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whitecarnations's avatar

Resume Specialists: Can you help me translate my work experience into a skills list?

Asked by whitecarnations (1638points) March 29th, 2012

So my old resume had the subject line, Detail Experience. Here is what I put in it

• Rite Aid: I learned how to unload pallets, stock shelves with products, face items, do “go backs”, clean and mop floors, close and count registers, provide excellent customer service.
• McDonalds: I learned how to pick up the pace and speed it up at this fast food industry, all while serving an accurate, quality fast food. Responsibilities included batch cooking, dumping trash and hot oil, fixing the air vents, constantly cleaning, mopping, sweeping and wiping down tables, loading in food and food products and check for expiration dates
• SoHo Lab: I learned about a lot of diverse people working at this exotic shoe store in Downtown. Organizing shoes in an artistic way, pulling out multiple pairs of shoes at a time for multiple customers, cleaning duties and loading shoes in were part of the job responsibilities here. Depositing the companies earnings into the bank, loaning and keeping track of shoes to local business shops were also part of my responsibilities.
• Quiznos: Keeping a clean and friendly environment while serving quality fast food is what Quiznos was all about. Job responsibilities included washing dishes, throwing trash, cutting meat, cheese and vegetables, tracking inventory and stock, provide excellent customer service, always smiling and enjoying the job, leaving customers satisfied. Learned about the importance of up sales and upgrading meals. Held the key for the register. Told customers about new events and showcase product knowledge.

I’m trying to compress all this information so that it will fit under a simple SKILLS category.

Also, I have professional awards but it’s only journalism based, and I also have experience in multi-media with video shooting and editing for a fashion designer. However I don’t think it is relevant into applying for a cafe/barista or dishwasher position. All the help you can offer would be super appreciated.

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5 Answers

CaptainHarley's avatar

Try not to limit yourself to either just one sort of job/industry, nor to just the skills you obtained working at “jobs.” Sometimes the skills you build doing avocations or hobbies are just as important for an employer to know. You may want to check out this book: http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/

augustlan's avatar

Food service, sales, customer service, cash handling, running a register, record keeping, assorted maintenance tasks.

CWOTUS's avatar

Retail experience: restaurant, apparel, pharmacy – routine customer sales, service and point of sale maintenance.

Aside from also listing “employers and dates”, which are vital for the purposes of checking employment history, I would distill your entire resume down to that one line. That’s all that will be read, anyway, so it would be helpful if you can learn to distill like that.

Since no one is going to spend more than a few seconds (literally, seconds) reading your resume, they will NOT read about “stocking shelves, mopping floors, unloading pallets” and the like.

They’ll want to know that you’ve dealt with the public; that’s a good skill to note. They’ll want to know that you understand the importance of keeping up appearances: cleanliness of yourself and the store; a lot of people don’t seem to “get” that. They may have interest in your broad areas of experience, which is why I listed “restaurant, apparel, pharmacy” in that way.

mrrich724's avatar

linkedin.com should be able to do this really easily for you! I set up a linkedin profile, and it came up with a list for me and I had no clue it would!

You should check it out.

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