I recently came across a challenge while helping a friend update her resume. The bulk of her experience (10 years' worth) had been with one company, where she had progressed from sales associate to assistant manager to store manager. Talk about moving up the ladder! Her problem was that her experience didn't appear all that impressive on her resume, since
it looked like she had just one job for 10 years, rather than three progressively more responsible jobs.
Does this situation sound familiar? After some brainstorming and consultation with my Pongo colleagues, we came up with a clear approach to address this on her resume.
For story-telling purposes, here's an overview of her most recent work history:
2008-Present Townville School District, Substitute Teacher
2006-2008 Wee Care Daycare, School Age Teacher
1996-2006 National Book Seller, Manager, Assistant Manager, Sales Associate
And here are three different ways you can incorporate this "multiple titles/one company" scenario on your resume:
1) If you need to fill in some white space on your resume to make it reach a full page, then list them all as separate positions with bullets of accomplishments under each.
Example:
Manager, National Book Seller (2003-2006)
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
Assistant Manager, National Book Seller (2002-2003)
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
Sales Associate, National Book Seller (1996-2002)
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
2) If you have more experience to put on your resume besides that one company, list the individual job titles in chronological order (newest first). Then, add your relevant accomplishments and responsibilities from all the positions in one bullet list.
Example:
Manager, National Book Seller (2003-2006)
Assistant Manager, National Book Seller (2002-2003)
Sales Associate, National Book Seller (1996-2002)
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
3) Another space-saving approach is to list one company heading, showing your total time with the company, then also list the dates that apply to each position title. Since it's very similar to the second example, this alternative is a matter of style. Take into account how it looks on your resume when stacked up against everything else.
Example:
Nov. 1996 to Aug. 2006
National Book Seller, Somewhere, CT
Manager (2003-2006)
Assistant Manager (2002-2003)
Sales Associate (1996-2002)
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
• Accomplishment or responsibility
If all of your experience has been with just one employer, turn to Rick Saia's post, How to Build a Resume after Many Years with 1 Employer, to get some more ideas about presenting your experience in its best light on your resume.
Questions? Post them in the comments section below.