What Order Should Resume Sections Be In?
Last updated 2026-08-04
Section order is a decision about what you want read first, given that the reader may stop at any point. The default order exists because it matches how most reviewers want to assess most candidates — but it is a default, not a law.
The standard order
For anyone with meaningful work experience:
- Contact details (name, email, phone, location, LinkedIn)
- Professional Summary
- Skills
- Work Experience
- Projects (optional)
- Education
- Certifications
- Achievements / Volunteer (optional)
Freshers and students: swap education up
With no substantial work history, education and projects are your evidence. Put Education immediately after Skills, and give Projects real estate — two or three genuine projects with outcomes outperform a longer skills list every time.
Once you have roughly two years of professional experience, move Education back down. Leading with a degree at that point signals you have nothing better to lead with.
Career changers: lead with transferable evidence
Keep the standard order, but make the summary do heavy lifting and consider a "Relevant Experience" section that pulls the applicable parts of your history above the chronological block. Do not hide your history — a functional resume that omits dates reads as concealment and is widely distrusted.
Certification-gated fields: move certifications up
In nursing, teaching, accounting, project management and security, a specific license or certification is frequently a hard requirement. Put it directly under your summary — or even in your headline — rather than at the foot of page two.
Frequently asked questions
- Where do projects go for an experienced engineer?
- After Work Experience. They are supporting evidence at that stage, not primary evidence.
- Should I include a references section?
- No. "References available on request" wastes a line stating something universally assumed. Provide them when asked.
- Does section order affect ATS parsing?
- Barely — parsers key off headings, not position. It affects the human reader, which is where the decision actually gets made.
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