How to List Certifications on Resume: Sample and Guide

Why Should You List Certifications on a Resume?

When undertaking a job search, your resume and cover letter are incredibly important. Making sure they contain all the most relevant information about you, your work experience, and your skills are crucial. While most people know to list their work experience and educational achievements, not everyone thinks to list their professionally relevant certifications. This is a mistake.

Listing any relevant credentials you might have on your resume is good career advice if you want to stand out from the crowd in the job market. Not only do certifications show that you are suitable for the role you are applying for, but they can also help prove your skill set to any recruiter who might read your resume. This is why companies like Udemy have become so popular; they offer job seekers an accessible way to gain recognized and specific certifications for software like Microsoft office or excel and skills like digital marketing.

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Where to List Certifications

Generally speaking, you should list your certifications at the bottom of your professional resume, unless you are using a functional resume format that prioritizes your skills section. In this case, your certifications section should be next to your skills section, though not a part of it. It is important to ensure your resume is well-formatted and organized if you want to make the right first impression. This means your header and resume summary or objective statement should be at the top of your resume, and the rest of your resume sections should be ordered by importance, depending on if you want to emphasize your skills or work history.

If specific certifications are required for a job, place your certifications section higher up the page. If certifications are not required for the job or you lack relevant certifications, it may be best to do away with a certifications section altogether and instead focus on your skills, work history or education section.

A tidy, well-formatted resume that has all the right details in the right places will have a better chance of passing through the applicant tracking system and impressing recruiters. If you need inspiration, consider the ResumeHelp resume builder. There are a number of resume templates designed for all kinds of job seekers to choose from, and you can easily add certifications to your resume using the builder.

Which Certifications You Should List

You should be just as careful in choosing which specific certifications to list on your resume as you are in choosing the hard and soft skills you want to list. Consider the job description and the requirements of the role before choosing which certifications to include on your resume. Remember, resume writing should be a tailored process. There’s no point in listing a marketing certification on a resume for a position as a sous chef, after all. Of course, some certification programs are widely relevant. For example, the First certification in project management is considered to be highly transferable, whether you are a project management professional or a customer service assistant. In order to create the best resume possible, you should list certification courses that are:

• Required for the job role
• Relevant to the nature of the job
• Commonly requested but not required
• Required as a part of the on-boarding process in many companies (for example, Microsoft certifications are commonly required in IT)
• Widely transferable (e.g., human resources or language certifications)

Once you have identified the best options, here’s how to properly list them on your resume:

• Give the proper name of the certification, including any abbreviation. 

For example, a project management certification would be listed as a PMP certification. 

• List the date the certification was earned. 

If the certification is still in progress, you can list the anticipated date of completion. Your certifications should be arranged in reverse chronological order like your work history section.

• Provide a short overview of the associated skills.

If you are running low on resume space, this is not a necessity. However, it can be helpful to simply add indented bullet points under the certification with the top two or three skills associated with it.

If you list your certifications correctly, they will act as solid evidence of your commitment to the professional development process you have been undertaking. This alone can be incredibly beneficial as it shows hiring managers that you are a dedicated and passionate individual.