Over the years, I have been asked by people to help them proofread their curriculum vitae/resume. One of the most common mistakes I have found is the misuse of the possessive apostrophe, particularly in regards to "years of experience".
There are two ways to indicate your experience on your resume:
(1) X years of experience
OR
(2) X years' experience
"Year" is a noun to describe a period of time. "Years" is a thus the plural form of the noun, therefore it takes an "s" as part of the word. The experience belongs to the year or the years
To help understand where to place the apostrophe, I have outline several examples below:
If you have had experience for one year, it would be:
(1) one year of experience
OR
(2) one year's experience
If you have had experience for two or more years, it would be:
(1) two years of experience
OR
(2) two years' experience
In contrast, if you were to use the noun, "decade", which means 10 years, then you would say:
(1) 10 years' experience
OR
(2) a(one) decade's experience
This is because in example (1) you describe ten years whereas in example (2) you are describing one decade.
If, you were describing 20 years, then you would say:
(1) 20 years' experience
OR
(2) two decades' experience
In this case, example (2) is describing "two decades" and not "two decade".
Happy writing, and for all those people out their job-hunting, don't forget this tip and make sure you proofread your work! First impressions are important, and the first impression you make on your future boss is via your resume! Keep it neat; keep it error-free!
For more information on resume proofreading and editing, visit: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/personal.html
More tips and tricks can be found at: www.expeditepublishing.com.au/free.html
I get the placement of the apostrophe based on the number of the possessor - but why does the experience belong to the year?
ReplyDeleteYour experience is linked to a unit of time. Experience in this instance reflects your likely "skill level". Prospective employers will want to know whether you have had sufficient time in the field as a direct indicator of whether you will have the right level of previous experience for the job for which you are applying.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, you have experience as a carpenter. But your experience or your skill level is often defined by how long you have been a carpenter. Thus, experience/skill is defined by a time frame.
Thus, if you have been a carpenter for 5 years, your carpenting experience has been over a period of 5 years. Shortening this, you have 5 years' experience.
Does this answer your question?
I prefer using the "of" option because the experience is mine. A day cannot experience anything, neither can a year. I experienced disappointment. I experienced confusion. The year did not experience anything. But, that's just my way of looking at things.
DeleteThank you very much for your post!
ReplyDelete"out their job-hunting" ??????????????????????????????????????
ReplyDeleteLOL - and it wasn't even corrected...
DeleteThe missing point is: when you're using the apostrophe, you're actually saying that you have
ReplyDelete(1) experience of three years (three years' experience)
as opposed to
(2) three years of experience.
I suppose both constructions are valid, but it is indeed funny to think that either the experience belongs to the years, or the years belong to the experience. Although usage is correct, I wouldn't say it is a matter of literal belonging.
But you can also say: I have a five years experience....
ReplyDeleteI have a five year experience!!!
DeleteO yes, you are right. I have a five year experience...
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for this useful article. Blogspot is still a heaven of free knowledge without those popup forms and plugins that other money makers wordpress sites ruthlessly show to every visitor of their websites. Keep writing this kind of posts, they are helping real people.
I prefer using the "of" option because the experience is mine. A day cannot experience anything, neither can a year. I experienced disappointment. I experienced confusion. The year did not experience anything. But, that's just my way of looking at things.
ReplyDeleteYou are all missing the point that if it really is years' and the years own the experience, you would be able to interchange it with "of years" instead of "of experience" as noted by the author. There is no possessive here at all. It is just stating a number of years not that the years possess anything.
ReplyDeleteHow ironic that an instructional article about the importance of proof-reading contains such a glaring error as the use of 'their' instead of 'there'.
ReplyDeleteI really disagree with five years' experience and the notion that the experience belongs to the years. The experience doesn't belong to the years; it belongs to the person who got the experience. The concept of things other than people and other legal entities (and maybe animals for the anthropomorphic among us) being capable of possessing things is another example of the precipitous decline of the English language. How about "five years of experience?" Would it kill us to do that? Would it kill us to maintain a distinction between verbal and oral? Did we really need normalcy? What next, commas and conjunctions to join independent and dependent clauses, subjects within prepositional phrases?
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ReplyDeleteWhy is there a typo in the title of your post about proper grammar? What is a possive apostrophe? Do you mean possessive?
ReplyDelete