Career Guide · 6 min read
You did the course, passed the exam, and got the certificate — and now it sits in a drawer, or in an email folder, doing nothing for your job search. A certification only helps if the person reading your resume can see it, understand what it is, and trust that it is real. The short answer is: give certifications their own section, list the full name of each one with the body that issued it and the year you earned it, and include only the ones that matter for the job you want. That is the whole method, and it takes ten minutes.
Where the section goes
Certifications get their own heading, usually called "Certifications" — plain and obvious, because a hiring manager scanning the page should find it without thinking. It normally sits after your skills section or after your education, depending on which matters more for the role. If the job ad asks for a specific certification, put the section higher, where the reader cannot miss it. If certifications are a nice extra rather than a requirement, lower down is fine.
Do not bury certifications inside another section. A certificate listed as a bullet point under a job, or squeezed into a line of your summary, is easy to miss — and a hiring manager who is filtering for that certificate will move on to the next resume. Its own section is what makes it findable, both for human readers and for the automated systems that scan resumes for keywords.
What to include for each certification
Every entry needs three things, and only three things: the full name of the certification, the organisation that issued it, and the year you earned it. "AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, Amazon Web Services, 2025" is a complete entry. It tells the reader what you hold, who gave it to you, and how recent it is.
Use the full name, not the abbreviation on its own. "PMP" means something to project managers and nothing to anyone else; "Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute, 2024" means something to everyone. The abbreviation can stay, in brackets after the full name, because that is how the job ad probably phrases it — but the full name is what makes the entry clear.
The year matters because certifications age. A certificate from last year reads differently from one from eight years ago, and a reader who cannot see the year will assume the worst. If the certification expires and you renewed it, give the most recent year. If it is a lifetime certification with no expiry, the year still helps.
What to leave out
A certifications section is not a trophy cabinet. It is a short, targeted list, and what you leave out matters as much as what you put in.
- Leave out anything irrelevant to the job. A food hygiene certificate does not belong on an application for a software role, and a scuba qualification does not belong on an accounting resume — unless the job somehow involves it. Irrelevant entries dilute the ones that matter.
- Leave out expired certifications you have not renewed, unless the job ad specifically asks about past qualifications. An expired certificate raises a question you do not want the reader asking.
- Leave out every short online course you have ever taken. A two-hour video course is not a certification, and listing ten of them makes the real qualifications look smaller. If a course gave you a genuine, verifiable certificate from a recognised body, include it. If it gave you a completion badge, leave it out.
- Leave out anything you cannot prove. If a hiring manager asks to see the certificate and you cannot produce it, the entry does more harm than good.
In progress: how to list a certification you are still earning
If you are studying for a certification and have not taken the exam yet, you can still list it — honestly. Write the name, the issuing body, and "Expected 2026" or "In progress" instead of a year. That is truthful, and it tells the reader you are investing in the skill. What you must not do is list it as if you already hold it. Claiming a qualification you do not have is the fastest way to lose an offer, and it is the kind of thing that gets found out.
The same honesty applies to dates. If you earned a certificate in 2021, write 2021. Do not write a more recent year because it looks better. A background check will find the real date, and a wrong date looks like a lie even when it was only optimism.
Order, formatting, and the resume builder
List the most relevant certification first, not the oldest or the one you are proudest of. The reader's eye goes to the top of the section, so the top entry should be the one the job ad asks for. If two are equally relevant, put the most recent first.
Keep the formatting simple: one line per certification, no paragraphs, no long descriptions. Nobody needs a sentence explaining what the certificate is — the name and the issuing body say it. If a certification is unusual and the reader might not recognise it, one short phrase is enough, such as "for cloud architecture" — not a paragraph.
If you are building the resume in a resume builder, add the certifications in the builder's certifications section rather than typing them into a text box. The builder will format them consistently, keep them in the right order, and make sure they appear in the version the hiring system reads. A certification typed into a free-text box can end up in the wrong place, or in a format the automated reader cannot parse.
The short version
Own section, full name, issuing body, year. Most relevant first. Only the ones that matter for the job. In-progress is fine if you say so honestly. That is all a certifications section needs to be.
FAQs:
- Where do certifications go on a resume?
In their own section, usually called "Certifications," placed after your skills or education — higher up if the job ad asks for a specific one. Do not bury them inside another section, where a hiring manager or an automated system can miss them.
- What information should I include for each certification?
The full name, the organisation that issued it, and the year you earned it. Use the full name with the abbreviation in brackets, for example "Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute, 2024."
- Should I list a certification I am still studying for?
Yes, honestly. Write the name, the issuing body, and "Expected 2026" or "In progress." Do not list it as if you already hold it — claiming a qualification you do not have can cost you the offer.
- Should I list expired certifications?
Usually no. An expired certificate you have not renewed raises questions. Leave it out unless the job ad specifically asks about past qualifications, or the certification shows relevant experience even though it has lapsed.
- How many certifications should I list?
Only the ones relevant to the job — usually three to five at most. A long list of unrelated certificates dilutes the ones that matter, and a hiring manager will stop reading before they reach the important ones.
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