What To Include on a Resume: Key Elements, Tips and Examples

A resume should give employers enough information to understand your experience, skills and potential value without including every detail of your career.

Most resumes contain a professional header, summary, employment history, skills and education. Additional sections may be useful when they provide relevant evidence, but including unnecessary information can make important qualifications harder to find.

What To Include on a Resume

The ideal structure depends on your experience and target position. The core elements generally include contact information, a summary, work experience, education and skills.

1. Name and Contact Information

Place your professional header at the top of the page. Include:

• Full name
• City and state or region
• Professional email address
• Phone number
• Professional networking profile, if relevant
• Portfolio or personal website, if relevant

A complete street address is rarely necessary. Listing your general location usually provides enough information.

Check every link and phone number before submitting the resume. A formatting error in this section can prevent an employer from contacting you.

Example:

Jordan Lee
Austin, Texas
512-555-0147 | jordan.lee@email.com
jordanleeportfolio.com

2. Professional Summary or Objective

A professional summary is a short introduction highlighting your experience, strongest qualifications and career focus. It normally contains two to four concise sentences.

Example:

Data-driven marketing specialist with five years of experience managing content, influencer and paid acquisition campaigns. Skilled in campaign analysis, international market development and cross-functional coordination. Increased qualified organic traffic by 42% through a targeted content strategy.

A resume objective may be more appropriate for an entry-level candidate or career changer.

Example:

Business graduate seeking an entry-level operations coordinator position. Brings internship experience in scheduling, spreadsheet reporting and customer communication, with strong attention to detail and project organization.

Avoid generic statements such as “hardworking professional looking for a challenging position.” Include details that distinguish you from other candidates.

3. Work Experience

List your employment history in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most recent position.

For each role, include:

• Job title
• Employer
• Location or remote designation
• Employment dates
• Relevant accomplishments
• Important responsibilities

Use three to six bullet points for recent, relevant roles. Older positions may require fewer details.

A strong accomplishment usually contains an action, context and result.

Weak example:

• Responsible for social media accounts

Stronger example:

• Managed content calendars for five brand accounts, increasing average monthly engagement by 28%

Do not copy every duty from your job description. Prioritize examples that demonstrate results or skills requested in the new position.

4. Skills

Include skills directly related to the target job. These may include technical capabilities, software knowledge, languages or specialized business abilities.

Examples include:

• Data analysis
• Project management
• Customer relationship management software
• Search engine optimization
• Financial modeling
• Bookkeeping
• Presentation development
• Python
• Salesforce
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Spanish language proficiency

Avoid listing basic qualities such as “hardworking” without evidence. Demonstrate soft skills through work achievements whenever possible.

5. Education

The amount of education detail depends on your career stage.

Include:

• Degree, diploma or credential
• Major or field of study
• Institution
• Graduation date when relevant
• Location if useful

Recent graduates may also include:

• Relevant coursework
• Academic honors
• Projects
• Activities
• GPA when strong and relevant

Experienced professionals can usually keep this section brief and place it after employment history.

Example:

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
University of Colorado Denver

6. Certifications and Licenses

Create a separate section when credentials are required or valuable for the position.

Include:

• Official certification name
• Issuing organization
• Date earned
• Expiration date, if applicable
• Credential number when required

Examples may include professional licenses, safety credentials, technical certificates or project management certifications.

Do not include expired credentials unless they remain relevant and are clearly labeled as expired.

7. Projects

A project section can be helpful for candidates with limited formal experience or professionals working in technical, creative and project-based fields.

Include:

• Project name
• Your role
• Relevant tools
• Short description
• Measurable result
• Link when available

Projects may come from work, freelance assignments, education, volunteering or independent practice.

Example:

Customer Retention Dashboard

• Built an interactive reporting dashboard using Power BI
• Combined customer activity and subscription data from three sources
• Reduced weekly reporting time from four hours to 45 minutes

8. Awards and Achievements

Add awards when they demonstrate relevant ability, leadership or professional recognition.

Include the award name, issuing organization and date. Add a short explanation if the title is not self-explanatory.

Relevant achievements might include:

• Sales performance awards
• Industry recognition
• Academic honors
• Company awards
• Competitive scholarships
• Professional fellowships

9. Volunteer Experience

Volunteer experience can demonstrate leadership, organization, communication or specialized skills. It can be particularly useful for recent graduates and career changers.

Format it similarly to professional experience:

Volunteer Coordinator
Community Food Network | January 2024–Present

• Coordinate weekly schedules for 30 volunteers
• Introduced a digital sign-up process that reduced scheduling conflicts by 40%

10. Professional Associations

Memberships may be useful when they demonstrate industry involvement, continuing education or leadership.

Prioritize active participation over passive membership. Mention committee work, speaking engagements or leadership positions when relevant.

11. Publications and Presentations

This section can be valuable in research, writing, consulting, medicine and academic fields.

Include only relevant work and use a consistent citation format. You may also link to an online portfolio containing the complete list.

12. Languages

List languages when they are relevant to the job or demonstrate a valuable capability. Describe your level accurately using terms such as:

• Native
• Fluent
• Professional working proficiency
• Conversational
• Basic

Avoid claiming fluency if you cannot use the language comfortably in a professional setting.

What Not To Include on a Resume

Unnecessary personal information

In the United States, resumes generally should not include age, marital status, religion, Social Security number or other sensitive personal details.

Practices differ by country, so check local expectations when applying internationally.

A photograph

Photos are not normally included on U.S. resumes unless the profession or location specifically requires one.

References

Employers usually request references separately. The phrase “references available upon request” also occupies space without adding useful information.

Irrelevant early experience

Experienced professionals do not need to include every position they have held. Focus on relevant employment, particularly from the last 10 to 15 years.

Salary history

Do not include previous compensation unless a specific and lawful application process requires it.

Reasons for leaving jobs

Employment transitions can be discussed during an interview if necessary.

Confidential information

Never reveal proprietary data, customer information or internal business details when describing accomplishments.

How To Order Resume Sections

Experienced professional

A typical order is:

1. Contact information
2. Professional summary
3. Work experience
4. Skills
5. Education
6. Certifications or additional sections

Recent graduate

A useful structure may be:

1. Contact information
2. Objective or summary
3. Education
4. Projects or internships
5. Skills
6. Work or volunteer experience

Career changer

Consider:

1. Contact information
2. Targeted summary
3. Relevant skills
4. Selected achievements or projects
5. Work history
6. Education and training

Resume Content Example

Taylor Morgan
Seattle, Washington | 206-555-0198
taylor.morgan@email.com | linkedin.com/in/taylormorgan

Professional Summary

Operations coordinator with four years of experience improving scheduling, reporting and cross-functional processes. Skilled in project tracking, vendor coordination and spreadsheet analysis. Reduced delayed project updates by 35% by introducing a standardized reporting process.

Experience

Operations Coordinator
Northline Services | Seattle, Washington
March 2022–Present

• Coordinate schedules and deliverables across five internal departments
• Created a weekly project dashboard that reduced status-reporting time by six hours per month
• Manage supplier documentation and resolve delivery discrepancies
• Improved on-time internal approvals from 76% to 94%

Administrative Assistant
Greenway Partners | Seattle, Washington
June 2020–February 2022

• Managed calendars and travel for three senior managers
• Prepared monthly reports, presentations and meeting agendas
• Reorganized digital records, reducing average document retrieval time by 50%

Skills

Project coordination, spreadsheet reporting, vendor management, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Asana and Salesforce

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration
Washington State University

Tips for Deciding What To Include

Tailor the resume to each job rather than submitting one universal version. Review the posting and identify the responsibilities, skills and outcomes the employer prioritizes.

Use keywords naturally, but do not repeat terms without context. Evidence is more persuasive than a list of phrases.

Quantify accomplishments when the numbers are accurate. Revenue, time saved, customer satisfaction, audience growth and error reduction can help employers understand scale.

Proofread the final document and confirm that formatting remains intact after exporting it.

Turn Career Information Into Presentations With Dokie

Professionals sometimes need to present a portfolio, work history, case study or 30-60-90-day plan in addition to submitting a resume. Dokie is an AI presentation maker that can turn documents, URLs, notes and research into structured, business-ready slides.

Dokie supports custom templates, editable content and PowerPoint exports. Candidates can use it to develop interview presentations, visual portfolios and project case studies while maintaining control over the final narrative and design.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How many years of experience should I include?

Most professionals can focus on relevant experience from the last 10 to 15 years. Include older work only when it adds important qualifications.

2. Should I include every job on my resume?

No. Prioritize relevant roles and achievements. Candidates with limited experience may include unrelated employment to demonstrate transferable skills and reliability.

3. Should I include hobbies?

Include hobbies only when they are relevant, demonstrate useful skills or help establish an authentic connection to the position.

4. Should a resume include references?

Usually not. Prepare a separate reference document and provide it when the employer requests one.