Your resume is a summary of your work experience. So, the main part of it is a list of your jobs.

How to write it correctly?

For each job you list, you should include:

What to list and what not to list

List relevant jobs.

There is no requirement to list all the jobs you had. Choose wisely.

Past jobs are often less relevant. In this case, you can condense them, merge them, or even remove them completely.

Let’s say you’re an ML Engineer who once worked as a barista at a coffee shop or a receptionist at a hotel.

As an entry-level ML Engineer, you don’t have much experience, so you want to list these jobs.

Use them to show transferable skills. In this case, these are soft skills such as multitasking, managing priorities, or interpersonal skills.

Example:

Barista, ABC Coffee Shop, dates

  • Got really good at handling busy rushes and keeping cool under pressure.
  • Learned how to solve problems on the fly and pay attention to the little things.

Receptionist, Hotel XYZ, dates

  • Learned to juggle multiple tasks at once and keep everything organized.
  • Got better at talking to people and understanding their needs.

 

Once you gain experience, you may wish to condense these jobs into a single section.

Example:

Additional Experience:

  • Barista, ABC Coffee Shop, dates
  • Receptionist, Hotel XYZ, dates

 

List jobs in reverse chronological order, putting the newest ones first.

A recruiter reads resumes from top to bottom. What is higher on the page gets more attention.

Give more weight to the last 5 years or the last 2-3 jobs, whichever took longer.

Job Title

You are not obligated to list the job titles as they stand in your contract.

You can tweak the job titles to match the job you apply for.

Let’s say you did both DevOps and Cloud Engineering tasks. Then you can adjust your job title based on the job you’re applying for to “DevOps Engineer” or to “Cloud Engineer”.

If you have experience in both frontend and backend development, you can call yourself a “Fullstack Developer”. Or, you can present yourself as a “Frontend Javascript Developer”.

The choice depends on what you want to highlight.

It’s not appropriate to change your job title to a role you didn’t hold!

A software developer who assisted with project management tasks should not list “Project Manager” as their job title.

Company

Add some context about the company.

This is equally important whether you worked for a world-famous brand or a lesser-known company.

International companies are big. What exactly did you do?
Did you build a corporate HR portal?
Researched recommendation algorithms?

Add some context before a recruiter moves on to your experience.

Example:

Microsoft, Azure Data engineering
Microsoft, Developer Productivity Services
Microsoft, Data Security team

 

If you worked at a lesser-known company, you can choose what to emphasize. Think about what your past job and the job you are applying for have in common.

Was it a big company?
A startup?
Is it mature?
What kind of business are they in?
What was the product?
Were you on a product team, a services team, or an outsourcing team?

Example:

Tech Company, payment systems integration
Flex Workouts, mobile app startup
MediTrend, an electronic health records system

Job Dates

Specify job dates as year and month.
Year alone doesn’t work.

Example:

January 1, 2023 — December 31, 2024 and
December 15, 2023 — January 14, 2024

If you specify the year alone, both date intervals will appear as 2023—2024. However, the first one is two years and the second is one month.

Do not add exact dates. It adds no useful information and creates noise.

Overlapping dates

It’s fine if you end one job and start the next one in the same month. It’s fine if jobs overlap, too. Be ready to explain why you had two jobs at the same time. For example: transition period, wrapping up projects at your old job, part-time jobs, etc.

Missing dates

Keep it simple: always fill in the dates.

There are common reasons why job seekers don’t want to do this. They may have gaps in their work history, changed jobs often, had short-term jobs, or are currently unemployed.

These reasons should be addressed directly, here is how.

Experience Description

Write 2-3 bullet points showing your major accomplishments at each of your jobs.

This topic is covered in detail in a separate KB article.

Corner Cases

Always indicate a promotion on your resume.

A promotion shows your growth, skills, and value in past roles. It means your work was noticed and you’ve handled more responsibilities over time.

Example:

Senior Software Engineer, XYZ Tech Company, 02/2024—Present

  • …

Software Engineer, XYZ Tech Company, 04/2022—02/2024

  • …

 

Sometimes a promotion doesn’t come with significant changes in responsibilities. You may also feel it clutters up your resume.

Then you can merge the roles under one title. You can then note the promotion in your achievements.

Example:

Software Engineer/Senior Software Engineer, XYZ Tech Company, 04/2022—Present

  • Promoted to Senior Software Engineer in 2024 for excellent performance and tech skills
  • …

Worked on multiple projects within a company

You held the same job title but worked on multiple projects. This is typical for project-based and consulting companies. It also happens in larger companies with diverse internal projects.

It is helpful to list these projects with dates and accomplishments separately.

Example:

Software Engineer, ABC Tech Company, 06/2021—Present

Completed a number of projects, key ones include:

Payment Systems Integration (12/2023—Present)

  • Integrated three major payment gateways, leading to a 15% increase in successful online transactions

MediTrend, Electronic Health Records (01/2023—11/2023)

  • Resolved 90% of compatibility issues after migrating from a legacy vendor system to an in-house solution

Flex Workouts Mobile App (06/2021—12/2022)

  • Designed and implemented scalable APIs using Node.js and MySQL, supporting app growth to over 100,000 active users