CV and Resume Sections: All 13 Sections Explained

This free CV and resume builder includes all 13 sections: work experience, education, skills, projects, certifications, publications, volunteering, and more. Empty sections are hidden from your PDF automatically. Every section is free.

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13 CV and resume sections in the editor
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How to manage CV and resume sections in a free online builder

The CV builder shows you every available section from the start. Fill in the ones that match your profile and leave the others blank. Any empty section disappears automatically from your final PDF, and the layout adjusts in real time. You can reorder sections using the arrows on the preview to lead with what matters most for the role you are targeting. Every section is included free with no upgrade required.

  • Add a CV or resume section with one click
  • Leave a section empty and it will not appear in your PDF
  • Reorder sections on the preview to match your application
  • All 13 sections included free
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Managing CV and resume sections in a free online CV builder

All CV and resume sections in this free online builder

Here is what each of the 13 CV and resume sections contains, who it is most useful for, and how to get the most from it.

Personal, Contact and Summary

These three sections are the first thing a recruiter reads. Personal holds your name, job title, and optional photo. Contact holds your email, phone, location, LinkedIn, and website. Summary is a three to four line paragraph that captures your profile, key strengths, and what you bring to the role. Target it at the specific position — a generic summary adds nothing. For entry-level candidates, a strong summary compensates for a short work history. For senior candidates, it anchors expertise and seniority immediately. Photo conventions vary by market: it is not recommended for most US and UK applications.

  • Personal: name, job title, and photo (optional)
  • Contact: email, phone, location, LinkedIn, and website
  • Summary: 3 to 4 lines targeted at the specific role
Personal, contact and summary sections in a free CV builder

Work Experience

Work experience is the most-read section on any CV or resume. The resume builder automatically sorts your entries from most recent to oldest, so you can add them in any order and the PDF always comes out correctly structured. For each role, include your title, company name, dates, and two to four bullet points covering your responsibilities and results. Quantify your impact wherever you can. Internships, freelance projects, and voluntary work all belong here if your professional history is still short.

  • Auto reverse-chronological order in the PDF
  • Quantified results wherever possible
  • Internships, freelance projects, and voluntary roles all count
Work experience section in an online resume builder

Education

List your degrees, institutions, and graduation years. For students, recent graduates, and career changers, this section takes a central position and can include your grade, relevant modules, and academic projects. For candidates with ten or more years of experience, education stays on the CV but moves below work experience. In this CV creator, you reorder sections with the arrows on the preview, so adjusting the structure for different applications takes seconds.

  • Degree, institution, and graduation year
  • Grade, relevant modules, and academic projects for student profiles
  • Reorder above or below work experience with one click
Education section in a free CV and resume builder

Skills

The skills section is critical for passing the ATS filters that most large employers use to screen applications before a human reads them. List your hard skills (tools, software, programming languages, platforms) and soft skills separately. Mirror the exact keywords used in the job posting — if the description says "Excel" and not "spreadsheets", write "Excel". For technical and engineering profiles, organising skills into clear categories makes the section much easier for recruiters to scan.

  • Hard skills and soft skills clearly separated
  • Use exact keywords from the job posting to pass ATS filters
  • Group by category for technical and engineering profiles
Skills section optimised for ATS in an online resume builder

Languages

State each language you speak and your level of proficiency. You can use plain descriptors (basic, conversational, fluent, bilingual, native) or the CEFR scale (A1 to C2). This section carries significant weight for international roles, positions at multinational companies, and any job that involves cross-border communication. The CV builder automatically translates section labels into more than 30 languages, so if you are applying in another country, your headings adapt without any manual editing.

  • Clear proficiency level for every language listed
  • Essential for international roles and multinational employers
  • Section labels auto-translate into 30+ languages
Languages section in a free CV and resume creator

Projects

The projects section is the strongest tool available to developers, designers, students, and career changers who want to show what they can actually do. For each project, describe the context, the technologies or methods used, your specific contribution, and the outcome. Add links to GitHub repositories, a portfolio, or a live demo. A well-documented list of projects can more than compensate for a short work history, particularly for junior technical profiles.

  • Personal, academic, and professional projects all qualify
  • Technologies, tools, and measurable outcomes
  • Link to GitHub, portfolio, or live demo where available
Projects section in a free CV builder for developers and students

Courses & Training

This section is separate from your formal education. It is for ongoing and recent learning: MOOCs, bootcamps, internal company training, industry workshops, and online certifications. It is especially useful when you want to demonstrate recent upskilling in a new area or signal that a career change is already underway. A course completed in the last one to two years carries more weight here than listing a course from a decade ago.

  • Course name, provider, and completion date
  • MOOCs, bootcamps, workshops, and internal training
  • Shows recent upskilling or an in-progress career pivot
Courses & Training section in a free CV and resume builder

Licenses & Certifications

Industry-recognised certifications stand out in technical, financial, and project management roles. AWS, Google Cloud, PMP, CFA, and Salesforce certifications are all examples that attract immediate attention from specialist recruiters. This section also covers professional licences: driving licences, regulated trade qualifications, and compliance certifications required in certain industries. Include the certification name, issuing body, date obtained, and a verification link or number where one exists.

  • Certification name, issuing body, and date obtained
  • Verification link or licence number where applicable
  • Professional licences and regulated credentials
Licenses & Certifications section in an online CV builder

Awards & Achievements

This section is for candidates who have something concrete to prove beyond their job title: a prize, a formal distinction, a sales record, or internal recognition for outstanding performance. One well-written line with clear context and measurable impact often communicates more than a full paragraph of work experience. It is especially effective for senior profiles, commercial roles, and candidates who have been recognised in competitive environments.

  • Award or recognition, organisation, and date
  • Brief context: what it was for, how many candidates, what it represented
  • Particularly strong on senior, sales, and competitive profiles
Awards & Achievements section in a free resume builder

Volunteering

Volunteering is consistently underused on CVs. For students, graduates, and career changers, it demonstrates real, transferable skills developed outside paid employment: team leadership, communication, fundraising, event organisation. For any profile, it gives recruiters a clear signal about your values and how you spend your time beyond work. Some hiring managers weight a meaningful volunteer role as highly as a paid position if the responsibilities are relevant.

  • Organisation, role, dates, and main responsibilities
  • Skills developed and impact delivered
  • Particularly valuable for students and career changers
Volunteering section in a free CV and resume builder

Publications

The publications section is essential for researchers, PhD candidates, lecturers, R&D engineers, and journalists. List your journal articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and theses. For academic and research positions, the publications list is frequently the primary evaluation criterion. Include the title, journal or publisher, date, co-authors where relevant, and a DOI or direct link to make verification straightforward.

  • Journal articles, conference papers, books, theses, and book chapters
  • Title, publication, date, and co-authors
  • DOI or direct link for verification
Publications section for academic CVs and resumes

Professional Memberships

In regulated and licensed professions, membership of a professional body is either mandatory or carries significant weight. This applies to solicitors and barristers (bar associations), doctors (medical councils), architects, chartered accountants, and certain branches of engineering. Include the organisation name, your membership type, and the date you were admitted. Even in professions where membership is not required, active involvement in a professional association can strengthen your credibility.

  • Professional body, association, or regulatory council
  • Membership type and date of admission
  • Required in regulated professions and valuable in many others
Professional memberships section in an online CV creator

References

References are standard practice in UK, US, and most international job markets. You list people who can vouch for the quality of your work: former managers, senior colleagues, or clients. For each reference, include their name, job title, organisation, and contact details. If you prefer not to list names directly, writing "References available on request" is widely accepted. This free resume builder lets you customise this section to match the conventions of the market you are applying in.

  • Name, job title, organisation, and contact details
  • "Available on request" is widely accepted
  • Standard practice in UK, US, and international applications
References section in an online resume builder
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Which CV or resume sections to use for your profile

There is no universal CV or resume structure. The right sections depend on where you are in your career and what the role requires. Here is a practical guide by profile.

First CV/resume or entry-level candidate

Start with personal information, a short professional summary, education, skills, and languages. If you have internships or projects, add those sections too. Any section you leave empty will not appear in your PDF, so there is no need to worry about gaps.

See a junior developer CV example

Student and recent graduate

Put education first, then skills, languages, projects, and volunteering. Highlight academic projects, dissertation work, student societies, and any work placements. A focused professional summary is more effective than leaving that space blank.

Developer and technical profile

Make skills your centrepiece with a detailed tech stack, frameworks, and tools. Follow with projects that link to GitHub or a portfolio, then certifications and work experience. Recruiters in tech often read the skills section before the work history.

See a web developer CV example

Engineer and scientist

Work experience, education, technical skills, and certifications form the core structure. For R&D profiles, add publications. Professional memberships are worth including if you hold a chartered or licensed status in your field.

See a mechanical engineer CV example

Researcher, academic, and teacher

Give publications a prominent position. Follow with education (PhD, postdoc, HDR), teaching and research experience, professional memberships, and awards or distinctions. This structure is standard for academic job applications and funding bids.

See a teacher CV example

Senior and executive profile

Lead with a strong professional summary that defines your positioning and seniority. Follow with detailed work experience including quantified results, then key certifications and any formal awards or distinctions. Management and strategic skills deserve their own category in the skills section.

See a marketing manager CV example

Common questions about CV and resume sections

Which CV and resume sections are essential for every application?
Five sections form the foundation of any CV or resume: personal information, work experience, education, skills, and languages. These give a recruiter everything they need to assess your profile quickly. All other sections — projects, certifications, publications, volunteering — are additive. Add them when they strengthen your specific application for the role you are targeting.

Should I include all 13 sections or only the relevant ones?
Only include sections that add value to that specific application. A focused CV or resume that uses eight well-chosen sections will outperform a bloated one that uses all thirteen badly. In this free CV builder, any section you leave empty is automatically hidden from your PDF, so the layout stays clean regardless of how many sections you use.

Can I change the order of sections in a CV or resume builder?
Yes. Use the arrows on the preview to move sections up or down. If you are a student, put education above work experience. If you have ten years of professional experience, lead with that. The order updates immediately in the preview so you can see exactly how the final PDF will look before downloading.

How do I optimise the skills section to pass ATS filters?
Use the exact terms from the job posting. ATS systems match on specific keywords, so if the description says "project management" and you write "managing projects", the system may not register a match. Organise your skills into clear categories — technical skills, soft skills, tools — and avoid vague, generic terms that do not map to anything specific in your field.

Should I add a photo to my CV or resume?
It depends on the market. In the US and UK, photos are generally not recommended and can introduce bias in the screening process. In Germany, France, and parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, a professional photo is standard practice. This CV and resume creator supports a photo on every template but it is always optional. Check the conventions for the country and sector you are applying in.

Which should come first: education or work experience?
If you are a student, recent graduate, or career changer with limited relevant work history, put education first. If you have five or more years of professional experience, work experience should lead. You can adjust this in seconds using the section order arrows in the CV builder.

Is the publications section useful outside academia?
Rarely. Publications belong primarily on CVs for researchers, PhD candidates, R&D engineers, and journalists. In most other fields, an occasional publication — a blog post, a trade article, a guest piece — fits better as a brief mention in your professional summary or work experience than as a standalone section.

How do I use the projects section when I have limited work experience?
The projects section exists precisely for this situation. Describe the problem or context, the tools and methods you used, your specific contribution, and the outcome. Add links to GitHub, a portfolio site, or a live demo if you have them. For junior developers, designers, and students, a strong projects section regularly carries more weight than a thin work history.

Should I include volunteering on my CV or resume?
Yes, if it involved real responsibilities and transferable skills. Team leadership, fundraising, event management, communications, and community coordination all count. For students and career changers in particular, volunteering shows initiative and practical ability outside paid employment. Some hiring managers weigh a substantive volunteer role as highly as a short-term paid position.

When should I include references on my CV or resume?
Including references directly on your CV or resume is standard in UK, US, Australian, and most international markets. List two to three people with their name, title, organisation, and contact details. If the application does not ask for references upfront, writing "References available on request" is entirely acceptable. This free CV and resume builder gives you the flexibility to use either approach.

Are all 13 CV and resume sections free to use?
Yes, all of them. There are no sections locked behind a subscription and no upgrade required to access any part of the editor. Every section — including publications, professional memberships, and awards — is available in every template, free.

How do I adapt my CV or resume sections for different job applications?
Duplicate your CV or resume in the builder with one click, then adjust the section order, emphasis, and content to match the specific role. Lead with skills and projects for technical roles, quantified results and achievements for commercial roles, and publications and research experience for academic positions. Each version is stored under your private link and can be downloaded as a separate PDF.

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