Embarking on the journey of self-employment is an exhilarating experience filled with freedom, creativity, and the thrill of being your own boss.
However, what happens when you decide to transition back into the traditional workforce?
Suddenly, you find yourself facing a new challenge: how to effectively list your self-employment experience on your resume.
As you ponder over the best way to showcase your entrepreneurial endeavors, fear not!
In this article, we will unveil the secrets to highlighting your accomplishments, using numbers and metrics to make an impact, incorporating relevant keywords, and ultimately capturing the attention of potential employers.
At the end of this article you will find examples.
How to List Self-Employment on Your Resume
1.) Highlight Your Accomplishments
When listing your self-employment experience on your resume, be sure to highlight your accomplishments. What did you achieve during your time as a self-employed person? What were your responsibilities? What were your successes?
For example, if you were a freelance writer, you could list your publications or the number of articles you wrote. If you were a small business owner, you could list your revenue or the number of employees you had.
2.) Use Numbers and Metrics
Whenever possible, use numbers and metrics to quantify your accomplishments. This will help employers to understand the impact of your work. For example, instead of saying “I increased sales,” say “I increased sales by 20%.”
3.) Use Keywords
When listing your self-employment experience on your resume, be sure to use keywords that are relevant to the jobs you are applying for. This will help your resume to get noticed by potential employers.
For example, if you are applying for a job in marketing, you could use keywords such as “marketing,” “advertising,” and “social media.”
4.) Get Feedback
Once you have drafted your resume, it is a good idea to get feedback from someone else. This could be a friend, family member, career counselor, or hiring manager. Feedback can help you to identify any areas where your resume could be improved.
Employers’ Perspective
Employers may be hesitant to hire someone who has been self-employed for a long time or who has no experience but self-employment. This is because self-employment experience can be difficult or impossible to verify.
To overcome this, you can emphasize your accomplishments and use numbers and metrics to quantify your results. You can also provide references from former clients or customers.
Financial Problems and Business Failure
If you are returning to the corporate workforce after a period of self-employment, you may be asked to explain why you left your business.
If your business failed, be honest about the reasons for the failure. However, focus on what you learned from the experience and what skills you acquired.
You can also emphasize your desire for a more challenging job, better opportunities, insurance, and advancement. By doing this, you can show potential employers that you are serious about your career and that you are committed to success.
Additional Tips
- Use a professional resume template.
- Proofread your resume carefully for any errors.
- Tailor your resume to each job you apply for.
- Get your resume professionally reviewed by a career counselor or hiring manager.
By following these tips, you can effectively list your self-employment experience on your resume and increase your chances of getting hired.
Samples: Self Employment Resume Templates
The following are three resume sections for self employed individual – Professional Experience. Key Skills and resume objective statement.
Self employment Experience Section in a Resume
Work History – Professional Experience
[Owner and CEO]
[Company details], [Location] 2007 – present
Achievements
- Planned and directed all functions of the company – Enforced strong leadership skills to ensure efficient/effective utilization of corporate resources
- Established and integrated the functional strategies of the company utilizing business expertise to reach financial/operational goals and objectives.
- Deployed resources to achieve financial forecast and business objectives
- Record of success in guiding and directing an ABC enterprise through substantial change management, balancing engagement with strong and effective strategic leadership.
- Developed sales and marketing plans and programs for company sales personnel.
- Analyzed market trends and statistics to determine potential of growth – monitored sales performance regularly
Self employment skills section in a resume
Core Competencies: Key Skills and Strengths
- Ability to design strategies and observe performance metrics
- Cross-functional team management experience: Experience cooperating and working with cross company Executives
- Leadership and charisma
- Excellent organizational, presentation and negotiation skills.
- Networking
Self employment: Resume Objective Statement
Sound knowledge of the [your industry] market principles and trends with the ability to formulate strategies, make decisions, plan with confidence and execute, having a quick grasp of the cutting edge technologies in the [industry].