How to list certifications on a resume

Include a certification if it passes at least one of these tests, and preferably two:

1. The job post asks for it, as required or preferred. Always list these, and use the post's exact name.
2. It is relevant to the work, even if not requested: a Google Ads certificate for a marketing role, BLS for a nurse.
3. It comes from a recognized body: a professional institute, a major vendor (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, Cisco) or a university.
4. It is recent or still valid. Technology certifications more than five years old, or expired ones, carry less weight.

Leave out certificates of participation, short webinars, and courses unrelated to the job. Five strong lines are better than fifteen mixed ones, because the reader will judge the list by its weakest entries.

Each certification needs the same pieces, in the same order:

• Full name of the certification, written as the issuer writes it. Add the common abbreviation in brackets if there is one.
• Issuing organization.
• Date earned (month and year, or just the year).
• Expiry date, if it expires.
• Credential ID or verification link (optional): useful for vendor certifications that can be checked online.

Keep each entry to one line. If you need to explain what a certification involved, it probably isn't well known enough to help; let the name speak or leave it out.

Applicant tracking systems and recruiters search for both the full name and the abbreviation. Writing “Project Management Professional (PMP)” once covers both searches.

Most resumes should have a separate section called Certifications (or Certifications and Licenses), placed after experience and education. That is where recruiters expect to find them and where an applicant tracking system looks.

Move them higher, or mention them twice, when they are central to the job:

• Required for the job: mention the certification in your headline or summary as well as in the section. “PMP-certified project manager with 9 years…”
• Your main qualification for a career change: put the Certifications section directly after your summary.
• New graduates with few other credentials: certifications can go after education and before projects, if they are strong.

Our resume headline examples show how to fit a certification into the line under your name, and the project manager resume example shows a complete page.

In progress

You can list a certification you are working towards if you have a real date for the exam or completion. Say so clearly; never let it look finished.

Multi-level qualifications

For qualifications taken in stages, show the stage you have passed: “CFA Level II candidate (Level I passed, 2025)” or “CA Intermediate, both groups cleared, 2024”. Professional qualifications like CA, CS and CMA usually sit in Education rather than Certifications; our guide on how to list education on a resume covers them.

Expired

Leave expired certifications off unless the knowledge is still relevant and the job values it. If you include one, show the years honestly (“ITIL Foundation, 2018”) and don't imply it is current.

A license is a legal permission to work in a profession: a nursing registration, a pharmacy license, a driving license for a delivery role, a medical council registration. A certification shows you passed a course or exam, but doesn't usually control whether you can legally do the job.

If a license is required for the job, make it impossible to miss: put it in your summary and in a section called “Licenses and Certifications”, with the registering body, the registration number if it is customary in your field, and the expiry.

The registered nurse resume example shows how licenses sit alongside clinical experience.

Platforms like Coursera, NPTEL, edX, Udemy and LinkedIn Learning have made certificates easy to collect, so recruiters weigh them by what they involved. Include an online course if:

• It is a structured program with graded assessments or a final project, not a short video series.
• It comes from a university, a recognized company or a well-known platform program (for example the Google Career Certificates or NPTEL courses with a proctored exam).
• It fills a gap the job cares about, especially for new graduates and career changers.

For new graduates, one or two strong courses with a project are worth more than ten short ones. Mention the project in your Projects section too: what you built is better evidence than the certificate itself.

For full resumes built around certifications like these, see the digital marketing specialist, Salesforce developer and DevOps engineer examples.

• Listing everything. Unrelated and minor certificates dilute the strong ones.
• Vague names: “Cloud certification” or “Google course”. Use the official title so it can be recognized and checked.
• Implying an in-progress certification is complete. It will come up in a background check or the first technical question.
• No dates. In fast-moving fields, a reader wants to know if your certification is from this year or a decade ago.
• Certifications with no supporting experience. If you list a skill-based certification, make sure a project or bullet shows you using the skill.

Certifications also strengthen your skills section; our guide to skills to put on a resume shows how the two work together. Once your list is done, check the whole resume against a job post with the free ATS checker, and add your key certification to your LinkedIn headline with the free LinkedIn headline generator.