How to List Relevant Coursework on a Resume (With Examples)

Wondering whether to list relevant coursework on your resume? In this article, we explain when you should, what the advantages are, and provide several examples as a guide.

When to include relevant coursework on a resume

There are certain situations where you should include relevant coursework on your resume.

If you’ve recently graduated or will graduate soon

The best time to include relevant coursework on your resume is if you’re a recent college graduate.

If you’ve spent the last few years studying and completing difficult assignments, you can showcase the skills you’ve developed from that experience on your resume.

Including relevant coursework is especially important if you’re writing a resume with no work experience, because your coursework shows that you have key skills and knowledge, even if you haven’t held a formal job yet.

If you’re a grad student changing careers

Including relevant graduate coursework on your resume demonstrates the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired that apply to your new career field.

Your graduate school courses have likely given you foundational abilities that are unrelated to your previous work experience, so it’s important to showcase these.

When not to include related coursework on a resume

If your resume already fills a page without any coursework on it, you don’t need to include it. The perfect resume should prioritize your most relevant work experience over your coursework.

How and where to put relevant coursework on your resume

You can talk about your coursework in your:

• education section
• work experience section

Example of relevant coursework in an education section

Most people include coursework in the education section of their resumes.

If you want to expand your education section, write “Relevant Coursework” under your degree name, and then use commas to separate the names of the courses. For example:

If you have plenty of space, turn your relevant coursework into a bulleted list so each course is on its own line:

If you want to create a functional resume with a longer education section, consider formatting your relevant coursework like you would format a work experience section, like this:

Example of relevant coursework in a work experience section

Including coursework in your work experience section allows you to share detailed information about what you did for each course.

In this instance, you should pick the courses most relevant to the job you’re applying for, create a bulleted list for each, and format them as you would past jobs you’ve had.

Ideally, your course descriptions should include quantifiable information. For example: