3 ways to boost the work experience section of your CV

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A large part of a CV is taken up with the work experience section. Typically using at least one page of A4, the work history is very important to an employer – and for obvious reasons. There isn’t any substitute for experience, and in many cases you will find that a company prefers this over qualifications.

Apart from entry level positions which mostly attract school leavers, work experience will always play a huge part in the decision of whom to hire. The manager has to work his or her way through the many applications they receive and attempt to filter out the best candidates. One of the best ways to do this is to take into consideration the amount of relevant work experience.

Again, qualifications are not always the number one deciding factor, and when faced with the choice of a candidate who will require very little training and support against someone highly qualified, the decision can often be an easy one.

So, without further ado let’s have a look at 3 ways to boost the work experience section of your CV, and in addition – boost your chances of getting an interview.

1. Demonstrate performance and include achievements

Many candidates fail to show the positive impact of their work on the team or organisation as a whole. The whole point of employing someone is that they can make a contribution to the organisation. – The Telegraph

There are two main ingredients the hiring manager looks for when reading a CV. The first is if the candidate has the right skills, qualifications and experience. All three are not always essential, and experience can sometimes trump the other two. The second ingredient lies within how well the candidate can demonstrate their abilities.

This second ingredient is what we need to focus upon when considering how to present work experience. Let’s begin by looking at two statements and then deciding which one is the more effective:

Example 1

‘During the 3 years I worked for Davis and Smith’s Florists Ltd I gained a lot of experience in dealing with customers.’

Example 2

‘During the 3 years I worked for David and Smith’s Florists Ltd I learned many skills, including till operation, taking transactions, helping customers, resolving complaints and late deliveries. I won ‘Employee of the month’ 8 times and received the ‘Best Customer Service Advisor’ award for 2 years running. I was also the only team member to never deliver an order late or make a mistake with the order.’

You can clearly see from the above two examples that not only did the second one provide more information; it also details skills and achievements. This provides a really good indication of performance and enables the hiring manager to envisage how that individual may perform for them.

“Rather than tell the employer how great you are, show them” – CV Template Master

Consider creating a section on your CV dedicated to achievements, awards and accolades. But be careful not to insert anything which would be categorised as ‘run of the mill’ and would be expected of every employee. You must use this section for outstanding, unique or exceptional achievements only.

2. Gaps in the employment timeline

“Employers do question your employment gap. However, they don’t always ask everything they’re thinking outright. You need to anticipate these questions and assuage their concerns even if they’re unspoken.” – Forbes

An employment gap can sometimes make or break a job seekers chance of success. When the candidate fails to plug that gap with an explanation it leaves the employer open to all sorts of negative assumptions.

Here are a few reasons as to why you may have been out of work for a lengthy spell:

  • Personal health issues or injury
  • Family health issues or care giver
  • A gap year
  • Full time parent
  • In education
  • Volunteering

All of the above examples are perfectly normal and acceptable to the employer. You just needed to explain away the reason and ensure that gap is filled. If you don’t, the employer may assume you were out of work for one of these following reasons:

  • Fails to give a good interview
  • Is lazy and hasn’t looked hard enough for a job
  • May have been ill and isn’t yet fully recovered
  • Could have been in prison

As you can see, all of these examples are very bad for your chances of success. It’s obvious that the employer will likely come to the wrong conclusion and will go down the path of negativity if you don’t provide an honest reason.

So always look to fill any employment gaps of 3 months or more, and avoid any complications with your application. You need the hiring manager to focus upon your credentials and not jump to conclusions, but remember to always be honest. Transparency is always the key to success, and deception will only end in problems for both parties.

3. Irrelevant roles

“Your CV should not be a list of everything you’ve done. It’s purpose is to position you for the role, so decide what’s most important and delete unimportant details.” – The Guardian

If you are at the early stages of your career when reading this then we may just be able to help you realise one important thing. The best piece of advice we would give is to keep everything focused and always stay within the same or similar industry.

Ideally you would always want to have the perfect career progression which shows how you have slowly worked your way up through the ranks. But we appreciate that this isn’t always possible. However, it is possible to make an early decision as to what you want to do. Even if you are unsure of the exact role you want in the next 10 years, you can still choose the right industry for your job satisfaction.

Have you taken a degree at University but then proceeded to get a job that doesn’t need it? This is the kind of thing we are talking about. You need to focus everything towards your future and remember how this will all look in a few years time on your CV.

That now brings us onto irrelevant work experience, and why that could be a huge problem when applying for a job. First of all, the employer will always favour relevant industry experience over anything else – that much is obvious. Although any kind of experience is better than nothing, it may be of no interest if it’s in a completely different role or sector.

The biggest mistake a lot of CV writers make is to assume that their current work experience isn’t relevant and fail to recognise certain skills which could be transferred. These ‘transferable skills’ should be a vital consideration when applying for any job; especially if it differs from anything you’ve done in the past. Even if you are applying within the same industry the employer will still be looking for examples that relate to the role they want to be filled.

Training and support costs time and money, and the less an employer has to give the better. Not only that, but someone who has experience with the right skills will be more likely to perform better and achieve greater results. So how can you use supposedly irrelevant jobs to your advantage?

Don’t be too specific

To help explain how you can show transferable skills and use your experience to propel you into the interview room, here are two seemingly different roles:

  1. ‘Customer service advisor’ for an energy company.
  2. ‘Sales executive’ for a car showroom.

If you were to go by the job advert and what the company has requested, you would probably never apply. This is because you are focusing upon the specifics too much and dismissing any relatable experience you have. Let’s take a look at the types of skills and experience the job advert might request for a sales role:

  • Sales experience
  • Good negotiating skills
  • High product knowledge
  • Able to build up a rapport with customer
  • Hard working and committed
  • Highly motivated and driven to achieve and exceed sales targets

If you were to compare your current skillset and experience from your Customer Service role you would be disappointed that you don’t match hardly any of the demands. However, this is because you are using specifics from your past role and not taking a more generic approach.

Let’s take a look at how you could use your experience to meet the above demands:

  • Sales experience – helped customers choose the best energy plans (sales skills)
  • Good negotiating skills – as above
  • High product knowledge – you are able to learn about any product or service quickly
  • Able to build up a rapport with customer – helped lots of customers over the phone
  • Hard working and committed – easy to demonstrate through your experience (provide examples)
  • Highly motivated and driven to achieve and exceed sales targets – provide examples of your own targets or even that of the teams. For example, dealt with an average of 100 customer complaints per month and answered over 300 phone calls.

An employer is not always expecting to receive applications which tick every single box, but that doesn’t mean to say they would avoid providing specifics on the advert. They understand that transferable skills and relatable or relevant experience is close enough.

Anyone can be trained and can learn all about the product or service, and finding friendly and confident people can be quite hard. Someone who has a proven track record of success in the customer service industry can very easily continue that success through to sales. You just have to make sure your CV proves that you have the potential!

With a much improved CV you should now be ready to receive lots of job offers. But are you? Here’s – How to write a job offer acceptance letter.

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