Resume Sections: What to Include and in What Order

A resume is only as good as its structure. Recruiters scan for familiar sections in a predictable order, and an ATS relies on standard headings to sort your details into the right fields. Get the sections and their order right and your resume reads cleanly to both — get them wrong and even strong experience can be missed.

The essential sections

Almost every resume needs these, and they form the backbone an ATS expects:

• Header — your name and contact details (email, phone, city, and relevant links like LinkedIn). Keep these in the body, not a header/footer an ATS might skip.
• Professional summary — two or three lines stating who you are, your strengths, and the value you bring to the target role.
• Work experience — your roles in reverse-chronological order, each with title, company, dates, and quantified achievements.
• Education — your degrees and institutions, with dates.
• Skills — the tools, technologies, and competencies relevant to the job, in plain text.

Optional sections — add only if they help

These strengthen specific resumes but should earn their place; don't add them just to fill space:

• Projects — valuable for students, freshers, developers, and anyone whose work isn't captured by job titles alone.
• Certifications — relevant credentials and licences (PMP, AWS, CFA, and the like).
• Achievements or awards — notable, verifiable recognition.
• Publications, volunteering, or languages — when they're relevant to the role or industry.

The recommended order

For most people, reverse-chronological order works best: contact header, summary, then the section that makes your strongest case first. If your experience is your selling point, lead with it after the summary. If you're a student or career changer, projects and skills can come before a thin work history.

1. Header (name + contact)
2. Professional summary
3. Skills (or place after experience — keep it high if the role is skills-led)
4. Work experience
5. Education (higher up for freshers; lower for experienced professionals)
6. Optional sections — projects, certifications, achievements

Use standard headings

Whatever you include, label it with the conventional name — "Work Experience," "Education," "Skills," "Summary" — not creative alternatives. Parsers look for these exact cues to know where each section begins, and recruiters scan for them out of habit. A clever heading can quietly cost you the section.

What to leave out

Drop sections that add no value and can date or clutter your resume: a photo, date of birth, marital status, full home address, and "references available on request." They take up prime space and, on older templates, can interfere with parsing.

Build it section by section

ResumeShortlisted guides you through each section in a sensible order with ATS-safe headings, so your structure is correct by default. The AI then helps fill the high-value parts — a focused summary and quantified experience bullets — while the ATS score flags anything missing before you apply.