Resume Sections: What to Include

The ResumeWizard Team · August 2, 2026 · 7 min read

Recruiters and parsing software both read a resume by section. When the sections are the expected ones, in the expected order, both readers find what they need in seconds; when sections are missing or renamed, information silently disappears. Here is what to include, what order to use, and what earns space only sometimes.

Which sections does every resume need?

Five sections are non-negotiable for almost every applicant:

• Contact information — name, phone, email, city, and a LinkedIn or portfolio link.
• Summary — two to three lines stating your title, experience, and strongest proof point.
• Work experience — reverse-chronological roles with quantified achievement bullets.
• Skills — eight to twelve hard skills matched to the job description's wording.
• Education — degree, institution, and graduation year, one line per credential.

Use standard headings — 'Experience', 'Skills', 'Education' — rather than creative labels like 'Where I've Made an Impact'. Applicant tracking systems map content into fields by heading, and a heading the parser does not recognize can orphan an entire section.

What order should resume sections go in?

With work history: contact, summary, experience, skills, education. The logic is simple — the further down the page, the less it gets read, so your strongest material goes highest. Students and recent graduates flip experience and education, and can slot a projects section directly under the summary when projects are their best evidence. A candidate with ten years in sales leads with the sales record; a graduating CS student leads with the degree and a shipped app.

What goes in each section?

Contact information

Name as the largest text on the page, then phone, a professional email, city and state (full street addresses went out with mailed applications), and one link that is actually current. Place it all in the document body — some parsers skip the file's header/footer region.

Summary

Three lines maximum: who you are, how long you have done it, what you are best at, and one number that proves it. A separate guide here covers summary versus objective in depth.

Work experience

Company, title, location, dates, then bullets that pair an action with a measured result — 'reduced ticket backlog 60% in one quarter' rather than 'handled support tickets'.

Skills

Hard skills only, as a plain list the parser can read — no rating bars or star graphics. Write the forms the posting uses: 'SQL', but also 'PostgreSQL' if the job names it specifically.

Education

Degree, school, year. Add a GPA only if you are within a few years of graduating and it is 3.5 or above.

Which optional sections are worth adding?

• Projects — the strongest optional section for developers, designers, and anyone early in a career; include the outcome ('open-source CLI with 1,200 GitHub stars'), not just the stack.
• Certifications — include whenever the posting names one (AWS, PMP, CPA); these are often literal screening keywords.
• Languages — list with proficiency levels when the role touches other markets; skip them for a monolingual role.
• Volunteer work — treat it like a job if it produced real results or fills a gap in the timeline.

The test for any optional section: does it add evidence for this application? A 'Hobbies: reading, travel' line fails that test; a marathon-running line on an application to an endurance-sports company passes it.

What should you leave out?

• 'References available upon request' — recruiters assume it; the line only spends space.
• Photos, date of birth, and marital status — bias risks that many US employers deliberately set aside or discard.
• An objective statement — unless you are changing careers or writing a first resume.
• Graphics, skill meters, and multi-column layouts that scramble in parsing.
• Any section you would be padding — a one-item 'Awards' section reads worse than none.

Structure is the easiest part of a resume to get right, because the answer is nearly the same for everyone. ResumeWizard's templates ship with these sections in this order, under headings parsers recognize — which leaves the content as the only real work.

Frequently asked questions

Should you list references on a resume?

No. Employers ask for references at the offer or final-interview stage, so a references section — or the line 'references available upon request' — spends prime resume space on information nobody needs yet. Keep a separate document with three or four references and their contact details, and send it only when a company requests it.

Do hobbies belong on a resume?

Usually not. A hobbies section earns space only when it supplies real evidence for the specific job — coaching a youth team for a leadership-heavy role, building game mods for a games studio. Generic interests like reading or travel tell a recruiter nothing and push more useful content down the page. When in doubt, cut it.

Should education go before or after work experience?

Education goes after experience once you have held a relevant professional job — your work record is stronger evidence than your degree. Students and graduates within about a year of finishing put education first, since it is their most substantial credential. Whichever position it takes, keep it brief: degree, institution, and year on one line each.

Can a resume skip the skills section?

It can, but it rarely should. A dedicated skills section is where applicant tracking systems and skimming recruiters look first for tools, languages, and platforms, and it is the easiest place to mirror a job description's exact wording. If every required skill already appears naturally in your bullets you will still parse, but you make both readers work harder.