I wish I had a dollar for every resume I've seen that failed to show that person was promoted. Adding a feather in your cap is not only encouraging, but also very accurate. Isn't it deceiving if your resume looks like you've held one title for your entire tenure at the company, when in fact you've moved through two or more titles? Some recruiters may think so.
There is more than one way to display ads on your resume, depending on whether previous roles are worth detailing.
How to display ads on resumes if past roles aren't very relevant:
Often, the previous roles you held may not be a good fit with your current job goals. If so, you can provide a mandatory written description of your dates of employment, your current role, and include a sentence like the following:
Promoted from (previous title).
Or, if you have been promoted multiple times in an organization:
Four times promotion: Sales Assistant->Sales Associate->Sales Manager->Operation Manager->Division Manager.
If those four promotions came quickly, “I got promoted four times Within six years.”
My favorite place to put this is at the end of a responsibilities paragraph like this:
Division Manager, 2016-2022
Global Tech, Inc., Seattle, WA
The section that was changed in some amazing way, yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA YADA Note: If the promotion recognizes one or more achievements, add a few words about it here.
Alternatively, you can add the achievement as a bulleted achievement:
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- Adventure, yada yada
- Another feat, yada yada
- The current role is delegated from the Sales Manager through the Operations Manager (Achievements that got you that promotion).
Or, it is worth describing the previous roles in detail:
If the previous role(s) provided relevant experience and/or accomplishments that make up your resume, you can list each role separately. I recommend treating each entry as a separate job, including company name, location, and years worked, for two reasons.
- This form is easily parsed or “understood”. Applicant tracking systems.
- This way, you can use the same format on both your resume and LinkedIn without exceeding LinkedIn's character limit for job descriptions. Separating the roles on LinkedIn allows you to have a large word count, lots of keywords, and better LinkedIn search rankings, so why not use that format in your resume for a consistent presentation?
What if some of the previous roles were fully descriptive and some were not?
In that case, you can break all jobs down individually, but only include detail where it's warranted, while giving little or no detail to less relevant roles. Remember that there is no rule that all your job descriptions have to be the same length.
How to display an ad on LinkedIn:
Following the tips I gave above, you can do this just like you do with a resume.
Now you know how to display ads on your resume and LinkedIn profile How to Check Your Application So your smart, strategic presentation isn't derailed by a typo, typo, or punctuation error! (This post was previously published and updated in 2022.)