How to Describe Work Experience on a CV (With Examples)

1. Structure each role so it is easy to scan

Give every role the same clean header so a recruiter can orient instantly: job title, company, location, and dates. Put the job title first, because that is what the reader is matching against, and be consistent with your date format down the whole CV. Under the header, add a single optional line of context for the company or your remit if it is not obvious, then move straight into achievement bullets.

List roles in reverse-chronological order, most recent first, and give the most space to your most recent and most relevant jobs. Older roles can shrink to a line or two. This shape mirrors how recruiters read — recent and relevant first — and keeps the section from turning into an undifferentiated wall of text.

2. Write achievements, not duties

The core skill is turning 'what I was supposed to do' into 'what I actually achieved'. A duty describes the job; an achievement describes your impact on it. 'Responsible for the company blog' is a duty. 'Grew blog traffic from 5k to 40k monthly visits in a year, generating 15 percent of inbound leads' is an achievement — same job, completely different signal. Ask of every bullet: what changed because I did this?

Lead each bullet with a strong action verb, add a specific result, and quantify it where you can. The formula is verb, object, outcome: 'Redesigned the checkout flow, cutting cart abandonment 18 percent'. If a bullet has no result and no number, it is probably a duty in disguise, and either it needs a result added or it should be cut.

3. How many bullet points per role

Give your most recent and relevant role four to six bullet points, and taper as you go back — three or four for the previous one, one or two for older jobs. This weighting tells the reader where to focus and keeps the section proportionate. A CV that gives a job from eight years ago the same six bullets as your current role wastes attention on the wrong place.

Quality beats quantity. Four sharp, quantified bullets outperform eight vague ones, because each weak line dilutes the strong ones around it. If you are struggling to reach four good bullets for a recent role, that is a sign to dig for results you have not written down yet, not to pad with duties.

4. Describing your current job and older roles

Write your current role in the present tense ('Lead a team of five', 'Own the reporting pipeline') and past roles in the past tense ('Led', 'Owned'). Keep tenses consistent within each job. For your current position, focus on the achievements you have already delivered rather than aspirations — 'Have grown the account 30 percent since joining' is stronger than 'Aiming to grow the account'.

For roles more than a decade old, or ones unrelated to your target job, compress hard: a single line with title, company, and dates is often enough. You are not obliged to detail every job you have ever held. The section exists to build a case for this application, so spend your space where it does that work and trim the rest.

5. A quick before-and-after

The pattern repeats across every field: replace a duty with a measured achievement, and the same underlying work suddenly persuades.

• Before: 'Responsible for managing social media accounts.' After: 'Grew combined social following from 12k to 90k in 18 months, driving 20% of site traffic.'
• Before: 'Handled customer complaints.' After: 'Resolved 40+ escalations a week, lifting repeat-purchase rate 9% over two quarters.'
• Before: 'Worked on improving the codebase.' After: 'Cut build times from 14 to 4 minutes, saving the team an estimated 30 engineer-hours a week.'