There are a lot of different parts of your resume. Your education, work experience, objective or summary, skills, dates and contact information. But have you ever thought about what the most important part of your resume is? It’s a good thing to think about because recruiters and hiring managers on average only spend 5-7 SECONDS looking at resumes. You want your resume to stand out and not get thrown in the trash so that is why it important to focus in on what they are going to look at during those precious 5 seconds!
So what is the most important part? I have looked at A LOT of resumes at my company so what is the first thing I look at?
YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE
Everything you have done up until this point makes you the unique person that you are. No other person has the same work experiences as you. The trick is to tell the story during the interview and in your resume. You have to tell a story that shows how many amazing things you have done and how you can do the same amazing things at the next job that you work at.
Many people don’t think they have enough or “good enough” work experiences but the trick is how you frame it. Even if you worked at McDonald’s, you can still demonstrate challenges you faced and overcame in that job that has made you the person that you are today. Before you submit your resume or head out for an interview, take a moment to write down all of our previous work experiences and dig deep to determine the challenges and obstacles that you overcame. Hopefully, this will help you see how unique you are and what value you can bring to your future employer!
Why Experience Matters Most In Your Job Search
This exercise will help you determine what positions you may have the experiences necessary to get a job in. It will also help you see what you are missing so that you can obtain additional experiences in the future. It is so important on your resume not just to list jobs that you have had and what you have done but also to list problems you solved and awesome results you helped to create. Today’s exercise will help you prepare you for creating your resume for your dream job. Work experience will also give you an idea of the reality of working in your chosen field. It may help you confirm it’s really what you want to do.
Why Experience Matters To Organizations
When organizations go to hire employees they want the person they hire to be productive from day one. However, if a new employee already has practical experiences as well as academic knowledge, it’ll help them settle into the job more quickly and start making a difference right off the bat!
So list your work and other experiences by position and industry below. Include your volunteer experiences and any college activities or groups that you joined.
How To Create a Work Experience Story
The three elements of a work experience story are:
- Challenge or circumstance when you began the project or task.
- Action you took to create a result or solve a problem.
- Result that followed, quantified whenever possible
Here is an example of a work experience story:
Challenge: When I was promoted to sales and marketing director, we were the lowest performing team. My challenge was to bring the sales and overall performance numbers up as quickly as possible.
Action: To do so, I met with the five person sales staff and established five aggressive goals for the next six to twelve months.
Result: Within 90 days, sales were up 10%.
Now, write at least three work experience stories yourself. Click here to download the worksheet.
Job Title:
Challenge:
Action:
Result: