Use it or lose it: why you should keep notes on your work experience

When you apply for graduate jobs you’ll need to illustrate your skills with practical examples. Your vacation jobs, work experience placements and part-time work will provide plenty, but if you don't record them in detail at the time you're likely to forget them when you need them most. Having a list of skills you've gained and concrete examples will make filling in a graduate job application or preparing your CV and cover letter much easier and faster.

Ten points to note about your work experience

1. The name and details of your work experience provider, plus the dates your time there started and finished.
2. Your job title and role. Record your responsibilities and key tasks you're given.
3. The hard skills you use. Computing/office software skills, language skills and so on.
4. Soft skills. Examples from your work that show off core competencies such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, analysis, commercial awareness and leadership.
5. What you learn on the job. Any job-specific training you receive. Insights, expertise or skills you discover for yourself or learn from others. (If you attend a training course or event, write down its name and the date you attended.)
6. The aspects of the job you enjoy doing and why, and the parts of the job you find hard to do and why.
7. Solutions you find to problems and how you resolve any difficult situations.
8. Anything that’s quantifiable. You will tend to forget numerical details if you don’t note them, and this type of information can help you to give compelling, specific examples of your achievements when applying for graduate jobs. For example, if you’re organising a social event to raise funds for charity, what was the target, and what was the outcome? What was the budget, and what was the actual expenditure? How many people did you want to come, and how many attended? 
9. Any positive feedback you receive from colleagues, managers and customers.
10. Details of managers happy to be contacted for job references.

How to record your skills and work experience

Record the skills and experience you gain in a format that you find useful. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Download our work experience tracker: use the questions and prompts to guide you.
• Set up your own system. Use a spreadsheet or set up a table in a document, or keep a notepad and pen with you to jot down things when they happen.
• If you are allowed to use email where you work, you could send emails to a personal account recording evidence of the skills you are developing or key work experience achievements. Use a consistent subject line and then you can easily group all your notes together in your inbox.

How to record examples of when you have used specific skills

Employers always want examples of when you have demonstrated in practice a competency such as communication, critical thinking, teamwork, etc. Use the STAR approach:

• record the Situation you faced or the Task you had to complete in which you used the skills;
• the Actions you took;
• the Results you achieved.

Reflect on your work experience

At the end of any activity or time of employment it’s always good to gather your thoughts and feelings.

• Think about what you liked and learned and whether the job suited your skills and personality.
• Think about the further skills, experience and knowledge you want to develop and build.