02 September 2011 ~ 0 Comments

Education On A Resume

15 - Education On A Resume

Got your career history finished? Listed every job that mattered? Good.

For most people, the section that comes after the career history is the education section.

But notice, I said most people. If you’re someone with 2 or more years of experience in a professional job (i.e., not a part-time student summer job) then most likely your education section comes near the end of your resume.

Why is this? Because most employers are in a what-have-you-done-lately frame of mind. They want to see that you’ve done in the real world. They want to see that you’ve gotten results. That’s why most resumes give more emphasis to the career history. Don’t get me wrong… employers want to know that you have gotten an education. They want to see this info somewhere. A degree also helps. But it’s the career history that that is more important to them than anything. So, you emphasize that.

So let’s start writing that education section.
Again, let’s make a Section Title. Let’s call it what it is: Education. Or Education and Training maybe. Again, center it, make it bold and 14pt.
Under this, in normal text size and font (same as the body of your career history) list the facts, one line for each:
  1. Name of the school or university.
  2. Years attended.
  3. Degree attained.
So list the above for each school and each degree as applicable. Again, reverse chronological order is best here, since the most recent degree you attained is most likely the most impressive one, correct? If not, then the first degree you list should be the one most applicable to the job. The lesser degrees can go below the more impressive ones.
Experienced professionals can get by simply listing the degrees and the colleges attended. No other bells an whistles needed. Professionals with 10-20 years experience probably shouldn’t bother listing things like Magna Cum Laude and things like that. That’s ancient history for more experienced professionals.
But if you’re a student, go ahead and list everything: your GPA, your minors, your membership in things like honor societies. Why? Because you don’t have an impressive career yet, so you need to make your educational career as impressive as possible.

Now, for the caveats…

Yes, again with the caveats. There are certain cases when you might put your education section near the top of your resume. Is your specific degree important to the job? Then maybe give it more emphasis. A doctor or a college professor might want to put that degree and the (hopefully prestigious) name of the college front and center. Also, if the degree is key to the position you’re applying for, then put that near the top to show you’re qualified. For example, if you were applying to be a special education teacher, then you might want to front load your Special Ed. certification instead of leaving it for the end.

And then there are the students. I’m talking about teenagers, college grads, or really anyone who only has a limited amount of real world work experience. For anyone in this category, you definitely put the education section before your career history.

Why? Because your schooling is the most impressive thing you’ve done thus far. Your career, such as it is, isn’t that interesting yet. If all you’ve got to show in terms of a career history are a series of part-time summer jobs, then de-emphasize those, and instead, highlight that new Bachelors Degree you got that all those summer jobs helped to pay for.

So in conclusion:

  • Most people put their education section after their career history, usually near the end of the resume.
  • Specialized degree holders (lawyers, doctors, professors and the like) might put education before the career history.
  • Students, recent grads and anyone with a skimpy career history definitely should put the education section before the career history, near the top of the resume.
It probably looks something like this:
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