How to properly organize work history?

May 1, 2012 10:43 AM

Need assistance with resume chronological order of work history.

So how do I go about this?

John Jay College: Research Assistant - January 2012 - Present
D Consulting: Intern - May 2009-Present
Whole Foods Market: Customer Service - August 2007 - Present
South Bronx Youth Court Project: August 2011-December 2011

I'm not sure if I should put my South Bronx Youth Court Project work history above D Consulting and Whole Foods since I'm no longer part of the project, but it's more recent than the latter.

posted by delasoull to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Best answer: There is no law that says the contents of your resume have to be in chronological order, but I think the order you have there is the most "correctly" chronological anyway, in that your current positions are first, and then your other positions are later.

But really, you don't have to put them in time order if you don't want to.
posted by brainmouse at 10:45 AM on May 1, 2012

Best answer: When in doubt, put the one that is more impressive/relevant higher on the page. It might not be strictly correct in terms of how date ordering is supposed to work, but remember, your resume will get maybe 30 seconds of reading time from the hiring manager, so you want to make it count. Use the prime real estate (closest to the top of the page) for the stuff you want people to pay attention to.
posted by decathecting at 10:46 AM on May 1, 2012

Best answer: Okay, here's what you do.

Ex the Whole foods bit, unless you are seeking work in retail.

As for the rest, you can do it most relevant to least relevant.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:48 AM on May 1, 2012

Best answer: agreeing with decathecting. Even if it was in the middle of multiple present work things, I'd put the Court Project second. I'd include the Whole Foods simply showing that you have a responsible job on top of your other work. Even if it is retail, it allows you to talk about time management, responsibility and work ethic.
posted by rich at 10:50 AM on May 1, 2012

Put Whole Foods last. I'd include it without including any details. Do include details about the other jobs -- they're more substantive, so you want them to stand out more than Whole Foods. (Unless you're looking for a job that's more like Whole Foods than the others -- in which case, list Whole Foods first.) It seems worth giving one line to Whole Foods, at least to show that you've been showing up on time at a steady job for years. Also, since you're still working at Whole Foods, it could be awkward to omit this information and then have it come up if and when they make you an offer and want to talk about your availability.
posted by John Cohen at 11:09 AM on May 1, 2012

I arranged my resume to have Relevant Experience and Other Experience sections so relevant but not recent jobs would be more apparent to hiring people. (I also ended up with 3 or 4 different versions tailored to different areas of my general field so I could send the right one off to the right organization.)
posted by telophase at 11:55 AM on May 1, 2012

Agree with telophase - I had a "legal experience" section and an "other experience" section, until the "legal experience" section got long enough that I was able to drop the "other experience completely.

However, I would make sure to have space to include a current job.
posted by insectosaurus at 9:17 PM on May 1, 2012