In today’s competitive job market, your relevant experience makes you different from the rest. Whether you are a white-collar worker seeking employment as a manager or a blue-collar worker, the employer who wants to know whether the background you bear can help you successfully obtain the position or not.
This blog discusses what is relevant work experience and how you can best show it on the resume as well as in the interview. Finally, we will explain how Dynamic Staffing Services can help you find an opportunity that fits your unique experiences.
Explaining Relevant Experience
Relevant experience is the type of work experience that is directly relevant to the job for which you are applying. Any tasks, responsibilities, and achievements in previous roles that match the key requirements and qualifications outlined in a job description comprise relevant experience. Employers value relevant work experience because it reflects that you have the skills and knowledge required to do the job efficiently and with minimal training.
Many think, experience in the same kind of industry from past jobs is the only relevant experience, but often it is not. Experience in different fields, volunteer work, internships, and even part-time jobs can all be considered if they fall under the transferable skills category. From hospitality to construction, both white-collar and blue-collar workers need to tell how roles in the past have prepared them with the appropriate skill set for the job they are applying for.
Why Do Requirements Such as Relevant Experience Matter?
For example, think about a recruiting scenario where an employer receives tons of applications. In many cases, they need more time and are in a position to scrutinize every applicant’s resume. Therefore, they go for the most obvious cases that clearly reflect relevant work experience. You are likely to attract the recruiter’s eye when you highlight that your past roles match the key requirements of this job.
For example, for a restaurant manager position in a hospitality firm, the recruiter would be keen on any skills, including leading a team, handling customer services, and financial management. For a construction concern, the foreman’s post has to have experience in leading or managing projects and ensuring safety compliance.
Relevant experience cuts down on the risk for employers. In this case, they know you are not going into a job with your eyes shut. Therefore, they can project that with minimal supervision, you will be able to handle certain tasks and responsibilities during the onboarding process.
Examples of Relevant Experience in the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality sector provides employment opportunities for frontline candidates like waiters and housekeepers, as well as top management positions within hospitality enterprises. Some examples are found below to demonstrate how work experience does play a critical role in different hospitality settings, as follows:
- Restaurant Manager: Relevant work experience for a restaurant manager position might be the ones you had in previous positions, such as shift supervisor, waiter, or even head chef. Relevant skills would include scheduling management, staff control, handling of customer complaints, and budget management.
- Hotel Receptionist: Even though you may have never been a receptionist, previous work in customer service and other areas, such as retail sales, is appropriate. In many cases, key skills such as communication, problem-solving, and time management can be transferred to a hotel and are highly prized.
- Event Coordinator: If you are applying for an event coordinator position, organizing small events even outside of the hospitality industry, or coordinating office parties, conferences, or charity events, your experience will be related to managing timelines, vendor relationships, and logistics management.
- Housekeeping Manager: If you have been a part of a housekeeping team, don’t waste the experience. It is useful and can be used when presenting your application for a management role, emphasizing your understanding of cleaning standards, health and safety, and experience with team management and coaching.
Examples of Relevant Experience in the Construction Industry
Similarly, in the construction industry, the experience that a blue-collar worker or a white-collar worker acquires is very significant. Here’s how experience will translate into relevant experience for various construction jobs:
- Site Supervisor: If someone is applying to become a site supervisor, then the experience of a construction worker or foreman will be of much importance. The skills in leadership of a team, coordination of a project, and understanding of safety regulations will make them good candidates for the same position.
- Construction Project Manager: Any experience as a project manager can be applied even from outside of the construction industry. Budgeting timelines and resource management are all applicable, but critical construction-based activities such as managing subcontractors or interacting with architects should also be highlighted.
- Trade Laborer: If you are a working-class electrician or plumber, the work that you have done and your certificates would be appropriate. Even though one might only have experience in residential construction, the training can be transferred.
- Safety Officer: Anything where you had to ensure that all workers maintained a certain level of safety in construction, manufacture, or even hospitality would be relevant. Training in health and safety compliance, incident reporting, and inspections will make you a desirable candidate.
How do you Identify your Relevant Experience?
Sometimes, it becomes even harder to deduce which parts of your experience are relevant. Here is a step-by-step guide that helps you pinpoint your relevant work experience:
Analyze the Job Description
Carefully read through the job description for the position you are applying for. Note down some of the key skills, qualifications, and experience that the employer is looking for. Use that as your guide in figuring out how well your previous experience matches those requirements.
Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are the abilities you acquired in previous jobs that could be applied to most other industries. For example, teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and leadership are transferable skills that one could use in both hospitality and construction or any industry.
Highlight Industry-specific Experience
While transferable skills are important, remember to include experience specific to the industry. For instance, this could be something like experience in how to use construction equipment or an understanding of the functionality of hotel booking software.
Use Action Verbs
When you write down your relevant experience on the resume, be sure to use action verbs that highlight your accomplishments and achievements. Some good words to use include “managed,” “led,” “coordinated,” and “implemented,” which clearly depict how you added value in previous roles.
Tips for Highlighting Relevant Experience on Your Resume
Now that you have your selected work experiences, it’s time to make those works shine on your resume. Use these tips to help make your resume highlight your best skills and experience:
Customize your resume for each position
One thing that everybody needs to do better is submit the same resume for every position. Instead, they need to tailor a resume according to the job by using relevant experience in keeping with the job description. Focus on making the qualifications of the work history and skills section match the key requirements of the role.
Use Clear Format
Format your relevant work experience to be clean and easy to read. Use bullet points to demonstrate accomplishments and responsibilities of jobs you have held and ensure that on each job listing, the most relevant information appears first.
Quantify Your Achievements
Try to quantify your accomplishments so that employers can get a better feel for what you did in your previous roles. So, for example, instead of writing “managed a team,” you would say “managed a team of 10 employees and increased efficiency by 15 percent.”
Add a Skills Section
Add a skills section to your resume, listing hard and soft skills, especially those mentioned in the job posting.
Volunteering and Side Projects are Great Additions
If you need a background of formal work experience within an industry, add experience gained through volunteering or side projects that are similar. For example, if you volunteered for a community event, those organizational skills may be applicable to an event coordinator.
How to Emphasize Relevant Experience in an Interview
Indeed, you will have ample opportunity during the interview to expand on the relevant experience you have cited in your resume. Here are some guidelines for making sure your experience sounds relevant in an interview:
Prepare Examples
Provide examples from relevant experience specific to the job applied for. Provide responses using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result), indicating how you successfully managed similar situations in the past.
Applicable Transferable Skills
You are entering a new industry or profession, so emphasize some of the carry-over skills you have obtained. Explain how those skills gained from past employment also will lead to success for you in this new position.
Come Prepared to ask Questions
Question an interviewer about the job and company expectations so you create an even greater opportunity to craft your answers by discussing pertinent experience.
Be Upfront
If there is a gap in your relevant work experience, then be honest but confident. Highlight how you are going to bridge the gap either by further training or bringing in other related experiences.
How Dynamic Staffing Services Can Help You
Dynamic Staffing Services understands the importance of relevant experience in getting the perfect right job. Be that a white-collar professional in hospitality or a blue-collar worker within the construction industry, recruitment experts are here to assist you in matching your relevant work experience with perfect job opportunities.
Our process starts by finding out precisely what skills, background, and career objectives you have and then placing you with employers seeking people with such attributes. Our team also gives individualized advice on how to best present your relevant experience in a resume and interview.
Dynamic Staffing Services is committed to helping you advance your career through our vast network of employers in the hospitality and construction sectors. Let us help you find employment that will showcase all your relevant work experience.
Wrapping Up
In short, relevance in experience is what plays a very massive role in today’s job market, mainly in areas such as hospitality and construction. Whether you are looking for management or hands-on work, identifying your experience and highlighting it makes all the difference. Focusing on transferable skills, tailoring your resume, and preparing for interviews may also increase the possibility of landing a job with the same career aspirations. Dynamic Staffing Services is here to take you step by step and provide you with appropriate opportunities according to your relevant experience and career goals. Contact us today!
