Resumes 101: Education

Shani Roberts
Feb 14, 2020
2 min read

While it is one of the shorter portions of the resume, your educational background is still an important detail to include on your resume. Education can refer to secondary, college or even professional certifications or courses. Obtained any honors or other special recognition? You should mention those as well.

Below are my tips to the most common questions I have been asked before. Hopefully, my tips and examples will go a long way in helping you to continue crafting the story of your professional value!

Does high school matter?

Well, it depends. One rule of thumb is that if a candidate is enrolled in post secondary education, or a graduate, there is no need to list high school or GED information. Post secondary education can include professional certifications, Associate Degrees, Bachelors Degrees and beyond. Jobs that require this level of education aren't interested in which high school you went to.

Placement: Where does education go in the resume?

Does it matter if education mentioned towards the top of the resume, or should it be towards the end? The answer? It can be either. What you choose to do depends on a few things:

Top

Making your Education section towards the top of the resume, right under a career summary, typically benefits the entry level candidate. They may have limited to no work experience in a given field, but may have completed or are in the process of completing relevant training. Their Work Experience section would also benefit from describing any internships/externships. Wondering how to write your own Work Experience? check my recent blog post.

Top placement also benefits the candidate who may have a considerable gap in employment, whether this was due to being in school or not. Information closer to the beginning of the resume gets more attention from the reader. Enhance your education section by mentioning key courses completed that would be relevant to the job in question (No need however to list your entire list of courses.)

Bottom

Does your qualifications for the job come more from practical work experience? Perhaps your education was not recently completed. Or it is not directly related to the job you are applying for. Then your education section can be briefly mentioned towards the bottom. Your strongest selling points should always be as close to the top of the resume as possible.