Resume: Work Experience or Employment History?

When composing a resume, Work Experience is the preferred category over Employment History to capitalize in all the work you’ve done, paid employment, volunteer work, and unpaid internships.

In a resume, Employment History is a chronological listing of paid work, and includes your job title, the employer and location, and the duties of the job. People often list volunteer and unpaid internships in this section, but that might be misconstrued because it’s inaccurate, especially if you don’t describe the experience appropriately.

Volunteer work is just that, work. So if you have volunteer experience, you have Work Experience. Also, anyone who’s done unpaid internships knows internships are hard work, often comprising of work the staff would rather shift to someone else.

If you have unpaid work experience in your work history, then categorize that section Work Experience and place (Volunteer) or (Internship) next to the job title. And even if you happen to forget, you’re still covered, listing the section as Work Experience.

How do you categorize your volunteer experience?