Improving Your CV, Chapter 11: Your CV's Experience section

Part of Course 1: Improving your CV · Chapter 11 of 29 · 22 min

About this chapter

The experience section is the most important part of your CV. I explain how I like it laid out and how to turn duties into outcomes, with an example of a data analyst's bullets.

Key points

• Hiring managers want outcomes, not just duties: ask "so what?" of every bullet.
• Company name first, dates on the right, then a job title that makes sense to outsiders; don't inflate it, and sense-check it against what your boss would say.
• Use bullet points rather than narrative paragraphs, so the reader can scan and compare quickly.
• Start each bullet with two or three bold words as a hook, and aim for a consistent two lines per bullet.
• Use numbers, scale and timeframes, but be careful: too many percentages look suspect, and it helps to say how you achieved them.
• If you're stuck, get it all out of your head first and iterate; your skills list can be a source of ideas for bullets.

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