Are Resumes in The Past Tense?

Writing the perfect resume might not be possible, but it is at least possible to make sure that your resume is written in the correct tense.

If you are someone who sends out a resume written in the wrong tense, then the odds of you finding work and bring hired or contacted by a recruiter is very low.

The simple fact is that  for the most part resumes are written in the past tense. There are no exceptions to this rule.

When you are writing about a previous job, you need to write about it in the past tense. If you write about a prior job you held and use the present tense, you will be immediately seen as someone who has a poor understanding of grammar.

If a recruiter or hiring manager receives a resume that is not written in the past tense, then they will simply discard the resume and note that the person is not qualified for a professional office environment.

So it makes sense to spend time reviewing your resume for the proper tense and making sure that you have no glaring errors on it that would make it so that you are removed from consideration.

Why Are Resumes Written in the Past Tense?

Before we jump into a big discussion about how to revise a poorly written resume, let’s first discuss why resumes are written in the past tense.

It all has to do with proper grammar. The resume is a written document that is designed for people to read. Think of it as you would any document that is written to be read. It needs to have proper grammar on it.

People who cannot construct a proper statement are not going to be hired to work in a professional setting.

Tense is a very important concept to understand and most people who have a basic elementary school education will grasp this concept. So, when a resume comes across a recruiters desk and the person cannot correctly write it’s a warning sign to avoid them.

The entire resume does not need to be written in the past tense. The only sections that need to be written in the past tense are job descriptions that happened in the past.

Any current work behavior, obviously, will be written in the present tense.

However, people often make a mistake and write everything in the present tense. Sometimes this is because they used a cheap resume writing service instead of a professional resume  writing service. Other times it’s because is simply slipped their mind.

Whatever the reason, it’s important to not have these tense mistakes on the resume. If they are present they need to be written in the present tense. If the jobs are over, then they need to be written in the past tense.

Are Job Descriptions In the Past Tense?

Job descriptions on resumes are only written in the past tense if the jobs are ones which happened in the past. For any job that you are no longer working at, the tense needs to be past tense.

It’s completely inaccurate to write a resume in the present tense if the job is long over. Anyone who reads such a resume will immediately view you as someone who is not capable of writing coherently.

The resume will not land you any interviews with a recruiter, no call backs for jobs, and might end up doing more harm than good.

The simple way to understand it is to view tense as past vs present.

Only use present tense for jobs where you are still employed. If you are covering an old job, then you need to immediately switch to past tense.

Are Resumes Always Written in The Past Tense?

Anytime you write about a prior job on a resume, yes, you will need to write about it in the past tense. There is no reason to write about a previous job in the present tense. It’s just grammatically wrong.

Instead of writing about a prior job in the present tense, use the past tense. It’s simple and easy. Plus it is the correct way to create a resume.

Resumes are always written in a mixture of past and present or simply past tense.

If you are currently working and employed then you will have present tense listed on your resume.

If you ended your most recent job and are currently unemployed, then you will only have past tense.

There are certain things that you should never have on your resume, and improper tense is one of the main ones.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve spent time getting a professioanl photo on your resume if you haven’t written the job descriptions accurately.

A Fast Fix and an Easy Problem: Check Verb Tenses

The easiest way to fix the tense problems on your resume is to look at the verbs. These will help you immediately see if you need to change the tense to past tense.

Let’s look at an example:

Shannon’s resume has the following details:

Account Executive 2020-2022

• -Executed full scale business development
• -Liaised with clients and customers
• -Managed multiple venue streams for department
• -Brought in 7 figures in business
• Streamline customer journey process

This is a correctly worded resume with the exception of Streamline. That word is in the present tense and the job has ended. So the correct word would be streamlined.

Here’s another example:

Monica

Registered Nurse 2018-2019

• Handle IV Insertions
• Clean Patients
• Observe and Reporting On Patient Medication
• Answer All Doctor Request

There are multiple issues with this resume. The wording is completely wrong and the tenses are also wrong. Luckily for Monica, nurses are not held to the same standards when it comes to resumes. However, it would still benefit Monica to hire a professional resume writer or at least review her resume herself to make sure that she removes all of these obvious grammatical errors.