8 Sections to Include in your Resume and How to Write them

With every passing day, job hunting gets more competitive. Moreover, recruiters take up to six seconds to assess the resume quality prior to screening. Hence, if you want to steer your career ahead, the best place to start is your resume. Additionally, you must research and collect multiple examples of sections or headers to include in a resume before finalizing on one.

The aim of multiple sections found in a resume is the organization of data in a professional manner to create an impressive profile in the eyes of the recruiter.

What Sections to include in your Resume

An effective way to upgrade your resume is by customizing the sections and headers in a resume according to the job and your qualifications. If you’re not feeling creative, you can follow the basic layout of a resume to ease your work.

Our instructional guidance on how to write resume sections and content will prevent your resume from getting rejected. To Comply with the Applicant Tracking System and easy scanning of resumes by managers, including the following 8 sections or headers in your resume is recommended-

1. Resume Title or Heading

Called the headline, header or title of your CV, resume title is placed underneath your identity and contact information, on top of the resume. To write a perfect resume title, you must use the right keywords that captivate a potential employer. A good headline condenses multiple technical skills relevant to the job into one phrase.

Fundamental rules for writing sections of a good resume include capitalization, customization, and precision of the terminology used in your header with respect to the job offer.

Example:

• Deadline-Driven Consultant Architect with 5+ Years of Dynamic Experience in Designing Residential and Commercial Buildings.

2. Objective

A brief statement that highlights your career graph and superior expertise in the industry comprises the objective section of a great resume. Career objective in a statement helps the employer see your best skills that set you apart from others. An ideal career objective in a resume shows your career goals with respect to your professional mastery in the field. It must not be generic, clichéd or run-of-the-mill.

Often termed as the Five-Year-Plan instead of Objective in a professional resume, this section clarifies your interest and qualifications for the job as well as future goals.

Example:

• Energetic and Enthusiastic Civil Engineering Fresher with 3+ Years in Middle East Oil & Gas Construction aspiring to join JGC Ltd as the Chief Engineer.

3. Summary Statement

A must-have section for professional resumes, Summary Statement is a peek on your exceptional accomplishments and technical proficiencies that make you are perfect for the job. A good profile statement is a concise, direct and lucid gist of your career graph and relevant responsibilities useful to the hiring manager.

The summary statement is the first screening of your qualifications for the post.  If you want the job, write a bold summary statement with technical skills correlating with the job offer.

Example:

• Multi-Faceted Veteran Nurse with Extensive Experience with High-Risk Wards, Mental Wards, and Warzones.

4. Experience Section

The backbone of any professional resume is the experience section that lists your job history, records, and experiences. Hiring managers rummage the experience section for past records of technical skills in the candidate that can simultaneously profit the company. To do so, you must list your specific job duties in the past jobs that are applicable to the current job offer too.

To highlight your professional skills, you can divide the experience section into Industrial and Freelancing columns, where the former lists company experience and freelancing refers to relevant private professional experience.

Example:

• Organized, Trained and Monitored 15,000 Laborers for 14000 Manhours without any Accidents as the Chief Safety Officer.

5. Skills Section

Depending on the job proposal, you must divide your skills section into categories such as Computer, Linguistic or People Skills to highlight specific skills in the resume that prove your superlative expertise for the post. Ensure that you mention specific skills relevant to the position by studying sample sections of functional resumes.

From enthusiasm to management and leadership, there are many transferable and non-transferable skills that can woo the hiring manager right away! Skills section must comprise of traits that add extra credits to your professional resume.

Example:

• Adept in Website Management, SEO and Social Media Marketing for E-commerce Websites via Shopify, Weebly, and WordPress;

6. Achievements Section

The cardinal rule to observe when writing your achievements section is to begin your points with action verbs that are relevant to the responsibilities sought by the employer.  Going through multiple resume samples will also help you cite the prominent power verbs used in your field of work.

Adding digits and specific technical terms to the main section of your resume quantify your achievements. Another effective format to furnish your achievements section is using the PAR technique. PAR lists specific accomplishments in the order of technical Problems assessed, Actions are taken and Results produced in your past jobs.

Example:

• Improved Customer Service Response by Training Staff on communication, behavior and management skills which boosted the number of return customers by 15% in 2 months.

7. Education

Beginning with your highest education, list your academic qualifications in a chronological order in this section. If you stopped your education midway, skip the timestamp on all points, but mention your college or university as well as the specialization.

If you’re a graduate or fresher, your resume must list educational section ahead of the achievements section. It is universal that employers look for the best brains when screening key sections in a resume. Your aim is to prove your technical foundation with academic excellence, hobbies, and interests relevant to the job.

Example:

• Merit-Roll Electronic Engineering Gold Medalist from IIT-K and Winner of Electra International Exhibition 2017 and 2018.

8. References and Certifications

The last section of your resume must list professional to personal certifications, recommendation letters and references you possess. This section of a resume should have honorable mentions and awards, on a page separate from all the other sections.

Conclusion

In addition to the above sections of a resume, your job history, and career graph conclude the best-formatted resume model for your qualifications. Adding sections such as Qualifications, Key Projects, Interests or Publications are also used to emphasize your technical proficiency to the recruiter.

It is true that you don’t get another chance to make a perfect first impression and sections of resume sample can help do just that! Hence, collect, compare and contrast your resume with best resume samples relevant to your field, and choose best resume format before drafting on your own.

Good Luck!