How to list certifications on your résumé (and which ones to leave off)
When I changed industries, I did what a lot of career-changers do: I signed up for night classes. A cybersecurity specialization. A data science program. I was working full time, so it was nights and weekends, and I finished them.
Then I put every one of them on my résumé, and I gave them the same weight as my jobs. That was a mistake. It took me a while to see it, because the certificates were real work. They just weren't the kind of proof I was treating them as.
If you're sitting on a few certifications and wondering how to list them, here's how I'd do it now.
First, what a certification is doing on your résumé
A hiring manager skimming your page is asking two questions. Can this person do the job? And is there anything that gets them screened out before we even talk?
A certification answers the second question well and the first one only partly. It says you studied something and passed a test. It doesn't say you've used it on a real problem. So the job of the certifications section is simple: clear the checkbox, then get out of the way of your experience.
That's also why the order matters. Unless the certification is required to do the job (a nursing license, a CPA, a forklift ticket), it goes below your experience, not above it.
Where it goes
You have two honest options.
A separate "Certifications" section. Put it after Experience and before or after Education. This is the default, and it works for almost everyone. It's easy to scan, and it gives an ATS a clean heading to read.
Next to your name or in your headline. Only when the credential is a gate for the role. If the posting says "PMP required" and you have it, "PMP" after your name is fine. If it's a nice-to-have, keep it in the section.
If you have only one certification, you can fold it into Education and skip the extra heading. Two or more, give them their own.
What to write for each one
Keep every line the same shape so it scans fast:
- The full name of the certification, spelled the way the issuer spells it
- The issuing organization
- The year you earned it (and the expiry year if it expires)
For example:
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Amazon Web Services, 2025 Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute, 2023 (renews 2026)
Two small habits help. Spell out the name in full at least once before you use an acronym, because a recruiter searching for "Project Management Professional" and an ATS looking for "PMP" both need to find you. And use the same date format everywhere on the page.
The questions people actually ask
Should I list a certification that's in progress? Yes, if it's relevant and you're really working on it. Write it plainly: "Google Data Analytics Certificate (in progress, expected March 2027)." Don't leave the date off, and don't list it if you haven't started. An in-progress line is a promise, and someone may ask about it in the interview.
What about an expired one? If it's a license or a credential the job requires, an expired line hurts you. Either renew it or leave it off. If it's an older certification that still shows relevant knowledge, you can keep it and be honest with the date. Just don't leave the year off to hide that it lapsed.
How many is too many? There's no magic number. There is a magic test: would you be comfortable being asked about it for ten minutes? If yes, keep it. If you'd be bluffing, cut it.
Do course completions count? A certificate of completion from an online course is not the same as a proctored certification. Both are fine to have. But a page with eight completion badges and no job-relevant experience reads as padding. Pick the two or three that match the job you're applying for.
What to leave off
Here's my cut list:
- Anything unrelated to the job. A first-aid card doesn't belong on an accounting résumé. It costs you a line and tells the reader nothing.
- Anything more than about ten years old in a field that moves fast, unless the job specifically asks for it.
- Entry-level badges when you hold something higher in the same track. List the highest one.
- Courses you can't talk about. If you clicked through videos and can't explain what you learned, it's not proof of anything, and an interviewer will find out fast.
The career-changer version
If you're moving into a new field, certifications are useful, but be honest about what they are. They're evidence that you took the switch seriously. They aren't a job.
That means they should never sit in your experience section or get written up like a role. Coursework I took at night while working full time is study. It goes under Certifications or Education, with a line for a real project you built using it if you have one. The project is the thing that answers "can they do it." The certificate is the thing that says you committed.
I got this backwards for a long time. What changed things was moving the certificates down and putting one concrete thing I'd built, with a number attached, in their place.
Match them to the posting
Read the job description and note which certifications it names. If you hold one, use the posting's wording for it. If the job names three and you have two, list the two and don't stretch. One tool that can help is ResumAI's ATS check, which compares a posting's exact terms to your résumé and shows what's missing, so a credential you already hold doesn't get overlooked because you named it differently. It won't add a certification you don't have, and it shouldn't.
The one thing to do today
Open your résumé and count how many certifications are on it. Pick the two or three that match the job you want next, put them in one section below your experience with the name, issuer and year on each line, and cut the rest. If one of the ones you cut still matters to you, that's what your LinkedIn profile is for.