What Are the Parts of a Resume? See the Most Important

Parts of a resume

When you write a resume, you’re making it easier for hiring managers to know about your work experience, your qualifications, and your skills. However, to make it even simpler for a hiring manager to go through your resume, you will organize your resume into multiple sections. These sections all have different formats and intentions, and they all go into creating a professional resume.

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What are the important parts of a resume?

To get your important information across, you’ll typically have at least five sections in a resume, with the option of creating some extra sections. Let’s see how to tackle each of them when writing your resume:

1. Header

First is the resume header. This is technically not a section, but it is still important. It goes at the very top of the resume and introduces you. It includes your full name, phone number, and email address. This information helps a recruiter see who you are and who the job application belongs to at a glance.

2. Resume summary

Next is your resume summary, which goes at the top of your resume. This resume introduction is a few sentences long and highlights the most important elements in your work history. It may include details on your years of experience, your key skills, and your top strengths. It’s the part of your resume that encourages a hiring manager to keep reading and potentially reach out to you for a job interview.

3. Work experience

Next is your work experience section. This is where you lay out all of your employment history and other professional experience, typically including a short job description for each. You may also include your internships, volunteer work, and even summer jobs. The experience section will typically be the longest section on a chronological resume. Regardless of your resume format, you’ll list your work history in reverse chronological order, with more recent experience first.

4. Skills

Your skills are typically up next. You need to list both hard skills and soft skills, including technical skills, although the specific ratio will typically depend on your job search. Your skills section will almost always be in bullet points, and you’ll typically have 5-6 bullet points for a chronological resume, with up to about a dozen if you’re writing a functional resume or combination resume.

5. Education

The next section is your education section. This is where you might put a college diploma or any certification programs you’ve taken. Include your school name, and the actual degree or certificate you earned. You might also want to include relevant coursework, especially if you don’t have a lot of work experience. Only include your high school experience if you have no college experience, and include graduating honors like cum laude instead of your GPA.

6. Additional sections, if desired

The last section is any additional information you’re interested in including. These sections may include awards, publications, certifications, and anything else that you want to include in your resume, but don’t fit in any of the other sections. You can for example highlight your extracurricular experiences by including activities to put on a resume.

Personalizing a resume for your needs

Every resume and cover letter you submit should be personalized. If you submit a resume that’s exactly the same as every other one you’ve submitted for every job, a hiring manager can often tell, and that might hurt your chances of getting the job. Instead, consider using the resume builder from ResumeHelp. With the resume builder and thousands of resume examples, it’s extremely easy to write customized resumes that puts the right skills and qualifications front and center.