Resume Sections: Which to Include and in What Order

Most resume problems that look like writing problems are actually section problems: something present that should not be, or something in the wrong place. Here is the full list.

The four that always belong

Contact details. Name, city and state, phone, email. In the body of the document rather than only in a header, because some parsers skip headers. See the resume header guide.

Experience. The substance. See the resume work experience guide.

Education. One line per qualification once you are a few years in.

Skills. Concrete and checkable. See the resume skills section guide.

That is a complete resume. Harvard’s career service materials describe a brief informative document summarising abilities, education and experience, which is exactly these four.

The conditional six

Include when the condition applies, and not otherwise.

A summary. When you have a few years of history or are changing direction. Not on a first resume. See resume summary examples.

Licensure and certifications. When a credential is a hard filter, as in nursing, law, the trades or accountancy, it goes near the top. Otherwise a short section near the bottom. See certifications on a resume.

Projects. When you are early career, changing field, or in a technical or creative role where the work is the evidence. See projects on a resume.

Publications and presentations. In academia, research, medicine and some technical fields.

Languages. When relevant to the role or the employer’s customers, which is more often than people assume. See language skills on a resume.

Volunteer experience. When it fills a gap, demonstrates relevant skills, or is substantial. See volunteer experience on a resume.

The five that should almost never appear

References, and the line saying they are available on request. Both obsolete. Nobody assumes you cannot produce references. See references on a resume.

A photo. In the US it takes space from evidence and many employers avoid them.

Personal details. Date of birth, marital status, nationality beyond a work authorisation note. See the US resume format guide.

An objective, unless you are changing field, relocating, or writing a first resume. See the resume objectives guide.

Anything with no evidence in it. A “Strengths” or “Core Competencies” block listing adjectives is the most common example. If a section contains no facts, delete it.

The standard order

1. Contact details
2. Summary, if you have one
3. Experience
4. Education
5. Skills
6. Certifications, if not at the top
7. Extras: projects, languages, volunteering, awards

This order answers a reader’s questions in the order they ask them. Purdue’s job search writing resources cover the same conventions.

The four situations that change it

While studying or within about a year of graduating: education moves above experience, because it is your strongest credential. It drops back once you have real work history. See education on a resume.

When a licence is the entry requirement: the credential block goes directly under contact details, above the summary. A recruiter checking whether you can legally do the job should not have to scroll. This applies in nursing, law, architecture, the trades, pharmacy and similar.

When changing field: a capability or key-achievements block goes above experience, so your relevant evidence is not buried under an unrelated recent job. See the skills-based resume guide.

In technical and creative roles where the work is the evidence: projects can sit above or alongside experience, particularly early in a career.

Use standard headings

Experience. Education. Skills. Certifications.

Not “My Journey”, “Where I’ve Made an Impact”, or “What I Bring”. Creative headings gain nothing with a human reader and they make section detection harder for a parser, which needs to know which block is your employment history.

Two acceptable variations: “Professional Experience” and “Relevant Experience”, the latter useful when you are deliberately including non-obvious material such as coursework projects.

Naming a section honestly

One small practice worth adopting.

If you group unpaid work with paid work, call the section “Experience” rather than “Employment”, and label each entry accurately. Presenting a volunteer role as a job is the kind of ambiguity that becomes a problem at verification. See lying on a resume.

Same for contract work: name it as contract or freelance. Nobody objects, and concealment is what causes trouble.

A five-minute audit

1. List your sections in order.
2. Delete any with no facts in them.
3. Delete references, photo and personal details.
4. Check whether one of the four reordering situations applies to you.
5. Rename any creative heading to the standard term.
6. Confirm contact details are in the body, not only the header.

Most resumes lose one or two sections and gain half a page of usable space.

Related

For the surrounding decisions, see the resume format guide and the resume header guide. For length, see the one-page and two-page guides. For the extras, see hobbies on a resume and awards on a resume.

Browse the ATS-friendly templates or build one free.