Every Resume Section Explained — And What You Should Skip
Every Resume Section Explained — And What You Should Skip
Not everything belongs on a resume. That's the thing no one tells you when you're frantically scrolling through templates trying to figure out whether to include your high school debate club or your expired CPR certification.
This guide walks through every resume section — the required ones, the optional-but-useful ones, and the ones that are quietly hurting more applications than they help.
The Non-Negotiable Sections
These go on every resume, regardless of your industry, experience level, or the role you're applying for.
Contact Information
At the very top. Your full name (large, easy to find), phone number, professional email address, LinkedIn URL, and optionally a portfolio URL or GitHub link.
What not to include: your full home address, your photo (in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia — photos on resumes are actively discouraged and can introduce unconscious bias into the screening process), your date of birth, and any social media handles that aren't directly relevant to your work.
One thing that's become more important recently: make sure your LinkedIn URL is customized. The default URL LinkedIn generates is a string of random numbers. In your LinkedIn settings, you can change it to linkedin.com/in/yourname. It looks significantly more professional and takes 30 seconds.
Professional Summary
Two to four lines that tell a recruiter who you are, what you bring, and why you're worth reading further. This is not an objective statement (those fell out of fashion a decade ago for a good reason — nobody cares what you're "seeking," they care what you offer).
A good summary is specific. It names your specialization, years of experience, and one standout achievement or capability. A bad summary reads like a horoscope — technically true for everyone, meaningful to no one.
Good: "UX designer with 6 years building mobile experiences for fintech. Led end-to-end redesign of an investment app used by 2M+ users, reducing onboarding drop-off by 34%."
Not good: "Motivated professional with excellent communication skills looking for a challenging opportunity to grow."
Work Experience
The meat. Listed in reverse chronological order. For each role: company name, your title, dates (month/year), location (city/remote), and 3–6 bullet points.
The bullet points follow the formula: action verb + what you did + the result. That's the whole framework. Get specific, use numbers wherever you can, and cut anything that sounds like a job description rather than an achievement.
Education
Degree, institution, graduation year. Add GPA if it was 3.7 or above and you graduated in the last few years. For recent graduates, add relevant coursework or academic projects. For everyone else, keep it short — education becomes less relevant the further you get from graduation.
Skills
A scannable list of your technical and professional skills. Keep it relevant to the roles you're targeting. Group by category if you have a lot. Drop anything so basic it's assumed (Microsoft Word, email, "good communicator").
Sections That Are Optional But Often Worth Including
These don't belong on every resume, but when they're relevant, they add real value.
Projects
Essential for software engineers, designers, data scientists, and anyone whose best work doesn't show up cleanly in job titles. Include project name, a one-line description, the technologies or methods used, and a link if it's live or publicly accessible.
For career changers, a strong projects section can compensate for a job history that doesn't match the target role. Relevant project > unrelated job.
Certifications and Licenses
Certain fields basically require these — healthcare, finance, cybersecurity, project management, cloud engineering. List the certification name, the issuing body, and when it was earned (and if it expires, when).
For general professional certifications (Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Google certificates), include them if they're recent and relevant. An AWS certification is valuable. A certificate of completion for a 45-minute intro course is not.
Volunteer Work
Useful for filling gaps, showing leadership outside formal employment, or demonstrating values that align with the company's mission. If it involved real responsibility — managing people, running events, handling budgets — it belongs.
Publications and Presentations
Relevant for academics, researchers, journalists, and thought leaders. List as you would in a standard citation format, with title, where it was published or presented, and year.
Awards and Recognition
Only include these if they'd mean something to someone outside your previous company. "Employee of the Month" is generally not worth listing. "Winner of the National Design Award" is.
Sections That Are Mostly Hurting You
These show up on a lot of resumes and on most of the bad advice out there. Skip them.
The "Objective Statement"
"I am seeking a position at a forward-thinking company where I can grow professionally and contribute to team success."
This tells the recruiter nothing except that you want a job. They know. Everyone applying wants a job. Replace it with a professional summary that actually says something.
References — or "References Available Upon Request"
Employers know you'll provide references if asked. Writing "references available upon request" uses valuable space to communicate nothing. Drop it.
Hobbies and Interests
This one has nuance. If your hobby is directly relevant to the role — if you're applying to a sports marketing company and you've run three marathons, or you're applying to a games studio and you have a gaming YouTube channel — then it's relevant experience, not a hobby.
If your hobbies are "traveling, cooking, and reading" — you've just listed the hobbies of roughly 80% of the adult population. It doesn't make you more human; it just takes up space.
Headshots and Photos
In most English-speaking markets, photos on resumes are not just unnecessary — they can actively introduce bias into the process. Many companies have policies against accepting them. Leave the photo on LinkedIn, where it belongs.
High School Information (Once You've Graduated College)
Unless you're applying to a role that specifically values your high school (which is almost never the case), remove this after you graduate from any post-secondary program. If you went directly from high school to the workforce and have been working for several years, keep it brief.
Irrelevant Early Work History
If you're 15 years into a marketing career, your summer lifeguarding job at 19 doesn't belong on your resume. Keep your work history focused on the last 10–15 years and on roles that relate to the position you're applying for.
Getting the Order Right
The order of your sections should reflect what makes you most compelling for the specific job. The general rule:
- Contact information (always first)
- Professional summary (always second)
- Work experience (third for most people)
- Skills (fourth for most people; can move up for technical roles)
- Education (fifth for experienced candidates; can move to third for recent grads)
- Optional sections (projects, certifications, etc.)
The exception: recent graduates and career changers often benefit from leading with education or a projects section when their work history doesn't directly support the application.
One More Thing: Tailor the Sections to the Job
Not every version of your resume needs every section. If you're applying to a role where certifications don't matter, drop the certifications section and use that space for another bullet point in your experience section. If you're targeting a company known for its culture, a brief volunteer section might show values alignment.
Your resume isn't a fixed document. It's a living argument for why you're the right person for a specific job. Every section should be earning its spot.
Want to see what sections you're missing for a specific job? Resunote's AI Resume Builder analyzes any job description and shows you exactly what to add, remove, or adjust in your resume to match what that employer is actually looking for.