If you are using a chronological resume, you will list your work history after your summary of qualifications. You can title this section “Work Experience,” “Job Experience,” “Relevant Work (or Job) Experience and Accomplishments,” or anything else you feel makes sense for you. The first job you will list is your current job. If you are not currently employed, you should list your most recent job first. Then go on to list each job you've had.

Dates of Employment and Job Information

At the beginning of each entry indicate the period of time during which you worked at the job. Use years only. You should not use specific dates, which include month, day, and year.

The next part of this entry is your job title. Use your actual job title even if it doesn't adequately describe the work you did. If someone checks your references and is told you had a job title that isn't the one you listed on your resume, you will look dishonest, even if your intentions were innocent. The name of the employer and the city in which you worked should follow this.

The Job Description

Now comes the most important part: writing the job description. This is the part of your resume that will let a prospective employer know what you will bring to her company. Some people think a job description should look like this: “Responsible for supervising five people.” This job description does not tell the employer a lot about you.

Anyone who is looking at your resume and considering whether you would be a worthy candidate to interview for a job wants to know if you have the right qualifications. She wants to learn about you and what you can bring to the job.

Describe your job in terms of your accomplishments. By highlighting your accomplishments you will illustrate to an employer what you already accomplished and infer what you can accomplish if you were to work for her. Instead of saying “Responsible for supervising five people,” you should say, “Delegated responsibilities to a team of five people according to each member's skills.” That gives the employer a more concrete idea of what you did on that job. Continue to list your other accomplishments in a similar fashion.

Always start each accomplishment or description with an action word — something that describes the effort you took to accomplish a task. Here are some examples of action words:

Action words are powerful. When a hiring manager or someone in human resources quickly scans your resume, these words should jump out at her. Action words speak on your behalf, saying “Hey, look at this. This person has what we're looking for.”