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Have a look at the example below, from a resume that won a job for one new graduate. It combines university and off-campus work experience:

Select Accomplishments

Helped improve company performance by surveying customers, then analyzing results with coworkers. Used data and staff discussions to increase service levels (Applebee’s).

Experienced writer. Led research project to study how expectations determine outcomes. Required superior skills in communication and analysis. Surveyed more than 230 students, then conducted telephone follow-up to interpret data (University of NY).

Proven training skills. Experience orienting, supervising, and clarifying goals for up to 25 employees (Applebee’s).

Experience Section

You can also call this Employment History, if you’d like. Again, the name you choose is not as important as the details that follow.

The purpose of this third section of your Guerrilla Resume is to show employers what you have been doing since school. They will have already been intrigued by your opening Objective/Summary and the Skills/Accomplishments section that follows, so by the time they get to this Experience section, their mind will largely be made up.

Here you should follow a consistent, easy-to-read format. You can present a description of each job you’ve held in 1 of 2 ways, depending on what information is more relevant. Choose only one of the following formats and use it consistently. Don’t alternate between the two, as you’ll simply confuse the reader.

If your past job titles are more relevant to the job you seek next, lead with them, like this:

Lan/Wan Administrator: U.S. Marine Corps, Camp Lejeune, NC (1993-1999).

However, if you’ve worked for impressive companies and want to lead with those names, you can do so like this:

IBM, Vice President of Research and Development, San Jose, CA (2006-2007).

For each job you’ve had, include your title, company name, city, state, and the years you worked there. There’s really no need to include the months because this takes up valuable space and may highlight any gaps in your employment.

GUERRILLA TIP

Attention Recent Graduates

If you lack experience since graduation, you can include a brief explanation of what you’ve been doing since then. You can also include any jobs you had while in school in your Experience section, so long as you make them relevant by stressing desirable working traits that can’t be taught, such as reliability, attention to detail, work ethic, and so on.

Look at the example wording that follows from a resume that won a job for one new graduate:

EXPERIENCE

Following graduation, began extensive online research of information technology job market and leading firms. Also created Web pages; samples available upon request (2006-present).

Detail Specialist: University Car Wash, Huntsville, AL (2004- 2005).

Provided detailing services and superior customer service. Employed while full-time student.

Followed up with commercial and individual customers to ensure high levels of satisfaction.

Proactively sought out new tasks to make best use of available time.

Maintained good working relationship with all 5 managers and 17 colleagues.

While there are exceptions to these rules, this format gives you a lot of flexibility to describe your experience in an effective manner.

GUERRILLA TIP

You will notice that the Experience section of a Guerrilla Resume is limited to listing your job titles, company names, places of employment, and dates. Nothing more. And this is done for a reason—your Guerrilla Resume is designed to make the phone ring, not tell your whole life story. You can do this in the job interview.

In the advertising industry they call this a “teaser”—it gets you the initial invitation to interview. You can expand on your work history once you are face-to-face with the interviewer.

(Another way to think of this is