Writing
the Experience Section
Focus On Skills and Accomplishments
The Experience section needs to showcase relevant
skills and accomplishments gained through your work
experiences. Write and edit job descriptions for each
position you plan to include.
For each job, draft a bulleted list of all your duties
and responsibilities. Focus on the skills you gained
that may "transfer" into your intended field
and the accomplishments you achieved. Begin each statement
with one of the Power Verbs on the next page. Edit
this list and prioritize your duties and accomplishments
based on the degree of "transferability"
and importance to your reader. |
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Accomplishment
Statements
Each job description should include at least
one accomplishment statement or specific examples
of the contributions you made. These represent
achievements that have had a positive impact:
- The
impact may have been financial, helping
the organization to make or save money.
- Or,
the impact may have been enhancements to
the workplace such as increased productivity,
efficiency, safety, employee morale or customer
satisfaction.
The
key elements of an effective accomplishment
statement are actions and results:
Actions: Describe the specific actions
you took to achieve an objective or solve
a problem using power verbs. Focus on transferable
skills and technical skills that directly
relate to your intended field. Include key
words from the industry (see "Importance
of Keywords" for a description).
Results: Describe the results of your
efforts. Quantify whenever possible, using
percentages, dollars or volume. Accomplishment
statements may begin with the action or the
result. However, leading off with the result
has greater impact. Consider the examples
below:
GOOD Provided customer support and
product training for clients.
BETTER Conducted 10 customer support
and product training programs for 20 client
organizations.
BEST Reduced customer complaints by
20% in a 6 month period by conducting 10 customer
support and product training programs for
20 client organizations.
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Edit
for Success
Review a rough draft of your job duties
and responsibilities to see if any could
be re-written as an accomplishment statement.
Ask yourself:
- What
skill am I trying to illustrate?
- What
were my results? What did I achieve?
- What
impact did this have? How did the
employer benefit?
- Can
I quantify for additional impact?
Each
job description should:
- Begin
with a general overview of your job
function.
- Describe
a specific function focusing on transferable
skills and key words from the industry
(1-3 bullets).
- Include
an accomplishment statement focusing
on contributions and results (1-3
bullets).
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Showcase
Special Skill Sets
Depending on your major, using a
"Skills" section to showcase
special skills and abilities may
help improve the impact of your
resume. It also provides an additional
opportunity to infuse your resume
with the industry key words necessary
to get your resume noticed. This
section can be labeled as follows:
| Technical
Summary |
Professional
Skills |
| Computer
Skills |
Qualifications |
| Laboratory
Skills |
Competencies |
| Relevant
Skills |
Areas
of Expertise |
There
are three ways to present this
information:
- List
concepts, skills and technologies
you are familiar with in a bulleted
or running list.
- Label
groups or categories of skills
using subheadings.
- Use
qualifying phrases to indicate
level of expertise (extensive
knowledge of, experience with,
familiar with, exposure to...).
EXAMPLES
Liberal Arts Majors:
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
- Highly
motivated self-starter with
proven problem solving abilities
- Excellent
communication, customer service
and client relations skills
- Experience
working in fast-paced, time
sensitive environments
- Proficient
using MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
FrontPage, SPSS, HTML and SQL
COMPUTER
SKILLS
- Experienced
with desktop publishing software,
including QuarkXpress, Aldus
Page Maker and MS Publisher
using both Macintosh and IBM
platforms
- Able
to create Excel spreadsheets
and Powerpoint presentations
using MS Office
- Familiar
with HTML and SQL
(Continued)
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