What are the parts of a resume?
A resume has five core parts and several optional ones. The core parts appear on almost every resume. Optional parts earn their space only when they support the job you are applying for.
| Resume section | Required? | What goes in it | Typical length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Header | Required | Name, phone, email, city and state, LinkedIn URL | 2 to 3 lines |
| Professional summary | Strongly recommended | Title, experience, top skills, one result | 2 to 4 sentences |
| Work experience | Required | Jobs with title, employer, location, dates and bullets | Most of the page |
| Skills | Required | Hard skills and tools that match the posting | 1 to 4 lines |
| Education | Required | Degree or diploma, school, year | 1 to 3 lines |
| Certifications and licenses | Optional, required for licensed jobs | Credential, issuer, date | 1 line each |
| Projects | Optional | Class, freelance or personal projects with results | 2 to 4 lines each |
| Volunteer experience | Optional | Unpaid roles formatted like jobs | 2 to 4 lines each |
| Awards and honors | Optional | Award, organization, year | 1 line each |
| Languages | Optional | Language and proficiency level | 1 line |
| Professional affiliations | Optional | Association and any role you hold | 1 line each |
| Objective | Rarely | Target job and what you offer | 1 to 2 sentences |
| References | No | A separate page, sent when asked | None |
Each part of a resume, explained in order
The examples below build one resume for a fictional medical assistant, section by section.
1. Header
The header tells the employer who you are and how to reach you. Put your name in larger type and your contact details on one line below it. Leave off your street address, photo and birth date. Our guide to the resume header covers each item in detail.
MORGAN ELLIS
Aurora, CO | (303) 555-0164 | morgan.ellis@example.com | linkedin.com/in/morganellis-example
2. Professional summary
The summary is a 2 to 4 sentence pitch right under the header. It names your job title, years of experience, top skills and one measurable result. Write it last, once the rest of the resume is done. See these resume summary examples for 20 models by job.
Medical assistant with 4 years of experience in a family practice seeing 45+ patients a day. Skilled in vital signs, injections, EHR charting and insurance verification. Cut exam room turnover time by 3 minutes per patient with a standard supply checklist.
3. Work experience
This is the core of most resumes. List jobs newest first. Each entry needs a job title, employer, city and state, dates, and 3 to 5 bullets for recent jobs or 1 to 3 for older ones. Start bullets with action verbs and include numbers where you can.
Use one date format everywhere, such as “Aug 2022 - Present” or “2022 - Present.” If you held several titles at one company, list the employer once and stack the titles under it.
Medical Assistant, Contoso Family Health, Aurora, CO | Aug 2022 - Present
- Room 45+ patients a day, taking vitals and updating histories in the EHR
- Give injections and vaccines and collect lab specimens as ordered by providers
- Trained 3 new medical assistants on intake and charting workflows
4. Skills
The skills section is a quick list of hard skills and tools that match the job posting. Keep it to plain text separated by commas or vertical bars. Soft skills are better shown in your bullets than listed here.
Pull skills straight from the posting when they are true for you. Aim for 6 to 12 items, with the ones the employer mentions first at the front of the list.
Skills: Vital signs, phlebotomy, injections, EHR charting (Epic), insurance verification, patient scheduling, bilingual English and Spanish
5. Education
List your highest degree or diploma, the school and the year you finished. Recent graduates can add honors, a GPA of 3.5 or higher, or relevant coursework. If you have no college education, list your high school diploma or GED. Once you have a college degree, drop the high school line.
Medical Assistant Diploma, Mile High Career Institute, Denver, CO, 2022
6. Certifications and licenses
List the full credential name, the issuing organization and the date earned, plus the expiration date if it has one. Jobs that require a license, such as nursing or skilled trades, often move this section up near the summary. Here is how to put certifications on a resume for every situation.
Certified Medical Assistant (CMA), American Association of Medical Assistants, 2022
Basic Life Support (BLS), American Heart Association, expires 2027
7. Projects
A projects section helps students, tech workers and career changers show hands-on work. Give the project a name, the context and a result.
Clinic Wait-Time Study, Capstone project, Mile High Career Institute | 2022
- Tracked check-in to rooming times for 200 visits and presented three fixes to clinic staff
8. Volunteer experience
Format volunteer roles like jobs, with a title, organization, dates and bullets. If the role is directly related to the job, it can go in your main experience section instead. Our guide shows how to put volunteer work on a resume with 12 examples.
Health Fair Volunteer, Aurora Community Health Fair, Aurora, CO | 2023 - Present
- Took blood pressure readings for 150+ attendees at two annual events
9. Awards, languages and affiliations
Each of these usually adds only a line or two. If you have just one or two items, combine them under one heading such as “Additional Information.”
Additional Information: Employee of the Quarter, Contoso Family Health, 2024 | Fluent in Spanish | Member, American Association of Medical Assistants
What about an objective or references?
Most resumes no longer need an objective, because the summary does the same job better. An objective still makes sense for a first job or a major career change. References do not belong on the resume at all. Send them on a separate page when an employer asks.
What order should resume sections go in?
Put your header and summary first, then your strongest qualification for the job. For most people that is work experience. For others it is education, skills or a license.
| Career stage | Recommended section order |
|---|---|
| High school student | Header, summary, education, skills, experience (jobs, volunteering, activities), awards |
| College student or new graduate | Header, summary, education, internships and experience, projects, skills |
| Experienced professional | Header, summary, experience, skills, education, certifications |
| Career changer | Header, summary, relevant skills, experience, education and training |
| Licensed healthcare or trades worker | Header, summary, licenses and certifications, experience, skills, education |
| Executive | Header, summary, key achievements, experience, education, board roles |
| Federal job on USAJOBS | Contact information, work experience, education and certifications, optional details |
Career changers with unrelated job titles can take this further with a skills-based resume, which groups experience under skill headings.
Federal resumes follow their own structure. The Office of Personnel Management’s applicant guidance groups resume content into contact information, relevant work experience, education with any certifications or licenses, and optional details such as a security clearance, job-related training, language skills and affiliations. For each job, it asks for your title, employer, start and end dates by month and year, and hours worked per week.
How should you label resume sections?
Use plain, familiar headings. Recruiters scan for them, and applicant tracking systems use them to sort your information into the right fields.
| Use this heading | Instead of |
|---|---|
| Summary or Professional Summary | About Me, My Story |
| Experience or Work Experience | Where I Have Made an Impact |
| Skills | My Toolbox, Superpowers |
| Education | Academic Journey |
| Certifications or Licenses and Certifications | Credentials and Badges |
| Volunteer Experience | Giving Back |
Keep the heading style the same throughout: the same size, the same weight and either all caps or title case. Add a little extra space above each heading so the sections are easy to tell apart.
Which resume sections can you leave out?
Every optional section should pass one test: would it make a hiring manager more likely to call you for this job? If not, cut it.
- Hobbies and interests. Include them only if they relate to the job, such as competitive cycling for a bike shop role.
- Coursework. Useful for students, but drop it after your first job in the field.
- Every certification you have earned. Keep the ones that are current and relevant.
- Older or unrelated jobs. A short “Earlier experience” line can replace them.
- A second page of filler. One strong page beats two thin ones.