How to list entrepreneurship on your resume
You already know how to put together a resume that highlights your most relevant skills and experience, but is it okay to include freelance or self-employed experience on there, too?
Yes and no.
You can put any experience you want on your resume. You’re in charge of that decision. But be wary, because sometimes employers might have biases against self-employment.
It’s possible that hiring managers might flag you as a flight risk, likely to quit and return to your own business more easily than others who exclusively work for the company. You’ve tasted the fruits of independence and not having a boss, and you know what’s possible on the other side of corporate life.
Choose your hard
I’m not gonna lie to you—entrepreneurship is hard. Selling things is hard, marketing is hard, handling all the administrative back-end stuff is hard, and getting nailed with self-employment taxes is hard.
But it’s also freeing and inspiring and self-motivating. You decide your schedule. You decide your strategy. You decide your prices. You decide your clients.
Having a job-job is hard too! Navigating office politics is hard, dealing with changing priorities and deadlines and meetings that could have been emails is hard, and being asked to work late to finish a project is hard.
But it’s also reassuring and stable. You know as long as you show up and put in the hours, you’ll get paid. You leave your house and put on real pants and talk to other people, some of whom you might even become friends with.
Neither one of these is a sure thing. Businesses fail. Layoffs happen. Markets change.
But you do get to decide which route you want to take. You get to decide which difficult option is the one for you. And you even get to change your mind later, too.
A lot of our clients are doing a mix of both traditional employment and freelancing or starting a business. Your self-employment doesn’t have to completely replace a full-time income. Either way, it’s good to know how to leverage your self-employed experience on a resume to make yourself stand out.
How to put entrepreneurship on your resume
There’s no one right way to include entrepreneurship on your professional resume for job applications. It will largely depend on how much you freelance—someone with a side gig selling jewelry on Etsy will have different skills and experience to showcase than someone who has been writing articles for news publications for a decade.
But we’ve got a few tips you can put to good use to make sure you’re capturing all the transferable skills that will make you stand out.
Include a company name and job title. Including a company name and title for yourself lends itself to the formatting of a traditional resume and will fit in with the rest of your work experience.
Focus on skills. Align the self-employed experience listed on your resume with the kind of work you’d be doing in the new role, focusing on the skills that will transfer easily. Writing and proofreading, spreadsheets, managing budgets, streamlining a shipping process, and handling customer service inquiries are just a few examples.
Keep it in the summary. If you’re not comfortable outright listing your freelance business as its own topic on your resume, you could instead tease out a couple of highlights to include in your professional summary. These don’t have to directly tie into the content later in the resume, so it’s a way to include those important skills and experience without making a big deal of it.
Tailor to each role. You should already know this, but it’s worth saying again—tailor your resume for each job application, making sure that keywords from the job description make it into a few spots on the resume. As an entrepreneur, you probably have tons of different pools of experience to draw from, but you’re not obligated to list everything you’ve ever done. Focus only on the parts of your work that relate to the job at hand.
What if you did a little of everything?
Common problem with entrepreneurship: you have to do most things on your own, which means you’ll be learning a lot of new skills. Listing everything out in a resume format can be overwhelming, and it’s hard to know exactly what’s relevant.
As mentioned in tip number 2 above, focus on the skills that are relevant and easily transferable to the job you’re applying for. Look through the job description and identify any responsibilities or qualifications that feel similar to work you’ve done for your own business or freelance endeavors.
Ask yourself some relevant questions to tease out the details.
Administrative Jobs: How do you stay organized and on top of things you need for the office or the services and products you create? Think about systems you’ve developed to make administration easier to manage. What keeps your freelance business moving like a well-oiled machine?
Caretaking Work: Working as a caretaker, whether a nanny/babysitter or caretaking an older adult with dementia, can translate into some industries easily—especially childcare, nursing, birth work, or even working with animals.
Customer Service Roles: Think about how you keep your clients and customers happy. Do you handle shipping and returns? What are your average reviews and testimonials like? Have you developed a customer service system that helps you anticipate client needs before they ask? How are you on the phone, email, in person, and via text or DM?
Sales and Marketing Positions: Think about how you bring in new clients. Do you do consultations? Cold calls/emails? Advertising campaigns on Meta or Google? Are you really good at hosting webinars that convert free signups into paying clients? How many clients do you manage at a time, and in what capacity?
Writing and Editing Roles: Think about all the things you have to write as a freelancer or entrepreneur. Not only social media posts and things you may have written for your clients, but also emails, contracts, instructions, pitches, speeches…
What else? If you’re not sure how to break down your entrepreneurial experience into resume-style bullet points, we can help! Grab an intensive with Liora or Caitlin for a one-time session to nail down your details and finalize your resume for this application.
Discussing entrepreneurship in the interview
You can be more candid in your cover letter (if needed) and in your interviews, especially if your freelance work covers a gap in your employment history. Resume gaps and job hopping get a bad rap, but have you seen the job market out there? Spin it into something that shows your strengths! Doing some freelance work after a layoff shows initiative and problem-solving, which is a huge asset to the company interviewing you.
If asked about an employment gap, try something like this:
“Unfortunately, my position was downsized, and it’s been a tough market. I started writing some technical articles to keep myself on top of the newest trends in the industry and have been looking for my next full-time role to put that knowledge to use.”
Ta da! What was once a resume gap is now you doing your best to keep your skills sharp and ready for your next role.
