What Resume Sections to Include (and What to Skip)

A resume is more than a list of jobs—it's a strategic document designed to get you past Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and convince recruiters you're worth interviewing. But with limited space and only a few seconds of a recruiter's first scan, which resume sections actually matter? Choosing your sections is one part of learning how to write a resume that gets interviews, and this guide covers that part in depth.

Resume Sections at a Glance

The 5 Essential Resume Sections Every Resume Must Have

These sections are non-negotiable. Skip any of these, and your resume will likely be rejected by both ATS and human reviewers.

1. Header (Contact Information)

Your resume header should appear at the top of the page and include:

Required elements:

• Full name (largest text on the page, 18-24pt)
• Phone number (professional voicemail message)
• Email address (professional format: firstname.lastname@email.com)
• Location (City/State only and no full street address needed)
• LinkedIn profile URL (customized, not default)

Optional elements:

• Portfolio website or personal site
• GitHub profile (for technical roles)
• Professional social media (if relevant to your industry)

What to skip:

• Date of birth or age
• Marital status
• Photo (unless applying internationally where it's expected)
• Full street address (privacy concern and wastes space)

Good Header Example:

2. Resume Headline (Optional)

A resume headline is a single line between your header and summary that tells the recruiter who you are and what you're targeting. It works like a title for your application, so it should name the role, your specialty and, where you can, a credential or result.

When to include:

• You have a clear target role and want it visible in the first line
• You're a career changer who wants to frame your new direction up front
• Your summary is short and needs a sharper lead-in

Keep it under 15 words, and mirror the job title in the posting so your resume headline reads as a direct match.

Example:

3. Professional Summary or Objective

This 3-4 line section appears directly below your header (or headline) and serves as your elevator pitch.

The rule: write a resume summary once you have 3+ years of experience in the field, and an objective if you're entry-level or changing careers. Returning after a career gap doesn't change this, since 3+ years in the field still calls for a summary.

Use a Professional Summary when:

• You have 3+ years of experience in the field
• You're staying in the same field
• You have quantifiable achievements to highlight

Use an Objective when:

• You're an entry-level professional or recent graduate
• You're a career changer pivoting to a new industry

Professional Summary structure:

Professional Summary Example

A modern resume objective still focuses on what you offer, not just what you want. This one, written for a career changer, leads with the experience and the new credential behind the move.

Career Objective Example

4. Work Experience

This is the most important section on your resume, and the one recruiters read most closely. A strong work experience section shows what you achieved in each role, not just what you were responsible for.

Standard format:

Best practices:

Achievement-focused bullet formula:

How far back to go:

• Entry-level (0-3 years): Include all relevant experience, internships, and significant projects
• Mid-level (3-10 years): Focus on last 10 years; summarize or remove earlier roles
• Senior (10+ years): Emphasize last 10-15 years; consolidate older experience into "Early Career" section

5. Education

For most professionals, this section should be brief and appear near the end of your resume. For recent graduates and entry-level professionals, place it after your summary. How you list education on your resume depends on your career stage.

Standard format:

What to include:

Recent Graduate Examples:

Experienced Professional Examples:

Certifications in education section:

If you have one or two relevant certifications, you can list them here. If you have several, or the job requires a specific credential, create a separate "Certifications and Licenses" section.

6. Skills

This section serves two critical functions: passing ATS keyword filters and giving recruiters a quick snapshot of your technical capabilities. The right skills on a resume are the ones the job description asks for, backed up elsewhere by your experience.

How to list skills on your resume:

There are 2 popular approaches for listing skills:

1. Categorized skills (recommended for technical roles):

2. Simple list (for non-technical roles):

Best practices:

• List 10-15 skills relevant to your target role
• Match job description language exactly (if the job says "JavaScript," don't write "JS")
• Specify proficiency levels for technical skills when relevant (e.g., "Python (Advanced)")
• Front-load important skills that appear in the job description
• Avoid soft skills clichés like "hard worker" or "team player"—demonstrate these through achievements instead

What NOT to include:

• Outdated technologies (unless specifically requested)
• Basic skills everyone has (Microsoft Word, email)
• Skills you used once 10 years ago
• Subjective self-assessments ("expert," "guru")

Optional Resume Sections That Can Strengthen Your Application

The following sections aren't required, but they can differentiate you from other candidates when used strategically:

7. Certifications and Licenses

Any certification or license relevant to the role is worth listing, even if you only have one. One or two can sit in your education section; the criteria below tell you when they deserve their own section.

When to include a separate section:

• You have several relevant certifications or licenses
• Your industry values specific credentials (IT, finance, healthcare, project management)
• The certification or license is required or strongly preferred in the job description

When you list certifications on a resume, include the full credential name, the issuing body, and the date, so recruiters can verify it quickly.

Format:

For a license, add the issuing state and expiration date, and include the license number if the job posting asks for it.

Example:

8. Training and Professional Development

When to include:

• You've completed workshops, bootcamps, or online courses that didn't end in a certification
• You're a career changer building skills for a new field
• The training covers a tool or method named in the job description

List only training you finished, and only what's relevant to the target role. Group it under one heading rather than scattering courses across your education section, and drop anything older than about five years unless it's still core to the job. Use the same one-line format as certifications: course name, provider, and year.

Example:

9. Relevant Coursework

Who should include this section:

• Students and recent graduates with limited work experience
• Career changers who've taken classes in their new field
• Anyone whose courses map directly to skills named in the job description

Pick three to six courses that match the role and use their formal names, not course codes. If you only have a few, add them as a single line under your degree, as in the recent graduate example above. Give relevant coursework its own section only when the list is long enough to need it, or when you want to add a line on what each course covered.

Example:

10. Projects

Listing projects on a resume lets you show skills your job history can't, using the same results-first approach as your work experience.

Who should include this section:

• Recent graduates with limited work experience
• Career changers demonstrating new skills
• Freelancers and contractors showcasing diverse work
• Technical professionals (developers, designers, data scientists)

Format:

Example:

11. Extracurricular Activities

When to include:

• You're a student or recent graduate with limited work history
• You held a leadership role, such as club officer or team captain
• The activity built skills the job asks for, like event planning, budgeting, or public speaking

Treat extracurricular activities like short work entries: name your role and the organization, then add one or two results. Drop this section once you have two or three years of relevant work experience, since your job history will make the same case more strongly.

Example:

12. Volunteering and Community Involvement

When to include:

• You're an entry-level professional building experience
• The volunteer work demonstrates leadership or relevant skills
• You're returning to work after a career gap
• The organization aligns with the company's values or mission

Format: List volunteer experience on a resume with the same structure as work experience, but be selective—include only volunteer roles where you made measurable impact.

Example:

What to skip: Generic volunteer activities without measurable outcomes ("volunteered at food bank") unless you're early in your career and need to fill space.

13. Professional Associations and Memberships

When to include:

• You're an active member of an industry body relevant to the role
• You've held a committee, board, or chapter leadership position
• Membership signals commitment in your field, as it often does in accounting, HR, healthcare, and engineering

List the organization's full name, your role or membership level, and the years you've been involved. Leadership roles and contributions, such as running a chapter event or a mentoring program, carry far more weight than a paid membership on its own, so put those first.

Example:

14. Languages

Only list language skills you can actually use at work, and label each one with an honest proficiency level.

When to include:

• You're fluent or professionally proficient (not just "took Spanish in high school")
• The job description mentions language requirements
• You're applying to multinational companies or roles with international scope

Format:

Proficiency levels:

• Native/Bilingual: Grew up speaking the language
• Professional proficiency: Can conduct business meetings and write professional documents
• Conversational: Can handle everyday conversations but not complex business discussions
• Basic: Limited vocabulary, not suitable for professional use

15. Awards and Honors

The best awards on a resume prove you outperformed your peers, so give each one enough context for a recruiter to see why it mattered.

When to include:

• The award is recent (within last 5 years) and relevant
• It's a recognized industry or academic honor
• It demonstrates measurable achievement

Format:

Example:

What to skip: Academic awards if you've been working for 5+ years, participation awards, or honors that don't demonstrate achievement.

16. Publications and Speaking Engagements

List publications on a resume only when they relate to the role, and keep the format consistent from entry to entry.

Who should include this:

• Senior candidates establishing thought leadership
• Academics transitioning to industry
• Professionals in research-heavy fields
• Anyone with published work directly relevant to the target role

Format:

Example:

Resume Sections to Skip (They're Wasting Your Space)

Personal Information

Skip unless: You're applying for roles in countries or industries where including personal details is customary or required.

This section provides personal details that may be relevant to the role or required for the application process. In some countries or industries, cultural norms or legal requirements make including personal details mandatory. 

Why it's usually unnecessary: Including personal information like a photo, complete address, marital status, immigration status etc. are not only unnecessary on a US resume, including these can actually hurt your chances, as US employers avoid this information to prevent discrimination claims.

Hobbies and Interests

Skip unless: The hobby directly demonstrates a skill relevant to the job (e.g., "Competitive chess player" for a strategy role, "Marathon runner" for a role requiring discipline and goal-setting).

Why it's usually unnecessary: Recruiters care about what you can do for the company, not your personal interests. With limited resume space, every line should strengthen your candidacy. If you do put hobbies on your resume, pick one or two that connect to the role and keep them to a single line.

References

Leave them off your resume. The phrase "References available upon request" is outdated and wastes valuable space. Employers assume you have references and will ask for them if needed. Instead, keep a separate reference sheet with 3-5 professional contacts ready to send when an employer asks, usually at the final interview stage. Handling references on a resume this way keeps every line of the page working for you.

Irrelevant Work Experience

Remove any experience that isn't relevant to what is required at the target role. Including irrelevant experience might incorrectly communicate to recruiters that you don't have sufficient relevant experience. Additionally, these can lower your ATS resume score because the additional words lower the relative frequency of the job-specific keywords an ATS looks for.

For example: If you worked retail in college but you're now a senior software engineer, you can remove it. Focus your resume on the last 10-15 years of relevant experience.

Exception: Keep seemingly irrelevant experience only if it demonstrates transferable skills for career changers or fills employment gaps.

How to Order Your Resume Sections by Career Level

Here's a quick summary of how to order the different sections in your resume based on your format, your career level, and whether you're changing careers. Role type matters too: technical candidates can move Skills and Projects higher so their tools are visible early.

How to Order Resume Sections by Format

Your resume format sets the basic order, and your career level fine-tunes it:

Entry-Level Professionals (0-2 years)

Recommended order:

• Header
• Objective
• Education (move this up if you're a recent graduate)
• Work Experience (include internships and relevant part-time work)
• Projects (if limited work experience)
• Skills
• Certifications (if any)
• Volunteering (if it demonstrates relevant skills)

Focus: Emphasize academic projects, internships, and transferable skills. Use your education section to showcase relevant coursework and achievements.

Students can start from the ATS College Student template, and candidates with no work history yet from the ATS No Experience template; both follow this order.

Mid-Level Professionals (3-10 years)

Recommended order:

• Header
• Professional Summary
• Work Experience
• Skills
• Education
• Certifications (if relevant)
• Optional: Projects, Volunteering, Languages

Focus: Your work experience should dominate. Quantify achievements and demonstrate career progression. Education moves down unless you recently completed an advanced degree.

The ATS Professional template is built around this experience-first order.

Senior Candidates (10+ years)

Recommended order:

• Header
• Professional Summary (emphasize leadership and strategic impact)
• Work Experience (focus on last 10-15 years)
• Skills (emphasize leadership and strategic skills alongside technical)
• Education
• Optional: Publications, Speaking Engagements, Board Positions

Focus: Demonstrate strategic thinking and leadership impact. Consolidate early-career roles. Consider adding custom sections like "Board Positions" or "Advisory Roles" if relevant.

The ATS Executive template gives leadership impact the room this order calls for.

Career Changers

Recommended order:

• Header
• Objective (explain your transition)
• Skills (front-load transferable skills)
• Work Experience (emphasize transferable achievements)
• Relevant Projects or Freelance Work
• Education and Certifications (especially new credentials in target field)

Focus: A career change resume works best in a combination format that emphasizes skills and relevant projects over chronological work history. Your objective should clearly articulate your transition and what you bring from your previous career.

The Reverse-Chronological Career Changer template is set up for this transition, and our ATS resume examples show how the same structure looks across industries.

Which Resume Sections You Actually Need

Every resume needs a header, a summary or objective, work experience, education, and skills. Order them by career stage: lead with education and projects when you're entry-level, with work experience once you have a few years in the field, and with transferable skills when you're changing careers. Add an optional section only when it proves something the job description asks for. Cut everything else, starting with personal details, hobbies, and references.

AI Resume Builders For Faster Resume Creation

While this article can guide you how to create your resume- what sections to include, what content to include in each section, how to order each section- we understand that the overall process of creating a resume takes significant time and effort. The good news is that there are several good resume builders available in the market today that can significantly speed up your resume creation process. We've compared the best resume builders on the criteria that matter most to job seekers.

An AI resume builder like Upplai is especially useful in automatically incorporating ATS and recruiter best practices into your resume. And it not only updates the contents of your resume, it also shows you exactly what was changed and why.