What to Put on a Resume (and What to Leave Off)

Your resume should include five main sections: your contact details, a summary or objective, and your work experience, skills and education. Other sections are optional: add one when it helps your application, for example to show a license the job requires. Skip details an employer doesn't need, such as your street address or why you left your last job.

The sections below take each part in turn: what to put in it, what to leave out and, for most, a before-and-after example. The people, employers and schools in the examples are made up. Our guide on how to write a resume covers the writing process, and our resume format guide covers page length, fonts and layout.

The parts of a resume

Most resumes use these sections, in roughly this order:

1. Contact details: your name, city and state, phone number and email address.
2. Summary or objective: two or three sentences on your experience and strengths, or one line on the job you want if you're just starting out or changing fields.
3. Work experience: your jobs, newest first, each with a few results.
4. Skills: the tools and abilities from the job posting that you can back up.
5. Education: your degree, diploma or training, with the school and the year.
6. Optional sections: certifications and licenses, awards, volunteer work, projects, languages and professional memberships, when they help this application.

Students and career changers often move education or skills higher, as the table further down shows.

Contact details

Your name goes on the top line, with your phone number, a professional email address (some version of your name works best) and your city and state on the line below. This block is often called the header. Don't give it a heading such as "Contact Information," and don't write "Resume" at the top of the page.

You can also add one link, such as a LinkedIn profile, portfolio or code repository, if it shows work the page can't. If you're moving, a line such as "Relocating to Denver, June 2027" tells an employer what to expect.

City and state are enough, so leave off your street address. Your date of birth, marital status, a photo and any ID numbers stay off too. The EEOC (the federal agency that enforces job discrimination law) advises US employers not to ask applicants for a photograph. If you're applying in a country with different customs, see our guide on how to write a CV.

What changed: the "Resume" label, street address, birth date and photo are gone, and the email now uses her name. A phone number and a LinkedIn link were added.

Summary or objective

A summary suits anyone with work experience related to the job. In two or three sentences, say what you do, give your strongest result and name the role you want next. An objective works better for a first job or a move into a new field: it's one line on the job you want and what you bring to it.

Write either one for this job rather than your whole career, and mention the skills and results the posting asks for. Skip lines about what you hope to get, such as "a position with room to grow," which tell an employer nothing about you. Choose one or the other; together they say the same thing twice.

What changed: the summary now names the role, the workload and a result an employer could check, and it ends with the next step up. The customer service resume examples show more summary lines for that role.

A first-job objective might read: "Entry-level warehouse associate with a forklift certification and two summers of inventory counts, looking for a full-time day shift."

Work experience

Your experience section can include any work that shows you can do this job: full-time and part-time jobs, internships, freelance and gig work, military service, and volunteer roles with real responsibility. Put your most recent job first.

Open each entry with your job title and the employer, followed by the city and state and the month and year you started and left. Below that, add a few lines on what you accomplished, with the results this employer will care about most at the top.

Skip duties anyone in that job would have had, and shrink older, unrelated jobs to a line or drop them.

Group short gig or contract jobs into one entry, such as "Delivery driver (self-employed), several apps, 2023 to present." A gap needs no explanation on the page. Our guide to bullet points per job covers how many lines each job should get.

Before: Lead cashier, grocery store, 2021 to now. Duties: register, customer service, stocking shelves.

After: Lead Cashier · Cobble Lane Market · Dayton, OH · March 2021 to present

• Closed out a $6,000+ register each shift with no shortages in 2025
• Taught five new cashiers to run the register and handle returns

What changed: the job line is complete, and two results an employer could check replace the list of duties. The gas station cashier example page has more work history lines you can adapt.

Skills

The skills to put on your resume are the ones the job asks for that you can back up: software, tools, equipment, methods, languages and other technical know-how. To choose them:

1. Read the job posting and note every skill, tool and qualification it mentions.
2. Keep the ones you can back up with an example from work, school or volunteering.
3. Find the example page for your job title in our resume examples to catch skills you have but hadn't thought to list.
4. Use the posting's wording when it's true for you: if it asks for "Microsoft Excel," write that rather than "spreadsheets." It's a sensible precaution if the employer uses screening software, though no wording guarantees a resume gets through.
5. Put the most important skills first, and split a long list into small groups such as Software, Methods and Languages.

In our resume builder, the skills step offers lines you can start from.

Your most important skills should also show up in your work experience. Soft skills such as communication or leadership can go on the list if the posting names them, but a result under one of your jobs proves them better.

Leave out adjectives such as "hard-working" or "detail-oriented," which anyone can claim. A simple test for each skill: could an interviewer ask you to show it or explain how you've used it? "Tableau" and "conversational Spanish" pass; "fast learner" doesn't.

What changed: for a data analyst job, the adjectives became skills an interviewer could test. Compare them with the skills on the data analyst resume examples page and with the posting you're applying to.

Education

Lead with your highest degree, diploma or training program. Add the school's name and location and your graduation year, or the year you expect to finish. Once you have a college degree, high school usually comes off.

If you're a student or recent graduate, education is probably your strongest section, so give it more room: relevant coursework, a capstone project, honors, study abroad, and your GPA if it helps (our GPA guide explains when). After a few years of work, keep it to a line or two below your experience.

If you didn't finish a degree, you can still list it honestly, with the program and the credits you completed, or with an expected date if you're enrolled now. Bootcamps, trade programs and apprenticeships go here too, or under certifications if they ended in a credential. The year on an older degree is optional.

What changed: the degree is spelled out, and the high school line and an unhelpful GPA are gone.

Optional sections

Each of these earns a place only when it shows something this job asks for.

Certifications and licenses

Add them when the job requires or prefers them, or when they prove a skill your work history doesn't show yet. For each one, give the full name, who issued it, and when you earned it or when it expires.

In licensed fields such as nursing, the trades and teaching, a reader may look for your license first, so put this section near the top, even right after your summary. Leave the license number off unless an employer asks for it. If you're about to earn a credential, list it with the expected date, such as "CompTIA Security+, exam scheduled June 2027." Skip course certificates unrelated to the job, and expired credentials unless the posting values past experience with them.

The nurse resume examples show certification lines for a licensed job.

Awards and accomplishments

Awards, promotions, competition wins, publications and major results all count as accomplishments. For each, say what it was, when it happened and why it mattered, such as how many people you were chosen from. Give them a section of their own only if you have two or more strong ones; otherwise, put each under the job where it happened. Participation awards can stay off.

For more accomplishment lines, see the assistant store manager resume examples.

Volunteer work

List a major volunteer role under work experience, with "Volunteer" in the job title, and shorter commitments in a Volunteer Experience section of their own. For ideas, see these 12 volunteer experience examples.

Professional memberships

Professional groups in your field belong here, with your role if you hold one. Think twice about groups that reveal your religion, age, national origin or similar personal traits; EEOC guidance tells employers to generally avoid asking about clubs and societies that could reveal them.

Projects, languages and interests

Include a project if it shows a skill the job needs; school, freelance and personal projects all qualify. List each language with your level: native, fluent or conversational. Leave interests off unless one shows a skill the job uses, such as competitive debate for a sales role.

What to put on a resume with no work experience

If you're writing your first resume, or you haven't had a regular job yet, use the same sections and fill them with what you have done. Describe each item the way you'd describe a job: what you did and what came of it, with a number where you have one.

• Education: your school, expected graduation date, relevant classes, a strong GPA and any honors.
• Part-time and informal work: babysitting, lawn care, tutoring, seasonal retail and gig work.
• Volunteering: what you did, where and for how long.
• Projects: a class project, a website you built or an event you organized.
• Activities and leadership: clubs, sports teams, student government and anything you led.
• Certifications: CPR, a food handler card or a software certificate, if the job values it.

What changed: an informal job became a full entry, with dates, the scale of the work and a result.

Put education right after your objective or summary. High school students can follow the same plan for a job or a college application: lead with school, then activities, awards, volunteering and any part-time work.

For a full walkthrough, see our guide to building a resume with no experience. To see a finished first resume with education near the top, open the college student resume example.

What not to put on a resume

What to cut usually falls into one of these groups:

• References. They belong on a separate page that you hand over when an employer asks. You can drop "References available upon request" as well; our references guide explains why.
• Personal details. A photo, your date of birth or age, marital status, religion, health information and ID numbers such as your Social Security number stay off US resumes. They say nothing about your work, and they can expose you to bias or identity theft.
• Pay and reasons for leaving. Salary history, why you left a job and your supervisor's name don't belong on the page.
• Filler. "I" and "my," headings such as "Resume" and "References," and hobbies that have nothing to do with the work.
• Anything you can't back up. Every skill, date and number should be one you can explain if an employer asks about it. That includes anything an AI tool drafted for you.

Cutting matters because employers have a lot to read. Applications per hire have tripled since 2021, to more than 300 (Ashby). A page without filler puts your strongest lines where a busy reader will see them. Our research notes explain where the Ashby figure comes from and its limits.

How to order your resume sections

Put the sections that matter most to this employer first. Harvard's career office gives the same advice: list your headings in order of importance. These are the usual patterns:

Optional sections usually go after the main ones. The career-change order, with skills above experience, is what the resume format guide calls a hybrid resume.

Stick to familiar headings, such as Work Experience, Skills and Education. They help a reader find each part quickly. Screening software is also more likely to recognize them, though that's common advice rather than a fixed rule.

Fill in your own resume

When you're ready, our resume builder asks for the five main sections one at a time, then lets you add any optional sections that help.

Have a question this page doesn't cover? Try our resume and career FAQs.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the five main sections of a resume?

  Contact details, a summary or objective, work experience, skills and education. Most resumes include all five, in roughly that order. Optional sections such as certifications, awards, volunteer work or projects go on when they help a particular application.

• What skills should I put on my resume?

  Software, tools, equipment, methods and languages the job posting asks for, as long as you can give an example of using each one. Soft skills such as leadership can go on the list too when the posting names them. Match the posting's wording where it's accurate, and put the most important skills first. Our resume examples for your job title can also remind you of skills you've overlooked.

• Should I put references on my resume?

  No. Keep them on a separate page for when an employer asks; our guide to putting references on a resume explains why.

• What interests or hobbies are good to put on a resume?

  Ones that show a skill the job uses. Running a club's social media can support a marketing application, for example, and coaching a youth team can support a teaching or management role. Interests that say nothing about the work are better left off, and one line near the bottom is enough for any you keep.

• What awards can you put on a resume?

  Any recognition tied to your work or studies, such as employee awards, sales or service awards, scholarships, the dean's list, competition wins and industry awards. Give each one the year and a few words on why you received it. Once you've worked a few years, high school awards usually come off.

• Should I put my LinkedIn profile on my resume?

  Yes, if your profile is up to date and matches your resume. Use the short custom address in your contact details rather than the long default link. If your profile is thin or out of date, update it before you add the link.

• What is a red flag on a resume?

  Anything that makes a reader doubt the rest of the page. Examples include typos in your contact details, dates that don't line up, skills you couldn't discuss in an interview and an unprofessional email address. Personal details such as a photo or birth date don't help either, because they have nothing to do with your work.