How To Add Course Certificate To Resume

How to List Certifications on Your Resume: Guide + Examples

Written by Coursera • Updated on Apr 29, 2022

Achieve your career goals with the aid of certifications. Find out how to include them on your resume today.

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A professional person certificate on your resume emphasizes to potential employers the work you accept washed to acquire in-demand skills. Equally a result, highlighting your professional person certificates on your resume tin be a proficient way to demonstrate how prepared yous are for your next task.

In this article, yous will learn how to put certificates on your resume, where else they should go on your application materials, and why you might desire to consider getting a professional document to meet your career goals.

Resume certifications: affect and when to use them

Your certifications can have a big impact on your chore search. In this section, you volition acquire the tangible benefits of having a certification on your resume and when to highlight them.

Impact of certifications on your resume

Certification can potentially increment your pay and improve your chances of being employed.

Co-ordinate to the Bureau of labor statistics (BLS), the median weekly wage in 2020 for people with certifications was higher than both those with licenses and those lacking whatever professional person credentials altogether. Here'south a wait at the data [1]:

	Median weekly wage
With a certification, but non license	$1,307
With a license	$ane,177
Without a certification or license	$913

In another study, the BLS constitute that those with certifications or licenses had lower unemployment rates than those without either. Every bit the nautical chart below illustrates, people with a certification or license faced unemployment rates almost half that of those without those credentials [ii].

	Unemployment rate
With a certification or license	iv.7 percent
Without a certification or license	nine.1 percentage

As these figures and statistics show, a certification can be a worthwhile investment to accelerate your career and job prospects.

When to highlight certifications on your resume

In that location are many good reasons to include a certification on your resume. But, depending on the job, not all certifications should exist put on the resume you send a potential employer.

Some of the virtually common reasons to include a certification on you resume are:

1. The chore requires it

If the job to which y'all are applying requires a specific certification, so you should make sure to include it on your resume. To find out if an employer only wants applicants with a specific certification, carefully read the job description for any requirements.

two. It'south relevant to the job

If you possess a certification that isn't required by the job but is all the same relevant to it, so yous should make certain to include it on your resume. That said, make certain to but include those certifications and licenses that actually relate to the job. Including irrelevant qualifications could obscure those that actually prepare yous for the position and unnecessarily ataxia your resume.

3. You lack relevant work experience

If you are applying for a job or manufacture in which you have no prior experience, then a relevant certification tin can help emphasize your preparedness for the role. This strategy is especially helpful for career switchers and those just entering the task market place.

Read more: How to Get a Task with No Experience: A Task Seeker'due south Guide

4. It'due south an achievement

If the certification is a rare accomplishment in your industry, then putting information technology on your resume can be a good way to depict attention to your dedication to the field and whatever special training you have completed. Typically, this scenario but applies to those who have many years of feel in the industry.

Read more: What Are Certificate Programs?

How to list certifications on your resume

The format of a certification on your resume is relatively straightforward. Generally, there are 5 key parts of a certification on your resume. They are:

i. Title: the official name of the certification.

2. Awarding institution: the name of the professional person or educational organization through which you acquired your certification or license.

3. The appointment it was awarded: the date that yous completed the requirements to attain the certification. If the certification is in progress, and so you simply put "In progress."

iv. The certification's expiration date: the date that the certification stops beingness recognized. Many awarding institutions offering the opportunity to extend your certification through additional training.

5. Relevant skills: the skills yous honed and acquired through the certification program. The skills you lot emphasize should be those relevant to the position you are applying to.

Example and template

In practise, each of the five parts is laid out as follows in the template and example below. When list relevant certifications or licenses, make sure to social club them in opposite chronological society with the about recent ahead of the oldest.

Template	Example
Certification name	CPR certification
Awarding institution, Date	American Cherry-red Cross, February 2022
Expires: Date	Expires: February 2024
Relevant skills: Skills listing	Relevant skills: AED, CPR

Where to put certifications on resume

At that place are several places y'all tin put your qualification resume. In this section, you volition learn the nearly common – and strategic – places on your resume and job awarding to put your certifications.

1. In a "certifications and licenses" section

The first place yous should highlight your certificate is in a defended certification section on your resume.

This section can be added either nether the "education" section or the "skills" section of your resume, depending on how information technology is formatted. A common name for this section is "certifications and licenses" but yous can also simply call it "certifications" or "licenses" depending on the qualifications you possess.

In this section, make sure to only add together certifications and licenses relevant to the position, so hiring managers tin easily find them. While you might possess numerous qualifications from numerous fields, the most of import certifications are the certifications relevant to the job. This may require tailoring your resume for each chore application.

ii. Alongside your name

Some certifications and licenses include a common abbreviation that is well-accustomed and understood in a professional community, such as CCRN for "Critical Care Registered Nurse" in the health care profession. If your certification falls under this category, and so it is wise to add the abbreviation next to your name in the contact information section of your resume. This allows hiring managers to chop-chop see the relevant certifications you lot possess.

Instance

Melinda Stamets, CCRN, RN

m: (555) 555-5555

e: m.stamets@nurses.org

3. In your resume summary

In the professional summary department of your resume, it is helpful to include relevant certifications to re-emphasize your credentials. This non only helps hiring managers come across that you lot possess the required training for the job, but it likewise can aid automated systems that scan your resume to identify you as someone with the required qualifications.

Instance

"CCRN certified nurse with 6+ years of professional feel supporting hospital assistants and critically ill patients in ICU and critical care send."

four. In your cover letter

The terminal place in your job application that you should reference your certifications and licenses is on your cover letter of the alphabet. This can exist a good way to flag your credentials right away in your job application and expand on how you have employed those skills in your professional life. At the same time, it can too potentially assistance your resume more easily match with the automated systems that browse resumes for specific keywords.

Example

"As a CCRN certified nurse, I accept over six years experience working alongside administrators and other health care providers in intensive care units to ensure critically ill patients get the aid they need…"

Add Coursera professional certificates to your resume

A relevant certification has the potential to ameliorate your job prospects. As you are thinking well-nigh your next large career shift, y'all might consider obtaining a professional certificate through Coursera.

Offered by such globe-grade partners equally Google, IBM, and Meta, Coursera'due south flexible, online professional person certificates can help you get task-ready for such in-demand careers every bit project manager or information analyst.

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Article sources

1. BLS. "Median weekly earnings of full-time wage and bacon workers by certification and licensing status and selected characteristics, 2020 annual averages, https://www.bls.gov/cps/aa2020/cpsaat54.pdf." Accessed February 24, 2022.

2. BLS. "Employment condition of the civilian noninstitutional population by certification and licensing status and selected characteristics, 2020 almanac averages, https://www.bls.gov/cps/aa2020/cpsaat50.pdf." Accessed February 24, 2022.

Written past Coursera • Updated on April 29, 2022

This content has been fabricated available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to behave additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional person, and financial goals.