In the course of chatting with some friends about the CV writing process, a question I once encountered was whether to include informal job information such as internship, apprenticeship, or part-time job in the work experience section or not.
This question is especially common among fresh graduates. And it’s really hard to give an exact answer. Too much information or lack of job data, both have the same effect on your CV.
The value of informal employment
Actually to answer this question, in my personal opinion three main points need to be noticed. That’s the real value of participating in projects, internships, apprenticeships; relevance to the job you’re applying for, and the “length” of your CV.
The real value of engaging in informal work on projects, internships, apprenticeships, etc. is the amount of knowledge, skills, roles, and hands-on experience you gain.
Although the above works are all short-term, there is always a difference in terms of nature. When participating in a project, you completely have many different roles such as initiator, team leader, member, and even collaborator. So if your role is really valuable and strong when put on a CV. Let’s show it.
Knowledge and skills when you engage in short-term activities are also a point of concern. Not everything really brings much practical value and can be applied in other jobs in the future.
So choosing to be able to learn is very important. If your previous short-term jobs didn’t yield much and it doesn’t matter if it’s important to have it on your CV, leave it out.
Relating to the job you are applying for
In relevance to the job you are applying for, here I am referring to your involvement in previous short-term projects and jobs whether there is any connection to the position you are applying for.
The connections I want to talk about are similar skills, similar working environments, similarity in business size and type of activity, and even skill or ability to use an act of particular software revenge for the job.
To understand this factor, carefully read the job description of the company you intend to apply for. Carefully check the information related to the job description, job requirements, required knowledge, and skills.
If your previous part-time jobs or apprenticeships have absolutely no connection with what the employer describes in the vacancy, boldly remove them.
Length of your CV
The “length” of your CV that I want to refer to here is not the physical length, but the depth of experience. Is there any overlap and no emphasis if you include internship/apprenticeship facts in your CV.
If the following experiences are duplicated and better than your previous ones, boldly remove the previous short-term ones from your CV.
