Each person must assess his own credentials and decide whether to lead off the resume body with an educational section or a job-experience section. Obviously the more impressive record should be the lead-off section and the other subordinated to a secondary position in the resume.
To construct an effective education section, you must be certain to consider including all pertinent degrees, diplomas, workshops, seminars, adult or continuing education programs, professional education certificates, company training, and any other course work that might bear on the job you're seeking. Often, resume writers include only formal degrees, such as high-school and college degrees, and unfortunately forget to include short but important intensive courses and programs that could be very impressive indeed. In addition, military education and training could be helpful to your case and should not be forgotten.
How far back should you go in listing your formal degrees? A good rule to follow is "two to three degrees back, but not earlier than high school." For example, if you are a college graduate, list your college and high-school degrees. However, if you want to develop a shorter resume and happen to possess a very impressive work- experience record with a solid college background, you may violate the "two to three degrees" rule and leave out your high-school degree. If you've earned a master's degree, list the master's and the bachelor's; including your high school degree in this situation is not mandatory, but you may choose to include it. Finally, if you've earned a doctorate degree, list the doctorate, the master's, and the bachelor's, leaving out the high-school degree.
Generally, because the reader is more interested in seeing your more recent educational accomplishments first, you should list your educational record in reverse time order. Yet, as in the case of your work experience, this rule may not be appropriate if certain earlier educational experiences seem to be more relevant to the job you're seeking. In this case, you should consider leading off the education section with those related items and following up with later ones. Thus, the relative value of the items listed might dictate the arrangement, rather than the time frame in which they occurred.
Depending upon the value of your schooling to your particular job goal, you can fully develop each item in this section or present each item in skeleton fashion. To whatever degree you explain an educational accomplishment, you should include at least the following basic informational elements, with the name of the degree or course of study generally featured at the beginning; (1) degree, (2) major, (3) school, (4) location, and (5) dates attended. If the names of your schools are impressive to readers, then lead off with those instead of the degrees.
Many resumes show that those with a good deal of job experience, generally pay less attention to educational accomplishments, presenting only the basic skeletal elements. On the other hand, those resume holders having less experience generally emphasize educational achievements by more fully developing the items in this section.
Job applicants lacking in sufficient or appropriate job experience must rely heavily on selling themselves by pointing out impressive educational accomplishments. Yet, many such people who do possess good educational credentials are simply not aware of those academic experiences that really could count in job-selling. The following list gives fourteen types of educational items that you should seriously consider displaying on your resume to prove that "you have what it takes":
- Degree and school
- Major and minor areas of study
- Rank or standing in graduating class, if high
- Overall grade point average, if high
- Honor listings, such as Dean's List or Student of the Year
- Scholarships or other awards of excellence
- Courses relevant to job choice
- Course grades, if high
- Written and oral class reports and presentations, if relevant to job
- Course-related field projects, field visitations, company studies and internships
- Memberships on school committees, in school associations, and in professional clubs
- Student leadership positions in school-related groups
- Special skills, competencies, certifications, or licenses
- Paid or unpaid internships or other work experiences, after school, during summers, or on vacations
Education sections that are fully developed, using much of the information just cited, should be well organized and even possibly presented in two or more education sections. Often an individual wants a particular job but lacks sufficient or appropriate educational background. In our highly competitive job market, those who compete with real advantages are the ones possessing specialized professional or vocational education. But what happens to the liberal arts student with no noticeable job skills or professional orientation? What can the pre-dental student who has changed her mind during her senior year in college and no longer wants to become a dentist do? And what about the young man who has a college degree in education but no longer wants to teach? These are very real problems that confront job seekers every day. Many of these problems can be solved by serious self-examination, job assessment, additional education in specialized fields, and special communications skills in waging effective job searches.
Undoubtedly the job seeker with a professional or vocational education in the appropriate field is at a great advantage. Yet, even those lacking the proper foundations can still impress employers by creatively selling the qualifications they do possess.
