Career Progression: How to Show Promotions on Your Resume
Growth, career progression, development, and achievements are all things employers value in new candidates. When you apply for a new job, your resume should be written in a way that showcases what you have to offer new employers. They care about hiring someone who is interested in more than coming to work to collect a paycheck.
Showing career progression on your resume is a great way to demonstrate that you’re proactive in pursuing professional objectives and can compete in a competitive workforce. On top of that, promotions on your resume build up your credibility in that they show you have a record of performing well.
But how do you show promotions on your resume? Well, you’ve come to the right place because we have a few tried-and-true ways you can extoll your greatness!
Let’s get started!
How to show promotions on your resume
For the most part, properly showing promotions on your resume is all about formatting and layout. You have to consider whether what you write on your resume will get past the applicant tracking system, or ATS, that the company is likely using, and you have to use your resume’s real estate strategically to impress a human hiring manager.
It can be tricky to write for a computer and a human in the same document, but it’s very doable. There are three different ways to do it:
Stacking
Separate employment listings
A “Career Progression” section
How to stack promotions on your resume
Stacking is exactly what it sounds like. You list the company name one time and then stack the roles you’ve had within the same listing on your resume. This is great for impressing human beings, but you have to weigh the fact that the ATS may mess up reading the dates of your career history.
Here’s how to stack promotions on your resume:
ABC COMPANY | Location
Most recent title | mm/yyyy-Present
Previous title | mm/yyyy-mm/yyyy
This method works because it won’t confuse the ATS, and the human hiring manager who is skimming through your document can quickly see that you held more than one role at a particular company.
You should use this method for listing career progression if your duties didn’t change too much. For example, if you took on a lateral role or were given a vertical promotion in which you did basically the same thing with a few additional duties.
Beneath the company and position titles, you’d add two to three sentences that talk about what you did on a daily basis. Then, you’d write about five bullet points that call out achievements at that company.
Hint for your resume:
One of the bullet points should be that you were promoted and why.
A lot of people will write the company name on one line with the total time they were at that company and a list of titles beneath that with the dates they were at each position. This is okay, but it’s a method that could confuse the ATS. Just because it’s a computer doesn’t mean it’s smart. When you write out separate career titles the way they appear in the example, you are more likely to not freak out the ATS.
How to create separate promotion listings on your resume
As you progress through your career, there may be a time when you get a promotion from one level of employment to another – let’s say you advanced from an entry-level role to a mid-management role. When this is the case, stacking is likely to not serve you very well because of the differences in the duties you perform.
So, instead of stacking roles under a single company listing to show these promotions on your resume, it’s best to create completely separate listings – just like you would if you were writing about two separate companies.
Here’s what that looks like:
XYZ Corp | Location | mm/yyyy-Present
Title of position
Promoted to [DO SOMETHING] based on [ACHIEVEMENT]
Achievement bullet related to your duties in this new role
XYZ Corp | Location | mm/yyyy-mm/yyyy
Title of position
Achievement bullet 1
Achievement bullet 2
Achievement bullet 3
Expert Tip
Did you notice that the first bullet in the first listing talks about the promotion? It’s critical that you do this!
The ATS will have no problem reading this layout because you’re using separate dates on separate listings. The career progression might not be immediately noticed by a hiring manager, though, because it looks like two separate company listings. If they’re skimming through your resume quickly – which is exactly what they’re doing – it may look like you’re hopping from one job to the next.
While they will eventually get that you’re talking about the same company, it is a minor hurdle for them to overcome during the skim-through of your resume. However, this is the best way to show a promotion on your resume if the progression resulted in you having vastly different responsibilities from one role to the next.
How to show promotion on your resume with a “Career Progression” section
Adding a “Career Progression” section isn’t a thing to do instead of writing out the promotion information in your career history section. It’s something you’d add in addition to what you write in the “Professional Experience” section.
In the previous section, you learned that sometimes showcasing promotions on your resume can give the hiring manager pause, depending on how you choose to lay out the information. When you add a “Career Progression” section – preferably above the “Professional Experience” section – you show them immediately that you have earned promotions during your career. It’ll help get them past wondering if all those job listings equals job hopping.
Here’s what showing promotions in a “Career Progression” section looks like:
LMNO, INC
Senior Marketing Specialist | mm/yyyy-Present)
One bullet max that defines key achievements and responsibilities in the current role
Marketing Coordinator | mm/yyyy-mm/yyyy
Again, one bullet max that talks about notable accomplishments and duties as a Marketing Coordinator
Marketing Assistant | mm/yyyy-mm/yyyy
One bullet (or no bullets) that overviews the tasks and achievements in your first position with the company
Bearing in mind that you have to keep your resume to no more than two pages, you don’t want to use up a lot of space in this “Career Progression” section. It’s more of a heads-up thing you can include on your resume to let the hiring manager know why your “Professional Experience” section looks the way it does.
Formatting rules for showing promotions on your resume
As with all things resume writing, there are rules you have to follow to guarantee that your resume gets past the ATS and impresses the hiring manager. Here are the things you need to keep in mind:
Consistent formatting
Reverse chronological order
Achievements
Concise (i.e., quality over quantity)
Consistency equals professionalism
It doesn’t matter which option you choose for showing your promotions on your resume – stacking, separate listings, or a “Career Progression” section – it’s crucial that you make sure it’s all laid out consistently. Double-check that you are using the same type of bullets, that the bullet points are all lined up right, and that you’re using the same format for your dates.
Expert Tip
To ensure that the ATS gives you credit for all of your career experience, you should be using the mm/yyyy format for the dates on your resume.
Yes, the order matters
You should always write out your work history in reverse chronological order. This means that you start with your current or most recent position and work backward. A lot of people will ask, “How far back should a resume go?” Well, the answer to that is about 10 years. Keeping your resume to the last 10 years keeps the content fresh and relevant.
You should use reverse-chronological formatting even if you were at a company, left it for another company, and went back to the first company. It’s okay for the two listings to be separated because that’s how it was in your history. Employers will want to know that you were brought back on board even after going somewhere else. It shows you have value.
How do you list achievements on a resume?
There are two things to remember when writing about your career achievements, even as they relate to showing promotions on your resume.
Use active voice and power verbs
Insert numbers as often as you can
There isn’t a hiring manager alive who will care about what you were supposed to do at a past job. All they want to know is what you actually accomplished because that gives them some insight into what you’ll be able to do for them.
Expert Tip
Delete “responsible for,” “charged with,” and “accountable for” from your resume-writing vocabulary. These phrases have no place on any resume … ever!
All you get is two pages
Since your resume is limited to two pages, try not to create monologues about your past. Give them just enough information to know that you have what they want. This will pique their interest to call you for an interview to ask you more questions. This is, after all, the goal of your resume.
Also, remember that the hiring manager is skimming through your resume. They aren’t reading it at all. So, long paragraphs of text will be overwhelming to them. It’s more important that the text of your resume be presented in concise bullets that create clear meaning for your reader and make the content easier to digest.
Show promotions on your resume to win the interview
When you write your resume using the techniques here, you’ll end up with a visually appealing document that’s easy to read – well, skim. When everything is clear and easily understandable, you’ll have a better chance of getting past the ATS, impressing the hiring manager, and landing that interview.
Do you want us to check that you’re properly showing promotions on your resume? Send us what you have, and we’ll review it for you for free.
Recommended reading:
Showcasing Management Skills in Your Resume without Management Experience - ZipJob
How to Answer the “What’s Your Greatest Accomplishment” Interview Question
Written by
Marsha Hebert, Professional Resume Writer
Marsha is a resume writer with a strong background in marketing and writing. After completing a Business Marketing degree, she discovered that she could combine her passion for writing with a natural talent for marketing. For more than 10 years, Marsha has helped companies and individuals market themselves. Read more advice from Marsha on ZipJob's blog.
