How to Include an Interview-Worthy Resume Education Section
What should I include in my resume education section?
One of the most common questions at CVJury is, “What does a good resume education section look like?”
Like other sections of your resume, the education section should have concise yet comprehensive information.
This is where you want to show the hiring managers that you have worthy academic credentials that could bring value to their companies.
Employers want to know whether your education is relevant to the position you’re applying for and whether it’s the correct information.
In addition, employers will look for certificates, educational achievements, and awards that demonstrate how valuable you’ll be to the company.
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When writing your resume education section, you need to know what hiring managers look for and what can help you get ahead of the competition.
So, like other sections of your resume, you should highlight academic credentials relevant to the industry and position you’re applying for.
However, you won’t pick any credentials and write them in this section without a second thought.
The thing is, you should highlight the most recent and relevant academic qualifications in chronological order.
To ensure you remain relevant for the post:
- Include academic qualifications from the last ten years.
- If you’re still a student or a recent graduate, highlight your relevant internships, academic honors and awards, transferable skills, and extracurricular activities.
- Keep it brief and concise, and use consistent formatting.
So, you want to know how to write a resume education section and impress your hiring manager?
This post will show you what to include and how to write it. We’ll also give you eight tips on writing an interview-worthy resume education section.
But first, let’s find out the importance of a resume education section, what to include, and where to put academic qualifications and certifications.
What’s the Importance of a Resume Education Section?
Education is a crucial asset in your resume that sets you apart from other job seekers.
Hiring managers will review your education section to examine your academic progress throughout your schooling years.
So, why is your education in a resume so important?
The educational background in your resume says much that your job experience can’t.
While job experience will tell about the skills and accomplishments you’ve accrued from previous positions, your education tells more about your determination, ability, and personality as a candidate.
This section will include the academic certificates, degrees, and accolades acquired throughout your schooling years.
By succeeding in various academic sectors, your hiring manager will know you still want to grow professionally.
In addition, your accomplishments in your academic life will show that you’re a worthy investment.
Hiring managers will see you as an asset if you’ve completed various educational programs and earned certificates, degrees, or accolades.
Such achievements will show you have the passion, dedication, and skills to succeed professionally.
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What to Include in My Resume Education Section?
Most job seekers think that putting education in a resume is as easy as pie.
Ensure to include the name of the college, university, certificates, degrees, and year of graduation, and they are done.
But that alone won’t help you secure a job interview. As a serious job seeker, you should tailor the education section to fit your circumstances.
For example, you should include whether you’re a continuing student and the nature of your academic achievements.
In short, you should include the correct information in your resume education section.
So, you want to know what to write in the education section of a resume? Here’s an overview of everything to include.
- Your degrees, diplomas, and certificates
- Any vocational training
- Names of your schools
- Locations of your schools
- Dates you joined and dates you graduated
- Field of study
- Any academic honors
- Relevant extracurricular activities
Where Should You Put Academic Qualifications and Certifications?
Where to put academic qualifications and certifications vary for different job seekers.
Students or recent graduates will put their educational qualifications and certification above their work history.
They have little work experience and want to emphasize their academic achievements.
On the other hand, job seekers with more work experience should include their educational qualifications and certifications after their employment history.
Whether a student, graduate, or experienced job seeker, your most recent certificates, diplomas, or degrees should come first.
However, you should put your education above your work experience when writing an academic resume.
This is simply because your academic qualifications and certifications matter greatly in academic posts.
Now you know what to put in the resume education section.
The other critical aspect to consider is how to write an educational background in a resume and impress the hiring manager.
Below are eight tips to help you write an interview-worthy resume.
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1. Include Your Education History from the Last Ten Years
Employers are interested in your most recent academic qualifications.
In some cases, age can work against you. If a company needs young and recently graduated job seekers, including an education history of over ten years, it can impede your success.
The hiring manager will assume you are old, have outdated skills, and won’t bring value to the company.
The idea is to list your education history from the last ten years to appear relevant.
If you have recent or advanced degrees, you may stand a better chance of getting ahead of your competitors.
However, there are exceptions when including recent education history.
If you acquired a degree in agriculture but are applying for a customer service position, your most recent degree won’t be valuable.
Remember, employers will look for those relevant and tailored academic qualifications to help the company reach the next level.
- Include Courses and Qualifications Attained
Start with a list of all courses and qualifications you have completed, including grades received.
For example, you can begin with your most recent studies and qualifications and list them chronologically.
Here, the hiring manager will look for degrees, diplomas, certificates, and the name of courses pursued.
Next, list your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, such as a master’s or PhD.
Then, ensure you provide the name of your qualification (e.g., BSc Business Management, BA Sociology, BSc Computing, etc.) and the grades attained (e.g., 1:1, 2:1).
As a result, your potential recruiter will know whether your courses, qualifications, and grades are tailored and valuable to the specific job position.
- List Honors and Awards
List any honors or awards you’ve been awarded in school.
For example, if you graduated with Latin honors, you could get your highest honors, such as magna cum laude, cum laude, or summa cum laude.
You can also include academic awards, scholarships, athletic awards, dean’s list, research, and project grants.
If your education section doesn’t have enough space for all the honors and awards you attained in school, you can create a separate “Awards section” in your resume.
Next is knowing what details to include when listing your awards and honors on your resume.
Your hiring manager expects to see the following information:
- Name of the award
- Year awarded
- Who gave you that award?
- The institution where you received it
- Why were you given the award
- Why you won it, etc.
However, evaluate the type of honors and awards you will include in the education section.
You want to impress your hiring manager with relevant awards and honors so they know you have the skills and potential to succeed.
- Keep it Brief
Your resume education section should be no more than 2-3 paragraphs long.
The goal here is to make it short but impactful. However, a resume education section of a recent graduate will be smaller than an experienced job seeker.
So, if you have a good track record of several education qualifications relevant to your post, you should avoid selling your expertise soon.
Include the most recent and relevant educational experiences and academic accomplishments to save space in your resume education section.
Remember that employers will review your education history, looking for what’s appropriate.
They also have other resumes to go through and other duties to attend to.
If you write long-winded paragraphs, employers won’t have all the time to go through everything you’ve written.
This may hamper your chances of securing an interview despite being the best candidate.
- Use a Consistent Formatting
Ensure you’re consistent with formatting throughout your resume.
The way you format your resume will tell more about yourself.
And remember, the first impression is everything when writing your resume.
Employers may not look into the other sections if you start your resume with an unimpressive format.
They’ll assume you’re not serious or qualified for the job.
Consistent formatting means using the same font, spacing, and borders throughout your resume.
Similarly, if you used a chronological order when listing your education section, use the same format when listing your professional experiences and accomplishments.
Consistent formatting, you don’t confuse whoever is going through your resume. Some valuable tips to follow when formatting your resume include:
- Use a readable font. Avoid using fancy fonts that are illegible. Use the Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Georgia, or Garamond.
- Don’t try to be friendly with font colors. Use black text throughout your resume. For your name, you can use dark blue.
- Use the correct spacing. Ensure create enough white spaces between words, sentences, and paragraphs. White spaces will make reading the resume easier. However, don’t use large spaces to make your resume appear unprofessional.
The secret is to make your resume impressive, neat, and professional.
Consistency in your resume will show hiring managers that you’re attentive to details, care about appearances, and review things.
In addition, they may spot some valuable soft skills based on how you’ve formatted your resume and considered you for the interview.
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- Review Your Dates
Including accurate and truthful information on your resume matters a lot, especially if the hiring manager decides to clarify it.
Reviewing your dates in the education section will help the employer follow through with the course of your education.
In addition, it would help to write the dates chronologically so that one will know the degrees and awards you acquired in university, college, and high school.
If there’s any discrepancy in your education section, your potential employer may think that there’s a problem you’re trying to mask.
When your education section has a gap, briefly explain and leave no room for doubts.
However, dates might sabotage your chances of impressing your potential employer.
If you acquired a degree over ten years ago, you could be aging yourself by listing the dates.
Assuming that the company is only interested in young job seekers, you can focus on the degree, awards, and school.
- Use Industry-Specific Keywords
As we mentioned earlier, most hiring managers don’t have all the time to go through everything in applicants’ resumes, especially if it’s not impressive.
Some use software to select resumes that have everything they are looking for.
That’s why you should consider what your potential employer is looking for before writing your resume education section.
Different companies have essential keywords to include in a resume education section.
First, you can research the company to understand the common keywords in your resume.
Besides that, you can go through the job description to look for industry-specific keywords.
Then, you can briefly describe your academic credentials with the right keywords.
This will make it easier for employers or applicant tracking system software to find the information they want.
In addition, using industry-specific keywords will show that you are attentive to details and a professional in your field.
- Include Professional Training Certificates if You Don’t Have a Degree
Are you worried that your competitors have better chances of winning the job due to the impressive educational backgrounds that you lack?
If you don’t have a degree and still want to secure a job interview and land that job, there’s an alternative way to putting your best foot forward.
You can include any relevant training or other alternative educational programs equipped with valuable skills.
For example, you can think of appropriate job-related training, conferences, seminars, certifications, online learning, self-directed study, and in-service training.
Moreover, you should emphasize your strong skills, experiences, and accomplishments in other sections of your resume.
The idea here is to look for anything you have that should make the employer hire you.
For example, if you’ve gained tremendous experience in your past employment, you can place your professional experience section before the education section.
Here, you’ll emphasize your career achievements, skills acquired, industry knowledge, and track record results.
If you show that you’ve been tried, tested, and proven elsewhere, your hiring manager might consider you for a job interview invite.
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Final Thoughts
As you can see, you have several things to consider when writing about your education.
Keep it brief and provide the necessary information without overloading the reader with detail.
If your resume education section impresses your potential employer, you might secure an interview and land your dream job.
We hope this post has offered you valuable ideas for writing an effective resume education section. We have more hacks for you: learn how to write a resume like a pro.
Good luck.
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