Build Sections

Build Sections

Getting Started With Resume Sections

Because employers have been requesting resumes from job seekers for decades, a number of strategies have emerged to optimally present each section on your resume. These strategies are even more important in the modern era of recruitment with ATS.

A resume is made up of multiple sections of information about you. Some sections are required for all resumes, including the Header, Education, and Experience section(s). In order to be rated highly by most ATS, it is very important to use standard section titles for your Education section and Experience section(s), although these section titles can be preceded with descriptive words (e.g., Relevant Experience, Project Experience, Additional Experience). These sections should also list basic information about a past experience across one or two lines (i.e., full name of the organization, title of your position, location, and dates), followed by descriptive statements in bullet point format. Bullet points are key for these sections in your resume, as they are easier to skim and understand than paragraphs of text.

Other sections on your resume are considered optional and allow for more strategic tailoring for your qualifications, including the Objective, Skills, and a range of other potential sections. No matter which sections you choose to include, your resume should have a generally consistent look and feel throughout the document.

The following information reviews additional considerations for the sections that occur most commonly on a resume, presented in the order in which they typically occur. 

Header

A personalized Header is the first section on a resume. For ATS compliance, it is important that this information is not entered in the actual Header of your document (i.e., the space available in Microsoft Word through the View menu for Header and Footer), but rather, on the first line at the top of your document.

This section features key information about you and should always begin with your name as the largest and most visually emphasized text on the page. It should also always include your location (in the format of City, State), phone number, and email address. Your email address should appear professional and easy to read, thus we typically recommend your UCSB email address.

You can also make your contact information more engaging by adding the URL to your LinkedIn profile, a personal website, or a portfolio account. Similar to your email address, try to ensure that the URL appears professional and easy to read.

Here is an example of a header:

Tomás Teacher

Culver City, CA | (555) 333-5942 | tteacher@ucsb.edu | linkedin.com/in/tteacher

Objective (Optional)

A customized Objective provides a lens through which an employer views your resume. For this reason, you may find that this section receives mixed opinions about its effectiveness. Some experts recommend an Objective for its strategy of "priming" the reader with your most relevant qualifications, while other experts believe that an Objective provides no new value for the space it requires. If you are wondering if an Objective is a good strategy for your resume, connect with our Career Peer Advising team.

If you include an Objective, always target it toward the position for which you are applying and use it to synthesize your most relevant qualifications. Draw inspiration from keywords in the job description, and be concise so that every word makes an impact. One brief and tailored statement is more effective than a lengthy and broad statement.

Here is an example of an Objective:

Seeking the Tour Operations Internship at Warner Bros. Studio, utilizing film/media education and 1 year of customer service experience in hospitality.

Education

As a student of UCSB, you have earned the right to showcase your distinguished Education on your resume while your degree is in progress, and forever after. Because your Education is typically your primary focus at this point in your life, this section should be placed toward the top of your resume.

We recommend that you include your undergraduate degree and, if applicable, graduate degree. Prior studies at 2-year colleges are often seen as optional once you begin attending UCSB, and high school education should be omitted after your first year of college.
 

How to List Education

For each educational institution that you include in this section, list the full name of the institution (e.g., "University of California, Santa Barbara"), degree (e.g., "Bachelor of Arts"), area of study (e.g., "Sociology"), and graduation date (e.g., "June 20xx"). 

In order to ensure that ATS processes your graduation date correctly, month and year must always be provided (i.e., avoid phrases such as "Spring 20xx"). Additionally, we recommend for the date to be aligned on the right-hand side of the page. Note that it is best to omit your degree's start date, and you can choose to include or omit the phrase "Expected Graduation".

Many ATS have very particular methods of interpreting your degree information in this section. Specifically, we strongly recommend that you use a comma to separate your degree and area of study, to ensure that this information can be processed properly. For example, “Bachelor of Arts, Sociology” is the preferred format instead of “Bachelor of Arts in Sociology”. If you choose to abbreviate your degree, be sure to include periods as proper punctuation to ensure ATS compliance (i.e., “B.A.” is the preferred format instead of “BA”). As a best practice, we recommend that you write your degree in both the long form and the abbreviated form (in parentheses).

Here is one example of essential information for Education (one degree, one major):

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | June 20xx
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology

Here is another example of essential information for Education (one degree, two majors):

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | June 20xx
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology and History

Here is a third example of essential information for Education (two degrees, two majors):

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | June 20xx
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Chemistry

How to Describe Education

In addition to the essential information about your Education, you have the option to include bullet points with descriptive information, such as GPA (if above 3.0), minors, honors, certificates, study abroad programs, or educational trainings. Depending on your specific educational accomplishments and their relevance to the position for which you are applying, it may be more strategic to include this information as a separate entry within the Education section, rather than as a bullet point beneath your degree (i.e., indicate a study abroad program or certificate as its own entry to draw attention to it).

You can also choose to showcase the knowledge you gained from relevant coursework by listing the course title (not course code) of about three to six courses. If you would like to write details about individual courses, create a separate section titled Relevant Coursework and include a brief description for each (this can be a good strategy to incorporate keywords). 

Here is an example of descriptive information for education:

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | June 20xx
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology

• GPA: 3.7
• Minor: Professional Writing
• Study Abroad: Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
• Relevant Coursework: Language Use and Social Interaction, Climate Change Solutions, Global and International Studies (In Progress)

Experience

On a resume, your Experience showcases all of the ways that you have been involved outside of the classroom. Experience can include:

• Previous and current employment
• Internships
• Significant projects (academic or personal)
• Research
• Athletics
• Involvement with community and campus organizations
• and more

In most instances, it can include commitments that began as recently as this month and as long ago as four or five years in the past.

How to Name Experience

When creating sections for experience on your resume, proper naming is critical for ATS compliance. To ensure success, the term "Experience" must be included in the title of all sections that include any form of experience. If you omit this term when naming the section, ATS typically process this as "Other" information, which is often weighted as less important than "Experience" information.

While it is perfectly acceptable to have one section titled Experience on your resume, it is typically more strategic to organize your resume into multiple Experience sections, which emphasize themes tailored to the position for which you are applying.

Click below to see some example section titles to consider for your experience.

How to List Experience

When listing information within an Experience section, it is very important for ATS compliance that you write the full name of the organization (e.g., “Adams Resources & Energy, Inc.” instead of “Adams Resources & Energy"), title of your position, location (in the format of City, State or Remote), and dates (in the format of Month Year-Month Year, and to Present for current experience). 

In order to ensure that ATS processes your dates correctly, months and years must always be provided for start dates and end dates (i.e., avoid phrases such as "Summer 20xx"), and hyphens must not have a leading or trailing space. Additionally, we recommend for dates to be aligned on the right-hand side of the page.

Here are three example formats that optimize your dates for ATS:

September 20xx-December 20xx
Sep. 20xx-Dec. 20xx
09/20xx-12/20xx

Additionally, most employers prefer to see information sorted by recency within any Experience section on your resume, in the order of your most recent to least recent end dates.

Here is an example of essential information to include about Experience:

UCSB Recreation Center | April 20xx-Present
Intern, Santa Barbara, CA

How to Describe Experience

Once you have listed the essential information about your Experience, you are ready to elaborate with one to six descriptive statements in bullet point format.

Each statement should focus on an aspect of your Experience that is worth communicating to the position for which you are applying, thus, it should demonstrate transferable skills that you utilized in your past role. For instance, if you worked in food service, you probably learned various tactics to keep customers satisfied, communicate clearly with coworkers, and manage your time in a fast-paced environment. On the other hand, if you worked in sports recreation, you may have learned how to organize events, create shared experiences, and administer equipment within a budget.

To begin each descriptive statement, choose an action verb that represents the type of skill you utilized. Click below to begin exploring powerful action verbs, which you can supplement further by searching for synonyms.

After you have identified an action verb to begin a descriptive statement, write the verb in the tense that matches the dates of the Experience, using past tense for past dates (e.g., "Assisted") and present tense for present dates (e.g., "Assist"), and avoiding the present participle tense (e.g., "Assisting").

Next, elaborate on the most important or relevant details for the specific role to which you are applying. Consider the following questions to brainstorm initial details, and then include the details that are most important or relevant:

• What did I do? (i.e., task, assignment, or job duty)
• How did I do it? (i.e., methods, tools, or processes) 
• Who did I do it with? (i.e., collaborators, customers, or stakeholders)
• Where did I do it? (i.e., work environment, context, or situation)
• Why did I do it? (i.e., purpose, value, or impact)
   

As part of the details that you share, incorporate quantifiable numbers and results when possible (i.e., How much of it did I do?). By including meaningful statistics and outcomes of your efforts, your descriptive statements communicate the impact of your accomplishments. In order to catch the most attention, we recommend that you write all numbers on your resume as digits (e.g., 3, 17, 105). Also, make sure that your numbers are accurate and do not disclose confidential information from within the organization.

To optimize your resume for ATS, try to use the exact same keywords and phrases as what is found in the job description, without plagiarizing long phrases or entire sentences.

Overall, the general structure of “Performed X to do Y resulting in Z” is a useful way to communicate most descriptive statements. Include more statements for Experience that are more relevant and sort the more relevant statements higher than the less relevant statements, for maximum strategy.

Here is an example of descriptive information to include about your Experience:

UCSB Recreation Center | April 20xx-Present
Intern, Santa Barbara, CA

• Assist in the planning and organization of 10 intramural soccer teams
• Coordinate the concurrent use of 5 soccer fields for 16-team tournament
• Schedule referee staff for annual 3-week tournament
• Negotiate for intramural Greek tournament in exchange for Greek sponsorship and staffing of Tiny Tots Tournament, resulting in cost reduction of $3,500

Skills (Optional)

In addition to your Education and Experience, you likely have several Skills that are useful for the position to which you are applying. A targeted Skills section traditionally contains technical, language, or laboratory skill-related information, though it can contain additional specific abilities or areas of knowledge that are relevant to the position. This section is optional, though it is typically advantageous in the following scenarios: 

• If you are an undergraduate student pursuing a STEM career (e.g., Engineering + Technology and Science + Health)
• If you are a graduate student pursuing any career (i.e., often presented as a Summary of Skills / Summary of Qualifications section at the top of the page)
• If you are a student of any class level with several relevant qualifications
   

When this section is included on a resume, it should be strategically tailored to the job description and indicative of evidence-based information. Rarely should a Skills section include broad interpersonal aptitudes, because they are widely overused by applicants and lack concrete evidence. For instance, writing “Good Communication Skills” or "Effective Communicator" is typically too vague to leave an impression on an employer. In this instance, it might be more useful to address your communication abilities in a context related to the employer's unique needs for the position to which you are applying.

To include your most relevant Skills, review the job description for qualifications and keywords. Then, create a list of factual statements in bullet point format, incorporating specific, concrete, and measurable information about each skill. This can complement the descriptive statements within your experience section(s), and it may even strategically repeat a few keywords. 

As a gauge of your level, you can use the following categories to describe your Skills:

1. "Basic Knowledge" or "Familiarity"
2. "Proficient" or "Accomplished"
3. "Advanced Knowledge" or "Expertise"
    

It is also worth noting that a Skills section can be formatted into multiple columns without issues, although ATS typically encounter issues with multiple columns in other sections. Ensure that each Skill is preceded by a bullet point, otherwise ATS may not parse your words correctly.

Here is an example of information to include about your Skills:

• Leadership: Voted into leadership position by peers and entrusted to make decisions for residence hall floor.
• Language: Fluent in Cantonese, spoken and written.
• Communication: Training and tutoring experience in food service and educational settings. Consistently received positive evaluations from supervisors.
• Technical: Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).

Other Sections (Optional)

There are several other sections that can be included on your resume, but they should be considered based on the qualifications that you offer as a candidate.

When considering these sections, it is important to review the job description for the position to which you are applying, so that you can tailor your resume strategically. Also, remember that ATS typically give the most weight to your Education section and Experience section(s), while treating all other sections as less important. 

Click below to explore a few other example sections that a resume can include, noting that the section titles can be adapted as needed.

References (Separate Document)

Though it was common for References and Reference Statements (i.e., "References available upon request") to be traditionally included on resumes for several decades, modern-day resumes omit this information unless specifically requested in an application.

Employers often ask for References at some point during a hiring process, but it is typically not necessary to use valuable resume space for this information. Instead, be ready with a list of two to four strong References on a separate document. This document should have the same Header as your resume, followed by each reference's full name, current position, current employer, and preferred contact information. It is also useful to include a sentence about your relationship to clarify how they know you.

No matter who you choose for your references, be sure to contact your References in advance to ask if they would be willing to provide a positive Reference for you. It is also helpful to offer them your updated resume and any relevant information about the position(s) to which you are applying.

Here is an example of information to include about a Reference on a separate document:

Jonathan Sanchez
Regional Manager for Central Coast, Starbucks
Phone: (555) 555-5555
Email: jon.sanchez@email.com
Relationship: Direct supervisor from 20xx-20xx