How to Improve the Experience Section

What you will learn

Experience entries explain the work you have actually done. Readers need enough context to understand your responsibilities, contribution, and level of involvement. A strong entry makes your evidence clear without inflating your title or inventing results.

• Record accurate roles, organisations, and dates.
• Turn broad responsibilities into specific contributions.
• Distinguish employment, volunteering, freelance work, and personal projects.

Start with accurate context

Use your real job title, organisation, employment context, and dates. If a title is unfamiliar, explain its responsibilities in the description rather than replacing it with a more senior title. Mark a current role as current only while you hold it.

Include relevant internships, freelance work, part-time employment, and volunteering with their genuine context. A real freelance engagement should explain the work without breaching a client agreement. Volunteer experience can use a suitable volunteer section or be clearly labelled wherever presented.

Personal and academic projects are useful evidence but are not employment. Present them as projects, coursework, or training, using appropriate profile sections or a clearly labelled description. Never create a fictional company or imply a course was a paid role.

Use action + work + tools or approach + result

Start with a specific action: built, investigated, analysed, documented, tested, supported, or coordinated. Explain what you worked on, how you approached it, and what was delivered or learned. Keep enough detail for a reader to ask a sensible follow-up question.

Numerical results help only when accurate and explainable. You can show value through a working feature, a documented process, a resolved issue, a tested report, or a clear handover. Do not invent percentage improvements because a template includes a number.

Work through one entry

Choose a contribution you remember well. Write the context privately first, then remove details that do not help a reader understand your relevant work.

1. Identify the problem or responsibility and who needed the work.
2. Record what you personally did, separating your work from the team’s overall outcome.
3. Name relevant tools or methods and explain why they were used when useful.
4. Add a verifiable deliverable or result; state limitations rather than inventing a metric.
5. Edit for clarity and check the claim with a colleague or your own notes.

Use transferable experience with care

A non-technical job can demonstrate communication, reliability, coordination, or problem-solving. Explain the actual activity, then connect it to your target role in About or a relevant skills example.

For example, resolving customer queries and keeping accurate records can support an IT support direction. It does not establish that you administered a network. Keep the original role title and describe the actual customer or process contribution.

Remove confidential names, customer records, internal screenshots, security details, and unpublished business information. Ask permission before sharing work artifacts. A public explanation of your method can be useful even when the original material cannot be shared.

Common mistakes and corrections

A list of duties alone leaves the reader guessing what you contributed. Unsupported “led” or “owned” claims can misrepresent a junior contribution. Overlong tool lists hide the actual work.

• Replace “worked on” with a specific action and deliverable.
• Keep titles, dates, and organisations consistent with your CV.
• Use “contributed to” when the result was shared, then name your own work.
• Label projects, placements, and voluntary work honestly.
• Use a clear deliverable when no reliable numerical result exists.

Practical activity: rewrite three contributions

Choose an entry from employment, a placement, volunteering, or another genuine activity. Rewrite three descriptions using action, work, approach, and result. Underline the personal contribution and check every number. Ask whether a reader can understand the activity without insider knowledge.

Context and accurate title: [actual role or activity]
Organisation or setting: [genuine context]
Dates and status: [checked dates]

- [Action] [what you did] using [tool or approach], producing [verifiable result or deliverable].
- [Action] [second contribution], with [evidence or useful detail].
- [Action] [third contribution], explaining [outcome or learning].

Check: What did I personally do? Can I explain the result? Is any information confidential?

• Harvard Mignone Center — Create a strong resume: evidence-based descriptions and action verbs (U.S. resume context) (opens in a new tab)
• Yale Office of Career Strategy — Resume resources: examples for describing genuine contributions (U.S. context) (opens in a new tab)
• Describe experience and achievements: develop evidence-based CV bullet points