extra room to sell your work history, as well as other project work you may have been involved with, that the defined category of Employment History may have hindered. In a category such as this you may be able to cite non-paid project, freelance and consultancy work and adopt a different style of writing the attributes that are suited to your work genre. Within this section you should still make sure that you put the date of the experience, title and location of work/project completed and the tasks that were involved in the position.

Knowledge is another category that can allow you to state specific information that you have learned. This may be knowledge of computer software and hardware systems or short courses and workshops that you may have attended. This section is often combined with the Skills category - which can remain separate if you have a lot of courses or programs (say you are an IT programme). The skills section often contains personal attributes such as good time management skills, congeniality, an autonomous worker or team player. Depending on the job you are applying for you should tailor this section and really hone in on the personal attributes mentioned in the selection criteria.

Another common element in contemporary resumes (often in industry or for project work) is a Profile section. This may be just a few sentences at the beginning of your resume that state very specific information about knowledge, that you want the employer to recognise. An example of this may be if you are a researcher and you have knowledge in a certain area, or a project worker who has knowledge on certain government documents relating specifically to that job - so a Profile section will state your 'expert knowledge'. Again this section is only brief and is an eye catching bite, which will draw the employer in to read your whole resume.

Remember to be factual, clear and concise with your resume. It should be clearly formatted and contain only relevant information. Always try to tailor your work and experience, if not to the specific job, at least to a specific industry.

The copyright of the article Resume Writing 101 (Part 2) in Parenting Resources is owned by Angela Thomas-Jones. Permission to republish Resume Writing 101 (Part 2) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.