Usually the Education Section of your resume is the most is the most straightforward resume section and nothing much can be done with it. However, with some tips and a little bit of extra effort, it can definitely be made more impressive by highlighting the good and covering up the drawbacks.
If you are in college now, you will most likely want to place this section immediately after the Objective statement. These are the basic informations to include in your Education section:
- name of school
- degree
- degree date
- major(s)
- any minors or concentrations
- GPA
Here are some tips to help you make the education section of your resume look better:
1. List your highest level of education first, then go on chronologically backward to high school. Also, if you have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher your high school information should not be included because your employers are interested only in your recent degrees.
2. Your GPA should be included only if it is higher than 3.0 and it’s been less than three years since you graduated. However, if the job advertisement specifically asks for it, you have to include it anyways.
3. You can mention academic honors or extracurricular leadership roles, if your graduation is not more than three years old. However, after you have two or three years of work experience, you should drop the school-related activities from your resume.
4. If you attended college, but did not graduate, include the dates you attended, your major, and how many credits you earned toward your degree. If you attended high school, but did not graduate, just show the years you attended. If you later earned a GED, put that above the high school listing, and indicate the date.
5. If you earned a license for a trade after high school, and it’s related to the job you’re pursuing, you can either put it above the high school listing in your Education section, or create a separate section called Licensure (or similar) and put it there.
6. The tricky part comes when you have to decide whether or not to include graduation dates on your resume if you’re older than 40 or 45. If you do, you are revealing your age to play down on your resume and if you do not, the employers might assume you’re trying to hide your age.
An example of education listing would be:
ABC University, City, Country
Bachelor of Science, July 2009
Honors in Maths
GPA: 3.12/4.00