professional experience

Career track record

Professional experience is the knowledge, skills, and competence gained through paid work in a field.

It typically appears on résumés and job applications, where employers seek candidates with relevant professional experience: The position requires five years of professional experience in marketing.

Distinguished from education, volunteer work, or personal projects, though the boundaries blur in creative and technical fields.

Opposites
source of knowledge/competence

professional experienceformal education

Systematic study in institutions

book learning · classroom instruction · academic credentials · university education · classroom learning

career stage/development

professional experienceinexperience

Lack of prior exposure

career gap · unemployment · first job

formality of work context

professional experiencevolunteer work

Freely given service

unpaid labor · domestic work · leisure activities · amateurism · life experience

Family

professional, experience, profession, profess, professed, professing, professor, professorial, professionally

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Everyday, not technical · Rated G