Having the basic information in your resume – education, work experience, and skills – is a great start. But adding extra sections with additional information can support your qualifications and reinforce your achievements by taking your application document to the whole new level.
“Your application needs to demonstrate that you have the necessary education, skills, as well as experience to land the job,” states Sherri Thomas, executive director at Career Coaching 360. “However, building your personal brand by adding extra sections to your resume can offer more to the prospective employers than your competitors and win you a job.”
Below are the most popular sections with additional information you may put on your document. Don’t stuff your resume with all the possible details and information but choose wisely which sections can showcase your strengths and are more relevant to your profession.
Awards and Honors
Including honors and awards to your application document can show potential recruiters that you’ve been previously recognized by other recruiters for your work ethic and skills. Seeing that other companies valued your achievements adds you extra points in the eyes of the recruiter and can easily outshine the competition.
Here is how to structure the award section right.
Don’t just mention all your awards in one sentence. Of course, if you have only one or two of them, it’s better to add this information right in the work experience section together with a company where you’ve obtained this award. But having multiple honors and awards, make sure to separate them in a specific paragraph and give background information with a quick explanation of each award.
Affiliations
Also, it’s a good idea to include professional memberships that are relevant to your profession. Reading professional affiliations resume tips can help you understand how to name companies where you’ve worked as keywords so that HR managers can find you while searching for applicants in their databases.
If you’ve taken part in any volunteer organizations, communities, and groups, make sure to add these details to your professional memberships section of the resume.
On the other hand, volunteering experience can also be included in a separate paragraph in case you want to highlight this relevant information and bring more attention to it. Then it can be mentioned in the career highlights section on your application document.
Remember to mention the company name, its location, and how many months or years you’ve been involved. Furthermore, in case you’ve been a volunteer during your unemployment, make sure to list this information in the work experience section. It doesn’t matter if you were paid or not as long as you’ve gained new experience and helped other people.
Publications
Need another great way to make your application stand out? Career-related blog posts, books, articles, and other publications can play an important role in making your resume more attractive for recruiters.
This is a wonderful chance to market yourself and showcase that you are a professional in your field. Include all the published content in the career highlights section (self-published materials are also welcome as they demonstrate great written communication skills.)
Great verbal communication skills are also significant and are valued by many recruiters out there. So, include any speaking engagements and verbal presentations you’ve made if you feel they are relevant for the positions you’re applying. Mention where and when you’ve made the presentation as well as its topic.
Hobbies
This is a tricky section and career coaches recommend adding only those hobbies that are interesting and relevant to your field. If you are sure this additional paragraph can help potential recruiters see you as a perfect candidate, then go ahead and include it in your application.
Languages
The world economy is constantly changing and developing with recruiters opening new offices around the globe. So, it’s important to know how to communicate with foreign partners. If you can speak foreign languages fluently, don’t hesitate to mention it on your resume.
More and more people are raised in multicultural environments and become bilingual or even multilingual. Take advantage of your benefits and outshine the competitors by including the information about languages in your application document.
Which Sections Should I Include?
The most crucial question is whether you really need to include all of this additional information on your resume. In reality, you need to select those sections that make your application unique and best reflect your professionalism. The last two sections can mostly be used for recent graduates who don’t have any past work experience or awards.
In other words, use these tips to choose and add extra sections that make your application stand out and can help you grab the recruiters’ attention.
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