Describe the positions you recruit for and the work-history details your team needs. Makeform turns that brief into an employment history form where applicants can enter each employer, role, dates, duties, supervisor details, and reason for leaving in a consistent format.
Route applicant records to Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a complete prompt, tailor it to your hiring process, or send it to the Makeform builder. The field structure is an example you can edit before publishing.
Audience
Recruiters collecting a consistent work record
Format
Repeatable employer section with required dates
Prompt size
538 chars
Example form structure
Repeatable employer section with required dates
Applicant and position details
Employer, location, and job title
Start and end month and year
Main duties and reason for leaving
Add another previous employer?
Suggested routing tags
History complete
Needs clarification
Ready for review
Ask separately for start month, end month, and whether the applicant currently works there. That produces dates your reviewer can scan without interpreting several free-text formats.
Step 1
Collect
employers, roles, dates, and contacts
Step 2
Clarify
gaps, overlaps, and missing end dates
Step 3
Review
ordered history in one consistent record
Step 4
Route
send complete entries to the hiring team
Why structure matters
Applicants format resumes for storytelling. An employment history form asks every person for the same dates, employer contacts, job context, and departure details, making the initial review easier to follow.
Keep company, title, dates, duties, supervisor, and reason for leaving together. Reviewers do not have to match details scattered across several questions.
Separate start and end fields, plus a currently employed option, produce a readable timeline and expose entries that need clarification.
Conditional questions can show temporary-assignment details, contact permission, or gap explanations only when the applicant's earlier answers make them relevant.
Built around the review
Start with the workflow closest to your team, then change the lookback period, contact questions, and level of detail to fit the role.
Collect the complete work timeline alongside the position applied for, availability, and resume, without asking candidates to reformat their story manually.
Gather former names used at work, employer locations, verifier contacts, and contact timing in a record prepared for later review.
Distinguish permanent, contract, temporary, and seasonal assignments so planned end dates are not mistaken for unexplained departures.
Put internal promotions and department moves beside external history, helping reviewers see progression and role-relevant experience.
Build the workflow
Give Makeform the scope and required fields, refine the generated employment history form, then route each completed record to the right reviewer.
State whether you need the last three roles, a set number of years, or all relevant experience. Name the jobs and locations that require extra context.
Make employer and date fields required, add a current-employment switch, and show gap, contract, or seasonal follow-ups only when needed.
Notify the assigned recruiter when a record arrives, and use a clear subject line containing the applicant and position for straightforward triage.
Route submissions to your chosen workspace or spreadsheet, tag records that need clarification, and keep applicant-entered details attached to the same response.
Form vs resume vs email
A resume presents experience; an employment history form standardizes the underlying record. Use both when recruiters need narrative context and consistent fields.
Field guide
These six sections turn a loose list of past jobs into a work timeline your recruiter or screener can read. Adjust required fields to the role and your organization's process.
Applicant context
Start with enough identifying context to route the submission without collecting unrelated sensitive details. The position, location, and recruiter reference help when several openings share a hiring inbox.
Employer identity
Company names alone can be ambiguous, especially after mergers or when a worker was placed by an agency. Ask for the employer, worksite, and staffing relationship as separate details.
Role details
A title does not describe scope. A concise duties field, employment type, and optional hours field help reviewers understand whether an earlier position relates to the current opening.
Dates and sequence
Month and year are often enough for an early review. Provide an exact-date option only when your process calls for it, and let current employees skip an artificial end date.
Departure context
Offer practical categories such as resignation, role ended, assignment completed, layoff, relocation, or still employed, followed by optional context. This produces more consistent answers than one broad text box.
Contact and review
A former supervisor may have moved, so allow an HR or payroll contact and a not known option. Keep contact permission separate from the applicant's confirmation that they reviewed their entries.
Related tools
Pair employment history collection with application, resume, reference, and screening-request forms, using live Makeform tools for each stage.
Collect candidate basics, availability, qualifications, and role-specific application answers before reviewing detailed history.
Open toolPrepare a structured request after the candidate reaches the screening stage in your hiring process.
Open toolAsk references consistent questions about working relationships, responsibilities, and observed strengths.
Open toolReceive resumes and supporting files with the candidate details needed to label and route each upload.
Open toolCreate a broader application intake for a particular opening, department, or hiring campaign.
Open toolCollect employment details for a separate verification workflow with its own purpose and routing.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for recruiters, HR teams, and screeners designing a clear applicant work-history intake.
An employment history form is a structured questionnaire where an applicant lists previous employers, roles, dates, duties, supervisor or HR contacts, and reasons for leaving. Unlike a resume, it asks every applicant for the same core details in the same order. Recruiters can use the result to understand the timeline and identify entries that need a follow-up.
Include employer name and location, job title, employment type, start and end month and year, current-employment status, main duties, supervisor or HR contact details when known, and reason for leaving. Depending on the role, you might add typical weekly hours, staffing-agency details, or a short description of relevant responsibilities. Keep unrelated sensitive questions out of the form.
Choose a window that matches the hiring purpose rather than asking for every job by default. You might request the last several roles, a stated number of years, or only experience relevant to the opening. Say the rule in the introduction, provide an option for no previous employment, and let applicants add context when exact older dates are unavailable.
Add a clear no previous employment choice and branch to relevant alternatives such as volunteer work, training, coursework, projects, caregiving-related transferable skills, or certifications. Do not force applicants to invent an employer entry. This keeps the form usable for first-time workers while still giving the hiring team information connected to the role.
If that context helps your review, ask with neutral options such as resigned, assignment completed, role ended, layoff, relocation, still employed, or other. Add a short optional explanation rather than a large mandatory text box. For temporary and seasonal work, ask whether the assignment ended as scheduled so a normal end date is not misread.
Yes. Use a repeatable employer block or ask whether the applicant wants to add another role after each entry. Every block should keep the same employer, title, date, duties, contact, and departure fields. If you set a maximum, explain the requested lookback rule and offer a notes field for additional relevant experience.
Yes. Makeform supports unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect employment history submissions without a response cap on the free offering. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge. Review the generated fields and your own hiring requirements before sharing the form.
Use separate structured fields for start month and year and end month and year, plus a currently employed switch. Ask for exact days only if your process genuinely needs them. Conditional follow-ups can request context for meaningful gaps or overlaps, while a review page lets applicants catch reversed dates and missing employer entries before submission.
Replace scattered work-history follow-ups.
