The purpose of a resume is to show potential employers your experience and range of skills. The way you format your resume can communicate your ideas more clearly. There is limited real estate on your resume, so it’s important that every line counts!

There are many different parts of a resume. The first section is typically your name and information. What follows after is your education, experiences, and skills. The experiences you list on your resume will take up the bulk of the document, and has arguably the most customization. It is important to organize this section well so that employers and recruiters can gather information from your resume quickly and efficiently.

One way of organizing this information is dividing it up with different headings. The position you are applying to will likely determine what your headings will be. Here are a few suggested headings:

• • Relevant Experience
    • • This heading allows you to put the most relevant experience you have to the top of the resume where recruiters are most likely to see it. We highly recommend including this heading.
    • Some other headings that mean something similar:
      • Career Related Experience, Related Experience

• • Work Experience
    • • Work Experience covers all of the experiences that you’ve had at jobs, internships, and more. Anything that you are paid for can count as work experience.
    • Some other headings that mean something similar:
      • Employment History, Work History, Professional Experience, Professional Background, Additional Experience, [Industry] Experience, Internship Experience

• • Academic Experience
    • • Any experience that is done within the realm of academics can go into this category. As a Cornell student, many of the experiences from academic classes can go here.
    • Some other headings that mean something similar:
      • Academic Background, Educational Background, Educational Qualifications, Educational Training, Education and Training, Training, Academic Training, Professional Training, Course Project Experience, Related Course Projects, Apprenticeships, Research Projects

• Extracurricular
  • • This includes any activities you are a part of that don’t fit into work experience or academics.
  • Some other headings that mean something similar:
    • Activities and Honors, Affiliations, Professional Affiliations, Associations, Professional Associations, Memberships, Professional Memberships, Athletic Involvement, Community Involvement, Civic Activities, Extracurricular Activities, Professional Activities, Volunteer Work, Volunteer Experience

Here is an example of reformatting Andrew D. White’s resume. He has an assortment of different experiences on his resume and is looking to apply for a job as governor of New York State.

The simplest way of organizing experiences would be to group all of them into an “Experiences” section in reverse chronological order. However, we do not recommend doing this because it is difficult to find specific information.

Resume 1

Experiences:

Cornell University, Ithaca, NY February 1865 – August 1885

Founder and President

• Founded Cornell University with Ezra Cornell
• Worked to cultivate and found an institution for any person and any study

United States of America, Berlin, Germany May 1879 – August 1881

U.S. Ambassador to Germany

• Strengthened diplomatic ties between America and Germany
• Supported economic and political treaties between the two countries

President Ulysses S. Grant, Washington, DC March 1871 – April 1878

Commissioner

• Was commissioner to Santo Domingo and worked with Benjamin Wade and Samuel Howe
• Determined the feasibility of annexing the Dominican Republic to the United States

New York State Senate, Albany, NY November 1863 – February 1865

State Senator

• Drafted bills to be voted into law for the New York State
• Voted on important legislation to improve the economic, social, and political well-being of New York

One way of reorganizing this would be to group similar experiences together. To take up less space, I will be only listing the position and company of the experience.

Resume 2

Political Experience:

U.S. Ambassador to Germany, United States of America

State Senator, New York State Senate

Work Experience

Founder and President, Cornell University

Commissioner, President Ulysses S. Grant

Since Andrew is applying to be a governor in New York State, it may be more relevant to put his State Senator and Cornell president because they are both very prestigious and are both in New York State.

Resume 3

Relevant Experience:

Founder and President, Cornell University

State Senator, New York State Senate

Work Experience

U.S. Ambassador to Germany, United States of America

Commissioner, President Ulysses S. Grant

If you would like more information or have a Career Assistant look over your resume, feel free to come into the Career Exploration Center (162 MVR)!

Sources:

https://jobmob.co.il/blog/resume-section-headings-titles/