How to write the work history section of your CV

Your work-history section should explain where you worked, what you were responsible for and what you achieved. Use it to connect your experience with the role you want, giving readers enough context to understand your contribution.

This guide covers how to organise the section and choose evidence. For detailed achievement-writing frameworks and downloadable worksheets, use the supporting guides to the STAR method and the CAR method.

Start with a clear employment timeline

List roles in reverse chronological order, normally starting with your most recent job. Give the job title, employer and dates consistently. Add a short explanation of the role or organisation where it helps a reader understand your responsibilities.

Give more detail to relevant roles and summarise older or less relevant experience. Keep the timeline understandable rather than removing jobs in a way that creates unexplained gaps. If you were promoted, group positions under the same employer where useful, while keeping each title and its dates clear.

A complete employment section

Fictional example for an office support vacancy. Give the recent relevant role more space; retain the older role and dates so the chronology stays clear.

Why the space differs: The first role supplies the context, a relevant responsibility and two outcomes for an office vacancy. The retail role keeps useful background visible in one line. Its duties could receive more detail in an application for a retail position.

Choose examples that match the vacancy

Read the job description and identify the skills and responsibilities you need to demonstrate. Select examples that show those requirements in practice. Your most impressive sales result may be useful for a sales vacancy, while coordinating a team or improving a process may be more relevant for an operations role.

For a career change or a first job, consider transferable evidence from volunteering, placements, study projects or other relevant experience. Explain the context accurately. Our guide to tailoring your CV shows how to match evidence to an employer’s needs.

Balance responsibilities with achievements

A short description of your responsibilities gives context, but a list of duties alone does not show how you performed. Add a few concise examples of the difference your work made. Start with your action, include useful context and finish with the outcome.

For illustration, “Responsible for customer enquiries” could become “Created a shared guide to recurring customer questions, helping new colleagues give consistent answers.” If you have reliable figures, you could add the change in response time or feedback over a defined period.

Sales figures, budgets, volumes, timescales and team sizes can help explain scale. Results can also include a process adopted by colleagues, a difficult complaint resolved or positive feedback. Do not invent numbers, disclose confidential information or claim a whole team’s work as your own.

Use STAR or CAR to plan achievement bullets

Both methods help you move from a vague claim to a specific example. You can use either as a planning tool without printing the framework labels on your CV.

• STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Useful when the context and your responsibility need to be distinguished. The focused guide includes examples and a worksheet.
• CAR: Challenge, Action, Result. Useful when you can explain the context as a single challenge or goal. The focused guide covers CVs, cover letters and interviews.

Draft the full example, then shorten it for your CV. Keep enough context to make the action and result meaningful. For illustration: “Introduced a weekly check of delivery notes against received stock, helping the supervisor resolve recurring discrepancies before orders were closed.” Replace this example with your own accurate details.

Show progression and keep the section readable

Promotions, expanded responsibilities, completed training and recognition can all show progression. Explain what changed and, where known, why you were trusted with the additional responsibility. Avoid assuming a job title alone tells the reader what you achieved.

Use short bullets and put the most relevant evidence first within each role. Check consistent tense, dates and formatting. Keep a record of achievements as they happen so future applications are easier to prepare.

Promotions, agency work and self-employment

These separate fictional examples show how to label the relationship and dates. Do not imply that an agency’s client employed you directly.

If assignments overlap, say so. For self-employment, describe the service and your own responsibilities; informal paid work still counts as experience.

Improve a duty only when the facts support it

Our retail assistant example includes duties such as working on tills and checking deliveries. Before editing “checked deliveries”, ask: what records were compared, what discrepancy was found, what did the applicant do and what happened next?

If the applicant can confirm those facts: “Compared delivery notes with received stock and reported a missing carton before signing off the delivery, allowing the supervisor to arrange a replacement.” If no outcome is known, “Checked received stock against delivery notes and reported discrepancies to the supervisor” is still precise. Do not manufacture a sales gain.

Check your work-history section

• Are job titles, employers and dates accurate and easy to follow?
• Does each detailed role explain the relevant responsibility and your contribution?
• Do your strongest examples match the vacancy?
• Are figures, outcomes and claims supported by your experience?
• Have you kept enough context while removing repetition?

For the rest of your application, see 10 ways to create a successful CV and our CV structure and format guide.