As a long-term employee of one company, you certainly have a wealth of experience; what you don't have is a lengthy work experience section on your resume. To downplay the brevity of that section, use a skills-based resume instead of a reverse chronological format that lists your jobs first. In a skills-based resume, start with your name, career path -- such as "accountant" or "sales manager" for example -- and your contact information at the top of the page. Directly under that section put a section titled "Skills."
Investopedia suggests that aggressive job hunters should rework their resume for each position because each job has its own set of requirements and necessary skills. The job posting usually provides the most helpful information about what the employer is looking for, but searching the company website and looking at employee profiles on LinkedIn can also give you a sense of who the company hires. Based on that research, make a list of the top skills or characteristics you'll need to succeed in the job and make note of the ones you already have.
Take four or five of your strongest skills from your list and create the "Skills" section on your resume. For the accountant position, that might include bookkeeping, account management, auditing and compliance and computer skills. For sales managers, you might include headings such as analytic skills, leadership, communication and salesmanship. Under each skill, create a few bullet points and use the bullets to describe any accomplishments, noteworthy projects or specific details related to that skill. Under computer skills, mention the specific programs you know. Under the salesmanship heading, include your team's sales record or changes you made that increased revenue.
Advertisement Article continues below this adThe skills section can be particularly helpful if you are writing a resume with one long-term job, but no other work experience. You can choose to proactively highlight all of your skills to help a potential employer grasp just how much you have to offer them.
Skills-based resumes put the focus on your skills instead of your work experience, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't include your work history at all. Novoresume advises that work experience listings should always include dates and titles. Not including dates is a sure way to upset hiring managers or have them discard your resume. Under the skills section of your resume, create a "Work History" or "Work Experience" section and then list the job title you held, the company and the years you were employed.
Even with the initial focus on the skills you have, your work history section might look thin. If you had different job titles during your time with the company, list the jobs separately. Even if you didn't have a different job title, you might have evolved into different duties over the years or moved from a junior to a senior person in your department. In that case, you could list "junior accountant" and "senior accountant" separately. Beneath the work section, include an Education section. Following that, include an Interests or volunteer section, if you feel those experiences are relevant to the job.