How To List Recent Jobs on Your Resume

Introduction

Job seekers need to list recent jobs on a resume for various reasons. The process sounds simple enough. List the name of the company, location, dates of employment, job title and duties. And it is that simple, from a formatting standpoint, but job seekers have to be more tactful when listing any job, past or present, on a resume document.

Recruiters and hiring managers won't tell you directly what you should have included or left off your resume document. Instead, they might just discard your entire application, because it is not their job to train job seekers how to properly apply for jobs. In many cases, this is the type of "experience" that many companies are looking for; if you don't have experience on how to create a basic resume document, then what guarantee does the employer have that your "working" experience is actually worthy for the job at hand.

You can prevent hiring employers from expressing doubt about your ability to do the job if you list your more recent jobs in a method that clearly lays out your experience and qualifications.

Step 1

Think about the new job for which you are wanting to submit an application as you think about adding recent jobs to your resume. Your recent jobs should closely match the new job.

For example, if you are applying for an internal promotion for the same company, then you definitely want to list the jobs you have held recently with the same company. Many employers prefer to hire from within because employees have a verifiable record that is commonly maintained by the human resources department. During the application review and interview process, employers can refer to this file. Managers can easily see what recent jobs and positions you have held with the company but it is still a good idea to list the jobs on your resume for the manager's convenience.

Step 2

Organize the dates of your recent jobs from latest to earliest. This is referred to as reverse chronological order.

Step 3

Open your existing resume document in the word processor on PC so that you can add recent jobs.

Alternatively, begin a new resume document from scratch. Create a new section in the document titled "Work History," saving other sections, like the objective and education for later.

Step 4

List your most recent jobs under the Work History section.

Step 5

Save your resume document after you have added your most recent jobs. Print or email the document to hiring employers.

Tips

• Continue to update and add recent jobs to your resume, even when you are not actively applying for new jobs. This allows you to be prepared when a new position becomes available.

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