How Do I List Self-Employment & Freelance Work On Resume?

Any work experience or accomplishments are valuable for recruiters in the resume. Usually, applicants who don’t know how to compose a successful resume get help from resume service online. This document is meant to help a candidate showcase the professionality and the best of skills to get the desired job position.

There is a group of job seekers who may possess a bunch of relevant skills, years of work background, but it is difficult for them to showcase these in their resumes, as they haven’t worked for any business or company as a staff member. Those are people who were self-employed and worked as freelancers.

The work experience section is very important in a resume, but it is quite difficult to imagine how to incorporate freelance or self-employment into it. Let’s find out the ways to add freelance experience in resume to make it successful tule in your career path.

How to List Self-Employment On a Job Application?

First of all, it is necessary to get an understanding of what exactly is meant by self-employment.

Any self-employed person doesn’t work for any other company. Such people make a living by directly dealing with a trade or business, bypassing the middleman.

When listing self-employment on a resume there are a few common guidelines to follow:

• Create a functional job title

If you want your resume to pass ATS systems and get to the recruiter’s hands, you should make yourself a job title that matches the nature of your work. Forego “self-employment” or “self-work” in the title. Consider this work experience like any other, just think of your duties and choose the title that suits you the best, and add the word “Consultant”, or “Contract” to your chosen title.

Related: How to Check if My Resume is ATS-Friendly

• Think of the company’s name

In case you want your resume to look in a usual format you may want to include a company’s name. This point is optional, but it will give your resume a more polished look.

• Describe the services you can offer

Like with any other job, you need to explain to the recruiter what services you can provide for the company. Outline the work you performed, and strengthen it with your best achievements.

• Point out your clients

It would also be a good idea to mention your clients if you had such. They provide insight into the extent of your job.

• Add references

One of the most significant issues self-employed applicants may face is that they can’t prove their experience. Use the bullets tool to highlight the most noteworthy collaborations and projects you’ve had.

Read Also: 3 Ways to Include Testimonials on Your Resume

• List relevant skills

Self-employed workers can think of a list of skills that they used while they were performing their duties. Moreover, those who were self-employed can boast such skills as self-management, project-management, planning, decision-making, and leadership.

Adding self-employment to a resume is quite a challenging task as you need to analyze your previous work attentively. But if you do so, you can create a well-written resume that will arise your chances of getting a job interview invitation.

Read Also: How to Write a Resume For a Part-Time Job

How to Add Freelance Work to My Resume?

Even though the term “freelancer” is often used to describe self-employed individuals, this is not fully accurate. A freelancer is one who works for a company on a contract basis rather than as an employee. A freelancer is not committed to anybody or anything for the long term.

Composing a resume with the freelance work examples also requires knowing some basic aspects.

• Create an understandable introduction.

If previously you’ve worked as a freelancer and now you are looking for a full-time job it is not necessary to indicate that you are a freelancer in the job title. Just write the job position that reflects your duties. But in the introduction section, it is better to explain to the recruiters about your freelance work experience and describe the work you performed.

• Provide your best work examples

If you wonder how to list freelance work on a resume, choose the most significant long-term projects and indicate them as normal jobs.

• Indicate big organizations’ names

Preferably highlight large companies for which you have worked. Most recruiters will be impressed by big names right away. Important business indicates that you know how to do your job well.

• Avoid irrelevant information

The biggest mistake freelancers often do is including irrelevant job experience in their resumes. During freelancing people often work with a wide range of big and small projects. Describing your large experience it is easy to get carried away and include the examples that are not relevant to the chosen job position. Recruiters are busy and therefore, they don’t want to read a huge list of small projects, so choose only the most important and appropriate ones.

• Don’t forget about skills that you’ve developed as a freelancer

While listing your skills, except the ones that you use in your professional duties, don’t forget to add the abilities you’ve built as a freelance worker. Such skills may include time-management visioning and creativity, interpersonal skills, and the ability to develop yourself as a specialist.

Related: The Top 10 Skills Recruiters Are Looking For

Resume writing for a freelancer might be a complicated task, but following the advice given above you can create a good one and get higher chances to become a part of the company you have chosen.

Conclusion

Self-employed and freelance experience gives people no fewer advantages than normal works do. In some cases, such workers can perform even more valuable skills as they are responsible and are used to solve challenging tasks without anybody’s help.

Get more confidence, follow the advice and give yourself a credit in resume writing. You can put freelance work on a resume and get positive results. However, keep in mind that you can always rely on ResumeEdge for assistance with resume writing.