What Recruiters Want From Your Work Experience

By Selipha Kihagi

Your CV tells recruiters who you are and how well or not so well qualified you are for a particular position. It is the document that recruiters use to select candidates for the interview stage. This is why when you do not make the cut to an interview, the first place you are advised to look for mistakes is your CV.

With employers’ focus on candidates being work experience, other than diploma or degree qualifications to hire, job seekers need to maximize how they present their work experience on the CV. The work experience section should tell recruitment managers what industry you have worked at, how long you have worked and what positions you held.

For example, if a job requires 2 years of work experience handling various client accounts in Advertising industry, then it is important that in the 5 seconds spent on your CV a recruiter can tell you meet these qualifications. Despite your qualifications, if this information is not clear, chances are recruiters will move on to the next candidate.

So, what are recruiters looking for in your Work Experience?

1. Company Name, Position held and work duration
The work experience section in your CV should ensure that these three are very clear. Once a recruiter skims to the section, they should be able to tell that you have worked in a similar position before even proceeding to your duties and responsibilities. Remember that most recruiters go to the experience section even before the education.

To ensure you communicate your experience effectively, for every job listed have the three written in bold.

2. Duties & Responsibilities
Some job seekers will neatly highlight all the positions held and their respective companies but leave out the duties and responsibilities. This is very wrong. Hardly any recruiter will call you to find out what duties you held in the various positions listed, unless they are short of candidates, which is rare.

Another problem comes when job seekers copy and paste the responsibilities in the Job advert as their own. Recruiters can tell when you are being honest and when you are lying. To impress the recruiter, include only the duties you were tasked with in those roles and those you took up in the job. Never fail to mention the duties.

3. Your Achievements
Suitable candidates for a position are those who can demonstrate their value to potential employers. What greater way to show your value than to point out previous achievements? Achievements do not have to be major awards, it is that difference you made in the position held; it could be more customers or more followers on Facebook.

It could be anything. Just remember to mention one or two under each job, and include figures. Recruiters love figures when it comes to work experience.

4. Industry information
Just writing the name of a company is not always enough, sometimes you have to explain what the company does. Startup companies for example are very many and recruiters can’t keep track of all of them. If a company is not known as is the likes of Safaricom and Cocacola, ask yourself, is this company known? Will the recruiting manager know what this company deals with?

If your answers to these questions are no or maybe or not sure, then you should add information on what the company does. Some jobs require your work experience to be in specific industries, such as manufacturing, advertising, automotive…and so on. Don’t let misinformation deny you a job.

Getting picked for jobs is an intense process and simple mistakes may be the reason you are not hired. Make sure you are always a step ahead.

For assistance on writing your CV, visit our CV Writing page here for more information.