Is it appropriate to add work experience in a place you weren't officially employed at in your resume?

As many have already pointed out, you should list it to show the skills you acquired. Working in family owned business is not something that needs to be hidden or skipped. Its a perfectly good experience which has added to your skills and should be shared accordingly.

But, given that this can often be misused and generally unverifiable as to the level of your involvement, many employers take it as a alert flag and might question you further on the same. My advice would be to exactly and specifically write what you did. If you managed the Deli section that had 50 visitors a day, please don't write managed Deli section of family owned grocery store that had 500 visitors a day. That may not be wrong, but you had no part in helping the rest of 450 customers

Rather than focusing on the fact that worked there, I would recommend focusing on the skills that you gained from working there. In the skills section of your resume you can call out whatever skills you excelled at when working at the grocery store as long as it's relevant to the job that you are applying for. In the interview, when asked about your skills you can discuss with the interviewer how working at the store helped you to gain those skills.

If it's not relevant in any way, you may want to leave it off the resume entirely.

I think I would put it right up top, in the "Summary of Qualifications," then you don't need to list it in the Work History Section.

"I was raised in a family-owned grocery business, where I learned the value of hard work, being given positions of increasing responsibility as I grew older."

Or something like that. If you list skills such as cashier, customer service, using scales, etc., they won't be confused if it does not relate to your work experience, as it is all explained by that first sentence.

Hello!

Any and all experience is important to include on your resume, whether paid or not. I think your experience in the grocery store is especially versatile and you can pull out some great skills from this experience. But you don't need to stay literal to what you did. Think about the interaction and role you had on a larger scale. For example:

Filling shopping baskets: You took away organization and prioritization

Aiding cashiers with bagging: Support, collaboration, teamwork, fueled customer convenience and enhanced customer experience (your job made the customer's overall shopping experience easier, faster and better).

Bringing carts back into store: Efficiency and support and ensured security of customer property (loose carts are dangerous!)

Took orders at deli: Interpersonal skills, customer service, facilitated and coordinated customer orders

Think broader and creatively and you will be able to use these skills to your marketing advantage! Best of luck to you!

Stefania

Instead of adding this information to your resume as "work experience," you could add a section entitled "related work experience" and include the various types of related experiences that are relevant to the position(s) you are applying to and/or interested in. Be sure to relate your experiences to actual duties that require similar skills at the company you are applying for and include the length of time of your related experiences. Good luck...!!

Hi Paajcha!

Any and all experience gained through out life should be presented, as long as it is presented in a focused manner aimed towards the career field that you are pursuing. It does not manner if this experience was paid, unpaid, volunteer, internship, coop, or any other. If you have the experience the skills and knowledge gained through it you own it and can present it as being valid. At the end of the message, I have presented some suggestions regarding experience and skills based resume presentations, which can be very effective.

Best of luck! Let me know if and how this might help. Keep me posted. I would like to follow your progress.