You must make certain that your resume includes important details outlining your qualifications. Your activities and credentials that make you qualified for a position can be condensed in a professional growth section. You may write a well-written section that aids employers in judging your professionalism and commitment by doing some study on how to list professional progress on a resume. In this post, we define professional development, go over why it’s crucial to highlight professional growth experiences on a resume, go over how to do so, and give some samples of professional development sections to help you write your own.
What is professional development?
Regardless of their career stage or field of work, professionals always work to improve or retain their knowledge and abilities through professional development. Professional growth comprises:
- Maintaining certifications
- Performing research projects
- Giving presentations at conferences
- Taking training courses
- Earning a membership with a professional association
- Obtaining further education through an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate degree program.
- Attending seminars
Why is it important to include professional development on your resume?
For a number of reasons, it’s crucial to mention professional development on your resume. Here are some concrete instances of how having a professional growth section on your resume might help you:
- Shows your commitment: By highlighting your enthusiasm for your job or industry of employment in your resume, you can demonstrate your dedication. Employers will see you as someone who can boost workplace productivity and keep a pleasant attitude about your job if you do this.
- Highlights relevant knowledge and abilities: Employers look for applicants who can add fresh or in-depth information to their company while examining applications. So, include information about your professional development activities on your resume can aid in promoting yourself to potential employers. Additionally, it could help companies match your abilities and skills to additional employment openings inside their organization.
- Your professional development experiences can help you stand out from other applicants by improving your employability in comparison to those who don’t list them on their resumes. This is because you provide employers with information about your potential to succeed in a job capacity at their business and eventually contribute to more senior responsibilities.
- increases the likelihood of advancing your candidacy In general, listing professional development experiences on your resume enables you to make sure that you emphasize all of your transferable skills. This further guarantees that potential employers have access to all the data they require in order to make informed decisions regarding your candidacy.
How to list professional development on a resume
You can list your experiences in professional development in a few different ways on your resume. Review this step-by-step guide to help you make your decision:
Make a list of your professional development activities
Make sure to give your professional growth section some thought before you begin by considering the experiences you can mention. Using this information, you may create a list of these experiences and decide which ones, based on the job in question, you want to mention.
Decide whether to make it, its own section or add it to your education section
You can present your experiences in professional growth in a few different ways. You can create a separate section for each of your professional development experiences if you have a variety. However, you can also include information about your professional progress in the education area. This is useful if you only have a few experiences to list or if you want to make your resume brief.
For Example, you finished a training course in business communication, presented your undergraduate research project at a conference, and took part in an international internship program over the summer. These are accomplishments that belong on a resume, but unless you wish to go into great detail, they don’t need their own section. In this case, you can therefore include these experiences in your schooling section.
Determine where to add your professional development section
If you decide to include a professional development section, there are a few places where you can do so. Both enable you to improve the resume’s flow. The first spot is located in between the sections about your education and work experience. If you have professional growth experiences from during or after college, this works effectively. Following the section on professional experience is another excellent spot to insert the section on professional development. This enables companies to check the qualifications and experiences you acquired as a result of your prior work titles.
Use reverse chronological order to list experiences and activities
Use reverse chronological order, just like you would in your professional experience and education sections when describing professional development experiences on your resume. You must list the most recent experience or action at the top of the list when using reverse chronological order. This makes your resume more standardized and makes it easier for employers to identify your most current and pertinent accomplishments.
Include necessary details like the year, location and titles
You give your CV more credibility by listing the place, year, and title of your professional development experiences. Employers can assess your experiences by using information like the name of a certification and the organization that awarded it.
Keep each bullet point around one sentence in length
Make careful to keep your professional growth experiences brief unless you intend to go into great detail about a handful of them. Employers can quickly scan through each bullet point to gain crucial information about your professional development thanks to this. Additionally, it guarantees that you only enter the pertinent information.
Examples of professional development resume sections
Whether you choose to make it a separate area on your resume or incorporate it with your education section, here are three examples of professional development sections to get you started:
Example one: Brief professional development section
An example of a brief and to-the-point professional development section is provided below:
Professional Development and Achievements:
Certified Social Media Marketing Professional | Stanford University | 2018-present
- Digital Marketing Certification | American Marketing Association (AMA) | 2018-present
- Content Marketing Certification | American Marketing Association (AMA) | 2017-present
- Member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) | 2017-present
- Presenter at Marketing in the World Conference | 2017
Example two: In-depth professional development section
Here is an illustration of an extensive professional development section to use when you want to highlight a few experiences:
Professional Development
Professional in Human Resources (PHR) |HR Certification Institute | 2019-present: a deeper understanding of HR themes through studying employee development and growth, benefits, and compensation in compliance with laws and regulations, and business management.
Associate Professional in Human Resources (APHR) | HR Certification Institute | 2017-2018: developed a thorough understanding of a range of HR topics, including compensation and benefits, HR rules and practices, hiring, onboarding, and health and safety.
Example three: Education and professional development section
Here is an example of a part that combines education with professional development:
Education and Professional Development
Education:
Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing | University of Florida | 2014-2018 |
GPA: 3.8
Professional Development:
Nursing Professional Development Certification (NPD-BC) | American Nurses Association | 2019-present
Pain Management Nursing Certification (PMGT-BC) | American Nurses Association | 2018-present
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