"What to Put on a Resume: Everything to Include (and Leave Out) in 2026"
The question of what to put on a resume sounds basic — but the decisions about what to include, what to omit, and how to prioritize what's there are where most candidates go wrong. A resume that includes everything the candidate has ever done reads as unfocused. A resume that includes too little leaves hiring managers without the evidence they need to make a decision. The right answer is a resume that includes every piece of information that helps the hiring manager say yes, and nothing that helps them say no or nothing at all. This guide covers every section, what belongs in each, what to leave out, and how the decisions change based on your career stage and target role.
1. Contact Information
Contact information is the header of your resume — it must be complete, accurate, and immediately readable. This is not the place to be creative with formatting. It is the place to ensure that a hiring manager who wants to call you can find your phone number in three seconds.
Include
- Full name — as you want to be addressed professionally. If you go by a nickname, you can include it: "Robert 'Rob' Chen"
- City and state — not your full street address. "Austin, TX" is sufficient and protects your privacy while telling employers your location
- Professional email address — firstname.lastname format. Not a username from high school
- Phone number — a mobile number where you can receive calls and voicemail. Ensure your voicemail greeting is professional
- LinkedIn URL — only if your profile is current, complete, and consistent with the resume. Customize your URL to linkedin.com/in/yourname
- Portfolio or GitHub link — essential for designers, developers, writers, data scientists. Include if the work directly demonstrates your capabilities
Do not include
- Full street address — creates privacy risk and is unnecessary
- Age or date of birth — illegal to use in hiring decisions, no need to provide
- Marital status, family situation, or gender
- Photo — in US context, photos on resumes are not standard and can create discrimination issues
- Social security number — never on a resume
- Personal social media handles unless directly relevant (a photographer's Instagram portfolio is relevant; a personal Twitter account usually isn't)
2. Professional Summary or Resume Objective
The summary or objective sits directly below your contact information and is typically the first thing a hiring manager reads after confirming your name and location. It has one job: give the reader a reason to keep reading by immediately establishing who you are professionally and why you're relevant to this specific role.
Use a summary if you have relevant experience
A professional summary leads with what you offer — your experience level, your strongest credential, and your most relevant skill. It should be 2–4 sentences, specific to the target role, and should mirror vocabulary from the job description.
"Data engineer with five years of experience building production ETL pipelines for e-commerce and fintech companies. Migrated a batch-processing pipeline to streaming architecture, reducing data latency from four hours to under five minutes. Expert in Python, dbt, Spark, and Snowflake; experienced with Airflow orchestration and AWS infrastructure."
Use an objective if you're entry-level or changing careers
An objective leads with where you're going and what you bring to that direction. It provides context that the work history alone can't — especially when your background doesn't obviously connect to the target role.
"Recent computer science graduate seeking a junior software engineering role. Completed two production-facing internships building Python APIs; contributed to a deployed non-profit application used by 300+ daily users. Comfortable with Git, REST design, and test-driven development."
What not to write
"Seeking a challenging position where I can grow professionally." This sentence contains zero information. Remove it and write what you actually bring. Any summary that could belong to every candidate in your field belongs to no one.
Related: Resume Summary Examples · Resume Objective Examples
3. Work Experience — The Most Important Section
Work experience is where hiring decisions are actually made. Every other section on the resume either sets up this section or supplements it. The summary introduces you; the skills section handles ATS matching; but the work history is where your qualifications become real — where claims become evidence.
What to include in each job entry
- Company name — as it's officially known. Include a brief descriptor if the company isn't well-known: "Acme Corp (B2B SaaS, 50-person startup)"
- Your job title — the official title from your employment record. Don't inflate it
- Employment dates — month and year for start and end. "January 2022 – March 2024" not "2022–2024" (year-only hides the month and creates ambiguity)
- Location — city and state, or "Remote" if the role was remote
- Bullet points — 3–6 per role for recent positions, 1–3 for older ones
How to write work experience bullets
Each bullet should follow: action verb → specific task/project → measurable outcome. Not "responsible for" — that describes a job description, not what you did. Not "helped with" — that obscures your actual contribution. Strong verbs: built, led, reduced, increased, designed, implemented, negotiated, launched, automated, trained.
Weak: "Responsible for managing social media accounts and creating content."
Strong: "Managed all social media channels; grew Instagram from 8,200 to 31,000 followers over 14 months by pivoting to a short-form video strategy that consistently outperformed the industry average engagement rate."
Quantify wherever you honestly can
Numbers make claims verifiable and memorable. Not every bullet needs a metric — some achievements are better described specifically without numbers. But aim for at least one quantified result per role: scale (team of 8), change (reduced by 40%), frequency (weekly reports to 200 executives), time frame (delivered six weeks early), or volume (managed 50+ client accounts).
How far back should work history go?
Generally 10–15 years for most professionals. Older experience is rarely relevant enough to justify the space it takes. For recent graduates, include everything including internships, part-time work, campus jobs, and relevant volunteer work. For career changers, focus on roles most relevant to the new direction rather than providing a comprehensive chronology of your entire career.
Gaps in employment
Gaps are more common than ever and less stigmatized than they were a decade ago. You don't need to hide them, but you should address significant ones (6+ months) briefly. A parenthetical note is sufficient: "(Career break — family caregiving, 2022–2023)" or "(Returned to school full-time, 2021–2022)". Address it directly; don't try to disguise it with year-only dates.
4. Education
The education section documents your academic credentials. Its weight on the resume varies significantly by career stage — for a recent graduate it's the primary qualification section; for a 15-year professional it's a brief factual entry near the bottom.
What to include
- Degree type — BS, BA, MS, MBA, PhD, MD, JD. Spell out less common degree types
- Major or field of study
- Institution name and location
- Graduation date — month and year, or expected graduation date for current students
- GPA — include if above 3.5 and you graduated within the last 3–5 years. Drop it after that
- Honors — cum laude, dean's list, academic awards, scholarships
- Relevant coursework — useful for recent graduates targeting specific technical roles
- Thesis title — for research degrees, especially when applying to research-focused roles
Where to put education on the resume
Recent graduates and current students: education near the top, before work experience, because it's your primary credential. Professionals with 3+ years of relevant experience: education after work experience. Healthcare and legal professionals where the degree is the primary credential: education and credentials near the top regardless of experience level.
What to omit from education
High school education is omitted once you have a college degree. GPA below 3.0 is not worth including. Courses that aren't relevant to the target role add length without adding value. Incomplete degrees need honest representation — "Bachelor of Science, Computer Science — 90 credits completed, 2018–2021" is accurate; listing the degree without noting incompletion is not.
5. Skills Section
The skills section is primarily an ATS tool — it concentrates technical keywords in one place so automated screening systems can match your profile to job requirements. It's also a quick-scan reference for hiring managers who want to confirm you have specific technical capabilities before investing time in the work history.
What belongs in the skills section
Hard skills only: specific, verifiable technical capabilities. Tools by exact name (Salesforce, not "CRM software"), programming languages (Python, SQL), methodologies (Agile/Scrum, Six Sigma), certifications (PMP, AWS Solutions Architect), and domain expertise (HIPAA compliance, FP&A modeling).
What does NOT belong in the skills section
Soft skills. "Excellent communication," "strong team player," "results-driven," "detail-oriented" — these are self-assessed claims that every candidate makes and none can prove from a list alone. Demonstrate them through work history bullets instead. A bullet describing a complex client negotiation you led communicates communication skill more convincingly than "strong communicator" in a skills list.
How specific to be
Name tools by their specific product name, not by category. Not "data visualization tools" — "Tableau, Power BI, Looker." Not "cloud platforms" — "AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS), Google Cloud (BigQuery, Cloud Run)." Not "marketing automation" — "HubSpot, Marketo, Klaviyo." The specific name is what ATS keyword matching is looking for; the category is not.
6. Certifications and Licenses
Certifications are externally verified credentials that go beyond academic degrees. For some roles — healthcare, finance, IT security, project management — they're primary qualification filters. For others they're supplementary differentiators. Either way they belong on the resume, formatted consistently and completely.
What to include for each certification
- Full official certification name — "AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate" not "AWS cert"
- Certifying organization
- Credential number — especially for healthcare and financial credentials where verification is routine
- Active status or expiration date
- In-progress certifications — "PMP (exam scheduled May 2026)" signals active professional development
Where certifications belong
Healthcare and legal licenses (RN, MD, JD, CPA, PA-C) that are primary qualification filters: near the top of the resume, prominently visible. Technology and professional certifications (AWS, PMP, SHRM-CP): in a dedicated certifications section after work history and education, or integrated into the skills section. Expired certifications: omit unless you're in the process of renewing.
7. Optional Sections — When to Include Each
Projects
A projects section earns its place for: software developers with GitHub portfolios, recent graduates with meaningful capstone or academic projects, career changers whose personal projects in the new field demonstrate genuine preparation, and anyone whose most relevant work was done outside of formal employment. Each project entry should include what you built, with what technology or methodology, what your specific role was, and what the outcome was.
Volunteer Work
Include volunteer work when it's directly relevant to the target role, demonstrates leadership or skills the work history doesn't, or represents long-term consistent commitment that signals character. For candidates with limited professional history, volunteer work in a relevant context is documented identically to paid work experience — same format, same bullet structure.
Publications and Research
For academic, research, and thought leadership-adjacent roles. In corporate contexts, a "Selected Publications" section with 2–3 directly relevant publications is appropriate. A full bibliography belongs on a CV, not a corporate resume. Conference presentations, podcasts, and speaking engagements also belong here if they demonstrate domain expertise.
Languages
Include when genuinely at professional proficiency level and relevant to the target role. Specify honestly: "Spanish (native proficiency)," "French (professional working proficiency)," "German (conversational)." Don't list a language you studied for a semester in college as a professional skill — it will be tested, and the mismatch damages credibility.
Awards and Honors
Include externally recognized awards (industry awards, academic honors, professional recognitions) and keep them recent — typically within the last 5–7 years unless particularly prestigious. Internal company awards can appear in work history bullets. Awards unrelated to your professional target are better omitted.
Continuing Education
Useful for professionals returning after career gaps, those in fields requiring ongoing learning (healthcare CME, legal CLE), and candidates demonstrating active skill development. List specific courses from recognized providers with completion dates.
Professional Affiliations
Active membership in recognized professional organizations signals professional engagement: AAPA, PMI, SHRM, APA, IEEE. Only list active memberships — expired memberships and irrelevant organizations are better omitted.
What to Put on a Resume for Your First Job
The most common first-job resume mistake is treating the lack of work experience as a reason to make the resume shorter or less specific. The right response is the opposite: fill the resume with the specific, honest evidence of your capabilities that exists outside of formal employment history.
Education section — expand it
For a first-job resume, education carries more weight and should be more detailed: include GPA if above 3.0, specific honors and awards, relevant coursework, capstone projects, and any academic competitions or recognitions. The education section should tell the story of what you've been learning and doing for the past several years.
Activities and leadership
Sports teams, student government, clubs, theater, debate — these are not filler. They document teamwork, commitment, leadership, time management, and the ability to balance competing responsibilities. Document them specifically: the role, the time commitment, and any specific contributions. "Student body treasurer: managed an annual budget, ran monthly finance committee meetings, reduced club spending waste through a procurement review" is a resume entry, not just a bullet point.
Informal and self-employment work
Babysitting, lawn care, tutoring, freelance creative work — if you performed a service, delivered a result, and received compensation or built a client base, it belongs on the resume. Document it with the same specificity you'd apply to formal employment: what you did, for how long, and any notable outcomes.
Skills for a first job
List the specific technical skills you genuinely have: the software programs you can use, the tools you've practiced with, the languages you're proficient in. Be honest about level — "Google Analytics (coursework and personal project)" is more credible than an unqualified "Google Analytics" if your experience is limited. Specific and honest beats inflated and vague.
What to Put on a Resume When Changing Careers
Career change resumes face a specific challenge: the work history documents a career you're leaving, not the one you're entering. The strategic question is how to reframe existing experience in terms relevant to the new field without misrepresenting what you actually did.
Lead with a targeted objective or summary
The summary or objective at the top of the resume is where you build the bridge explicitly. Don't make the hiring manager infer why a teacher is applying for an instructional design role — tell them in the first three sentences: "Seven years of curriculum development, learning assessment design, and differentiated instruction — the same competencies that drive effective corporate L&D programs. Completing a certificate in instructional design; portfolio of three e-learning modules built in Articulate Storyline."
Reframe bullets with transferable skills language
The same past experience described in different vocabulary can communicate relevance to a new field. A project manager's bullets can be reframed from construction vocabulary to technology vocabulary. A nurse's patient education experience can be reframed as communication, empathy, and complex information delivery. The events are the same; the framing shifts to the vocabulary of the target field.
Add a projects section with new-field evidence
Certification completions, personal projects, freelance work, volunteer contributions in the target field — these are the most important additions to a career change resume because they provide direct evidence of preparation rather than just claimed interest. A designer who has completed three UX projects on their own time is a different kind of candidate from one who has only expressed interest in UX.
What NOT to Put on a Resume — The Complete List
Personal information that creates discrimination risk
Age, date of birth, marital status, family status, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation are legally protected characteristics in US hiring. Including them gives employers information they should not be using and creates unnecessary risk for you. Omit all of it.
Photo
In US professional context, photos on resumes are not standard practice and can create implicit bias in the hiring process. In other countries (Germany, France, parts of Asia) photos are standard or expected — know the convention for where you're applying.
"References available upon request"
Every employer assumes this. Writing it wastes the last line of your resume — space that could hold an additional achievement or skill. Have your references ready in a separate document; don't announce their existence on the resume itself.
Reasons for leaving previous jobs
Not the resume's function. Address if asked in an interview or in a cover letter when relevant. A resume that explains "left due to layoffs" or "departed for career growth opportunities" before anyone asked is volunteering information that creates questions rather than answering them.
Salary history or expectations
Never on a resume. Salary negotiation happens after an offer; putting salary information on a resume before even getting a callback anchors your compensation too early and typically in the wrong direction.
Generic soft skills without evidence
"Hardworking," "passionate," "team player," "results-driven," "detail-oriented" — every candidate claims these. None are verifiable from a list. Replace them with work history bullets that demonstrate the same qualities through specific, documented actions and outcomes.
Work history older than 15 years (usually)
Older experience is rarely relevant enough to include and can signal age to employers in a way that disadvantages candidates. The exception: a role from 20 years ago that is uniquely directly relevant to the current application — include it briefly with a note that it's being highlighted for its relevance despite its age.
False or inflated credentials
Education you didn't complete, certifications you don't hold, titles you didn't have — background checks and reference verifications catch these consistently. The professional and legal consequences of credential fraud are severe enough that this bears explicit mention. The resume should represent your actual background, not the background you wish you had.
Irrelevant personal interests
Hobbies belong on a resume only when they're directly relevant to the target role (a food photographer whose hobby is food styling, a data scientist whose hobby is building predictive models for sports analytics) or when you're applying to a company whose culture specifically values the shared interest. Otherwise, the interests section is filler that takes up space from content that actually matters.
What to Put on a Resume for ATS: Specific Guidance
Applicant Tracking Systems scan resumes before human eyes see them in most medium-to-large company hiring processes. Understanding what ATS systems look for helps you ensure your resume passes the automated screen before it reaches the human reviewer.
Keywords from the job description
ATS systems are typically configured to look for specific terms from the job description. The most reliable approach: read the job description carefully, identify the 5–10 most specific and repeatedly-mentioned requirements, and ensure those exact terms appear somewhere in your resume if they genuinely apply to you. "Python" not "scripting languages." "Salesforce" not "CRM tools." "PMP certified" not "project management experience."
Standard section headers
ATS systems look for recognizable section headers to categorize content: "Work Experience" or "Professional Experience," "Education," "Skills," "Certifications." Avoid creative headers like "My Journey" or "What I've Built" — they may not be recognized by the parsing system, causing content to be misclassified or missed entirely.
Clean formatting
ATS-hostile formatting includes: tables, text boxes, headers and footers (content there is often invisible to ATS), multiple columns (text reads out of order when extracted), graphics and icons (parsed as empty space), and non-standard fonts. The most ATS-compatible resume is a clean single-column document with standard formatting — which also happens to be the easiest for human readers to navigate.
The plain text test
Copy your entire resume and paste it into a plain text document. Does it read in logical order? Is the content parseable? Are section headers and job titles clearly identifiable? If the plain text version is a jumble, the ATS version probably is too. Fix the underlying formatting until plain text is coherent.
What to Put on a Resume by Career Stage
Student / no experience
Lead with education. Include activities, leadership, volunteer work, projects, and any informal employment. Skills section is important for demonstrating technical capability developed through coursework and self-study. Write an objective rather than a summary.
Early career (1–5 years)
Work experience leads the resume. Include all relevant positions including internships. Education still matters — keep GPA if above 3.5 and within the last three years. Skills section is critical for ATS. Summary begins to make sense as you accumulate specific achievements to highlight.
Mid-career (5–15 years)
Work experience is the dominant section. Education moves to the bottom — GPA is dropped. Summary leads with your strongest achievement and most relevant expertise. Skills section focuses on the most current and relevant technical capabilities. Older or less relevant experience is trimmed to 1–2 bullets or removed entirely.
Senior / executive
Strategic impact and leadership scale become the primary focus of work history bullets — not individual task completion. The summary articulates organizational-level contributions rather than personal output. Two pages is standard; three is acceptable for executive roles with complex histories. Education is brief and factual at the bottom.
Complete Resume Checklist: What to Put on Your Resume
Must-have sections
- ☐ Contact information — name, city/state, professional email, phone, LinkedIn (if current)
- ☐ Professional summary or objective — 2–4 sentences, specific to the target role
- ☐ Work experience — reverse chronological, achievement bullets with at least one quantified result per role
- ☐ Education — all degrees with institution, graduation date, honors if applicable
- ☐ Skills — technical skills by exact name, relevant to target role
Include if applicable
- ☐ Certifications and licenses — especially if they're qualification filters for the role
- ☐ Projects — for developers, designers, researchers, career changers
- ☐ Volunteer work — when relevant to the target role or demonstrating leadership
- ☐ Languages — at professional proficiency level only
- ☐ Publications — for academic, research, or thought leadership roles
- ☐ Awards — externally recognized, recent, and relevant
Never include
- ☐ Age, photo, marital status, or other personal information
- ☐ "References available upon request"
- ☐ Salary information
- ☐ Reasons for leaving jobs
- ☐ Generic soft skill claims without evidence
- ☐ False or exaggerated credentials
- ☐ Irrelevant personal interests
- ☐ Work history older than 15 years (unless specifically relevant)
Before you submit
- ☐ Every tool and technology is named by its exact name (not by category)
- ☐ Job description vocabulary is reflected in the resume where it honestly applies
- ☐ Plain text test passed — resume parses correctly when all formatting is stripped
- ☐ No typos, no inconsistent dates, no formatting that breaks across pages awkwardly
- ☐ Length is appropriate to experience level
The Principle Behind Every Decision
Every question about what to put on a resume resolves to one test: does this information help a hiring manager make a confident decision to interview me? If yes, include it. If it's neutral or creates unnecessary questions, omit it. If it provides evidence for a decision against you that wouldn't be relevant in a fair evaluation, leave it out.
The resume is not a complete autobiography. It's a curated argument — the strongest possible case for your candidacy, organized so the most important evidence is easiest to find. Building it well requires deciding what to leave out as much as deciding what to include.