Listing Promotions on Resume: Showcasing Your Career Growth [+ Templates]

Getting promoted at work is not just a reward, but also concrete proof of a person’s dedication to their job, along with his leadership and industry knowledge. Therefore, listing promotions on your resume is an important step of your job-hunting process. Promotion on resumes helps reveal your growth capabilities and communicate to the recruiting manager that you are a potential candidate for future vacancies. 

In this article, we’ll walk you through detailed guidelines on how to show promotion on your resume.

We all know that there is no one correct way to write and format a resume. There can be lots of acceptable formats and writing styles to adopt. Therefore, when deciding which listing format to adopt when listing a promotion on your resume, you might want to consider the type of promotion you are listing. Here are three typical methods to mention promotion on a resume regardless of your position and career progression.

1. Stacked entries

Stacked entries are usually created when demonstrating a person’s similar positions within the same company or organization. This method works most effectively for position changes that still share the same set of skills and responsibilities. Stacking each job entry under the same heading provides recruiters with a clear view of your growth.

Below is a sample resume for promotion within the same company using the stacked entry method:

2. A separate list of duties for different positions

This method is appropriate to use when you are updating your resume for an internal promotion, specifically when your promotion involves different duties. To provide employers with a clear explanation of your internal promotions, you can list the different positions under the same company name. 

Here's an example of promotion on a resume for this listing style:

3. Listing the same company twice

It's also acceptable to list the same company twice, especially in situations where you left an organization, had a new role where else but later returned for a promotion. Such experiences should be separated under different entries to avoid misunderstandings and to help the recruiter understand the chronology of your work experiences more clearly.

You can refer to the example below on how to adopt this method for mentioning promotion on a resume:

Below are circumstances where you should adopt a certain listing method to demonstrate promotion on your resume:

Stacked entries

You should use this listing method when you hold different job titles within a company that shares the same skills and duties.

You can use this template:

It should like something like this on your resume:

A separate list of duties for different positions

This listing method is suitable for describing internal promotions of roles that are different in nature. 

You can use this template:

It should look like this on your resume:

Listing the same company twice

This method is adopted to emphasize resume promotion within a company where you leave but later come back for a promotion.

You can use this template:

It should look like this on your resume:

Besides the detailed methods adopted for including promotion on a resume, you'll also need several tips to highlight your achievements and make such promotions stand out. Here're some tips you may need:

Tip #1: Mention the promotion in the description

There's a high chance that your employer can easily lose track of information while scanning through a mountain of applicants’ resumes. Therefore, remember to include the promotions in the work experience description of each entry as it helps bring your achievements to the employers' notice right at the first few lines.

Tip #2: Highlight notable achievements or responsibilities in each role

Try to keep your content concise with notable results or achievements. Stuffing your experience with abundant information makes it difficult for recruiters to gasp for the most important details, and therefore you lose your chance of making the first impression. 

Tip #3: List entries in reverse chronological order

The list of entries should always be named in a reversed order as it helps emphasize your most recent achievement. The reverse chronological order also provides the employer with a clear narrative of your career path.

Tip #4: Use the correct tenses 

Don’t forget to adopt the appropriate tense for each job entry as maintaining a sense of consistency is critical when writing a resume. Inconsistent use of tenses may confuse readers and therefore minimize your chance of getting noticed.

Tip #5: Include the month and year of each position held

It's the bare requirement that you should include the job length for each position you list down on your resume. Employers prefer to know the years you were employed for better evaluation of your experience.

Tip #6: Use bullet points

Bullet points are a must when listing your promotion in a resume, as coherence in formatting is a plus point for every resume. A clear narrative of your past experience helps hiring managers to locate information more effectively, therefore increasing your chance of passing to the next round of the recruitment process.

Tip #7: Go for a simple formatting

You may feel tempted to use several patterned bullet points when listing promotions on your resume but it’s better to adopt simple bullet points of dots or squares. Cool bullet points can be a huge distraction, and sometimes they can also be a hindrance to readers.

--- Originally written by May Luong ---