14 Essential Sections to Include in Your Resume
When crafting a comprehensive resume, CEOs and recruitment experts know that it goes beyond just experience and education. From showing off your competencies to highlighting career and key achievements, we’ve gathered the top fourteen pieces of advice to ensure your resume stands out. Discover the essential sections you should include, as recommended by industry leaders and hiring professionals.
- Show Off Your Competencies
- Present a Forward-Thinking Mindset
- Give Evidence of Career Accomplishments
- Craft a Compelling Summary
- Emphasize Skills and Expertise
- Add Achievements and an About Me Section
- Showcase Technical and Soft Skills
- Keep Resumes Concise and Factual
- Provide Essential and Searchable Skills
- Include Sports and Physical Activities
- Update Your Contact Information
- Create a Persuasive Profile Section
- List Financial Impact Contributions
- Highlight Career and Key Achievements
Show Off Your Competencies
Besides experience and education, one essential section that should be included in a comprehensive resume is competencies. Competencies are a combination of observable and measurable knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes. They contribute to enhanced performance and ultimately lead to organizational success.
Competencies demonstrate to employers not just what you can do, but how you do it, reflecting both your capabilities and your approach to work. They transcend experience and education and can equalize the playing field when comparing candidates with different backgrounds and experience levels.
Curious about what your competencies are? Search online for workplace competency assessments to see how you stack up. The best ones will show where you excel and also give you strategies to improve and develop your skills.
Linda Scorzo, CEO, Hiring Indicators
Present a Forward-Thinking Mindset
Nowadays, a candidate needs to do more than just show they’re experienced and possess the necessary educational qualifications. In today’s rapidly shifting job market, employers are increasingly seeking out candidates with a forward-thinking mindset.
These candidates demonstrate an interest in their industry and career development by proactively improving their skills to meet current and future job market demands by taking industry certifications, following online courses, or working on industry-relevant personal projects.
Depending on your industry and specialization, you could highlight a “Certifications” section on your resume if you’re gunning for a number of certifications from recognized establishments. If you’re currently working toward a certification, mark it as ‘in progress’ next to the date of expected completion.
Another option is to use a more general title to showcase all of your efforts towards professional development, like “Continuous Learning” or even “Personal Projects,” if that’s more relevant to your situation.
Finally, think carefully about where to place this resume section so it neither overshadows your most job-relevant resume sections nor gets drowned out at the very bottom of your resume. Remember—recruiters don’t have much time to review your resume, and your essential sections should always be closer to the top.
Eva Chan, Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Senior Content Specialist, Resume Genius
Give Evidence of Career Accomplishments
In addition to experience and education, a comprehensive resume should include a “Career Accomplishments” section. This section highlights major action items that have had a significant business impact.
These accomplishments could include projects you led, initiatives you implemented, or challenges you overcame that resulted in tangible results for your previous employers. This section provides concrete evidence of your capabilities and contributions, giving potential employers a clear understanding of your value proposition.
Jessica Winder, Founder, Hidden Gem Career Coaching
Craft a Compelling Summary
One of the essential sections that should be included in a comprehensive resume is a Summary. This section is important because, if written properly, it will tell the hiring managers right away why a candidate is qualified and a good fit for the role. A well-written summary is also important because it can help a job seeker stand out from the competition.
Valerie Martinelli, MPA, CEO and Career Leadership Coach, Valerie Martinelli Consulting, LLC
Emphasize Skills and Expertise
In addition to experience and education, one essential section that should be included in a comprehensive resume is the “Skills” section. This section provides an opportunity for candidates to showcase their skill sets and other capabilities, demonstrating their well-roundedness and broader skill base.
Including a dedicated Skills section on a resume allows employers to quickly assess the candidate’s qualifications and suitability for the role. It provides a concise overview of the specific abilities and expertise the candidate possesses, beyond what may be implied by their work history or educational background.
When listing skills on a resume, specificity is crucial. Candidates should highlight relevant technical proficiencies, such as programming languages, software expertise, or specific tools they are proficient in using. Additionally, including other valuable abilities like problem-solving, leadership, effective communication, teamwork, or adaptability can further enhance the resume’s appeal.
Tailoring the Skills section to align with the requirements stated in the job description is highly recommended. By customizing this section, candidates can effectively demonstrate their suitability for the specific role, increasing their chances of capturing the attention of potential employers.
To summarize, a well-crafted Skills section is an essential component of a comprehensive resume. It provides employers with valuable insights into a candidate’s abilities and exhibits their versatility. By highlighting both technical and soft skills, candidates can present themselves as well-rounded professionals with the potential to excel in the desired position.
Melissa Pennington, CEO and Founder, HR On Demand
Add Achievements and an About Me Section
In the AI-driven world we’re in today, there are two approaches to resume creation that work.
1) Human: The average person views a resume for 8 seconds, scanning from the bottom up. The eye naturally pays attention to dates and data. Focus on keeping your resume clean, and include (in bold font) your achievements within each role. Consider creating an “Achievements Section” at the top.
2) AI: Skills and Titles are the most important factors if an AI-driven tool is scanning your resume. It’s paying attention to skills that are the same as those listed in the given job description.
The best way to craft your resume today to check all boxes is to talk about your achievements, value, and impact in each role. Use bold font to highlight all data/numbers (e.g., 120% performance every month).
Ensure you’re editing your resume for each role, and including any relevant skills that you match from the given job description.
Lastly, include an “About Me” section versus a summary – who are you? What is important to you? Why are you currently seeking a new role, and what can that role offer you that you’re not getting today?
Ashley S, Talent Acquisition Leader and Recruiter, Helping Hands Recruiting (HHR Talent)
Showcase Technical and Soft Skills
One essential section to include in a comprehensive resume is a “Skills” section. This section allows you to highlight the relevant skills and abilities that are applicable to the job you’re applying for. It provides a quick snapshot for employers to see what you bring to the table.
You can categorize your skills into technical skills (like programming languages or software proficiency), soft skills (like communication or leadership abilities), and any other specialized skills relevant to your field. This section helps recruiters and hiring managers quickly assess if you have the capabilities they’re looking for.
Rachel Weiner, Senior Technology Consultant, EC1 Partners
Keep Resumes Concise and Factual
A resume should be a concise document that shows how you can contribute to the offering company and be an asset.
That said, while there are just a few things that should be included on your resume (former work, education, awards, bullet points of skills, and a summary statement/executive summary), there are many things that shouldn’t be on your resume at all.
First and foremost, your address. This could be used against you for an in-office/in-person job. An employer may say, “Oh, this person lives 20 miles from the office…they’ll never want this job and may be late every day,” etc. It is not up to an employer to determine how far you’re willing to travel for the job.
Another thing to delete is any reference to what you like to do in your spare time. Hobbies are great, time with family is great—but how do either of those things relate to the job? You open yourself up to potential confirmation bias by including such personal details. Another thing to exclude is the year you graduated. This is a way for the employer to deduce your approximate age and can potentially lead to ageism.
Oh, one more tip—if you are moving to a new city and applying for jobs before you get there, consider getting a local phone number (Google number). This is not as big an issue as it once was, due to the fact cell phones have allowed folks to have area codes from all over the country, but local will always be preferred.
Keep your resume to “Just the facts.”
Harry Lakin, Founder, Hire Capacity
Provide Essential and Searchable Skills
When I am looking at resumes, I look at the skills section first. If it doesn’t meet my needs, I don’t even read anything about experience.
Also, remember a lot of times these resumes get stuck into systems. Your skills end up being tags or keywords that are searchable, so put that in there, even if you just have exposure to it. Clarify in your experience section.
A skills section at the top of your resume is very important. Your resume probably isn’t going to get read fully. You need to make it easier for people to quickly know your skill sets. Also, make sure you are updating these depending on the job. If a recruiter only has 30 seconds to look at your resume, make sure it’s easy for them.
Janine Talley, Career and Technical Education Teacher, Essay Embassy
Include Sports and Physical Activities
Undoubtedly, it is important whether the candidate engages in sports, what kind of sports, and why. Exercise is a sign of energy, drive, and enthusiasm. Conversely, a person far from physical activity is likely to lack ideas and energy.
Such a person is likely to have self-confidence issues. You don’t have to run marathons or be a ninja; just doing something that energizes your body and mind is enough. This could be riding a bike, jumping rope, or even taking a walk in the woods or park.
A person who is busy only with work and social media is impoverished. Conversely, a job seeker who realizes the connection between body and mind is a forward-thinking candidate.
Tetiana Havrylina, Copywriter, DDI Development
Update Your Contact Information
While experience and education are crucial, a resume absolutely needs updated contact information. Recruiters need a way to reach you.
Make sure it includes your full name, professional email address, and phone number, and consider adding your LinkedIn profile URL if relevant. This ensures they can easily connect with you to discuss your qualifications further.
Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP of Strategy and Growth, Resume Worded
Create a Persuasive Profile Section
The profile section is an essential section of a resume, as it provides a snapshot of why you’re the ideal candidate and persuades the recruiter to keep reading.
Think of it as your elevator pitch: 5-6 lines of what makes you the ideal candidate, personalized for each role you apply for, and touching upon the job’s priority skills section.
Emily Maguire, Entrepreneur and Career Consultant, Reflections Career Coaching
List Financial Impact Contributions
I recommend a highly effective resume section I call “Financial Impact.” This section, best titled “My History of Company Financial Contributions,” is a list of five to seven bullet points that indicate the specific financial impact the person has had on the companies they have worked for.
An example would be “recruited, trained, and coached a team of eight account executives to scale company revenue from sub-$1 million to over $10 million in less than two years.” Another example would be “redesigned widget manufacturing process to reduce annual manufacturing costs by 37 percent.”
The financial impact information is best expressed in numbers, revenue, or percentage changes.
Mike Basso, Founder and CEO, Sales Talent Command
Highlight Career and Key Achievements
What do a movie, a book, or even a thesis have in common? All of them have a summary about the content to attract people to want to read more about them.
An essential feature that all my clients have on their resume is what I call a Key Achievements or Career Highlights section in the top half of their document. Understand what the hiring manager is looking for and highlight successes in the past that are relevant to what’s on the job description.
The benefits of this include:
– Highlighting the best of you for the role, regardless of when or where you achieved this
– Leading the conversation where you want it to go first, which is useful especially if you have had a career break
– Making the hiring manager’s job so much easier so that they don’t have to read between the lines.
Remember, hiring managers don’t care about you until they understand how much you can help to resolve their problems.
Take a customer-centric approach to your resume to increase your chances of landing more interviews.
James Tomasi Kennedy, Executive Career Coach-Recruiter
