What to include on a resume

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I’ve been in my current job for 6 years, and it’s time for me to do some job hunting. I haven’t even looked at my Resume for all of that time, so it obviously needs a good rewrite. And I would like some independent ideas/thoughts on one aspect of it .

That is around the education details. I have ~20 years experience in the Banking & Finance industry, and got my start as a teller in a branch after dropping out of university at the time (A few different reasons that aren’t really relevant). I have never in the intervening years gone back to further study. It hasn’t really affected my career to date (that I’m aware off anyway).

So when it comes to my resume I can’t list a degree or similar under an ‘Education’ heading. Which option do you think would be most appropriate or morel likely to avoid having my resume binned out of hand?

  • Leave out an ‘Education’ heading completely, (will probably lead to some questions if I get to interview, but I flatter myself that I interview fairly well and can talk around it)
  • Leave the heading in and list some of the formal training courses I have completed in the last few years,
  • Call out my lack of a degree (my least likely option IMO but here for completeness)

What say you?

2

If the formal training is relevant to the particular job you are seeking I’d include it. Otherwise I’d go for option A.

3

I wouldn’t exclude education as the glaring whole would be a red flag for me. I’d list your training courses. Also, I presume you have school qualifications? I’m not from the US but in my country, you would have needed decent school qualifications to get into university in the first place and those would count under the education heading.

4

It would seem very strange to me for some over, say, 23 to put anything about high school on a resume.

I’d leave it out. College is really useful, but anyone who thinks a college degree is really necessary for most white-collar jobs is either in HR or a snob. (I think college builds a specific set of skills fast and well, but I don’t think it’s the only way to build them.)

5

Nowadays, most employers only want your work history for the past 10 years. Go from there.

6

You’re going to be admitting this on the application anyway. Just say you were enrolled in X program at Y college for Z years.

7

I built a master resume file that I could cut and paste from, with all the information that would have made up a 7 page resume if used all together, Then I would “custom build” a resume for each job, with a little tweaking. Be SURE to bring a copy of the specific resume with you to the interview, so you and the interviewer are literally on the same page.,…

8

I work in the finance industry and am involved in quite a bit of recruitment and assessment of resumes. I suggest you go with the second option and list the formal training courses that you have completed in the last 2-3 years.

9

True story: I knew a guy who truthfully put “Co-Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize” on his. He was a member of the UN Peace-Keeping Forces at the time they won it in 1988, so on the resume it went. It seemed to get his foot in some doors.

10

Hey, I was TIME’s Person of the Year in 2006. I’m putting that on my LinkedIn profile. :slight_smile:

11

To my mind, education isn’t merely formal education (ie, high school matriculation,college degree) but also any courses you may have had over the duration of your work history. Assuming they are current (or just lapsed)I would throw in WHMIS, First Aid, computer courses, or anything else that ran longer than a day and you got training in. Since some of this might spill over into qualifications it may be worth your while to slash the heading as Education/Qualifications. For example, I am qualified/educated in WHMIS, FA, ICND1, H2S Alive, Safe Backing , Defensive Driving, C.Tech in electronics, and a B.Sc . I would include what all those acronyms are unless the prospective employer knows clearly what they are just to be safe…