How to List Relevant Coursework on a Resume

Key takeaways

Including relevant coursework on your resume can help you highlight the qualifications you’ve obtained through your studies.

• Relevant courses include those with transferable or technical skills related to the job you’re applying for.

• When listing relevant coursework on your resume, include it as part of your education section or create a dedicated section.

• You can remove relevant coursework from your resume as you advance in your career and gain more professional experience. 

Explore relevant coursework resume examples to learn how to add the information to your resume. If you’re interested in building in-demand skills, consider earning a Google Digital Marketing and E-commerce Professional Certificate, where you will have the opportunity to learn to attract and engage customers online and measure your performance through analytical insights.

What is relevant coursework?

Relevant coursework for your resume includes classes and other educational experiences you’ve completed that speak to the transferable or technical skills you may need to be successful in your role. You can often identify this information from job postings, although you may need to conduct additional research. In addition, you can match the skills a candidate needs for a position with your transcript and coursework to find classes that illustrate your ability to perform those skills. 

Not all the classes you take while completing your degree will be relevant to your desired job. Many degrees require students to take various courses regardless of their major or career goals. Since your resume has limited space, stick to the classes that most clearly demonstrate why you’re qualified for the particular role. 

Should I put relevant coursework on my resume?

In some cases, listing relevant coursework on your resume can help demonstrate your qualifications for a job. If you’ve completed a course in a topic or field related to the job you’re applying for, it may be a relevant credential you can list on your resume. While listing relevant coursework on your resume isn’t always the best use of the limited space a resume provides, it can be evidence of your skills when you’re a recent graduate or have an unfinished degree. 

Three instances where you might decide to list relevant coursework on your resume include when you’re writing a CV, when you’re a recent graduate, or when the courses you’ve taken affect how qualified you are for the job. 

• When writing a CV: A curriculum vitae (CV) is similar to a resume and lists your education, skills, and other essential credentials. You can use a resume to give someone an at-a-glance view of your most relevant qualifications. At the same time, a CV is a longer, more comprehensive document you can use to detail the finer points of your education, experience, and skills. You can include relevant coursework, class projects or research papers, leadership experience, athletic involvement, or volunteer experiences when writing a CV. 

• When you’re a recent graduate or have an unfinished degree: Relevant coursework can help demonstrate your skills through learning experiences when you don’t yet have relevant on-the-job experience. If you recently graduated or haven’t finished just yet, listing coursework can help show potential employers your educational background. Challenging courses also demonstrate your ability to work hard and overcome complex subjects. 

• When your coursework plays a direct role in the position's requirements: If you’re applying for a job not directly related to your field, you can add relevant coursework to demonstrate why your unique skills are a good match for the role. You can also add relevant coursework to demonstrate that you’re proficient with technical skills you haven’t yet had the opportunity to use in your professional experience. 

When should I remove relevant coursework from a resume?

Your relevant coursework helps demonstrate the experience you’ve earned and why you’re a strong candidate for a job, but they aren’t as powerful as job experience. Once you start building professional experiences outside of school, you can remove relevant coursework and other academic information, like GPA, and replace it with more current professional experience. You can also consider removing relevant coursework when it's no longer directly related to the position you’re applying for, such as a course you took on a technology the industry no longer uses. 

How to list relevant coursework on a resume

To list relevant coursework on your resume, choose three to six of the most relevant courses you’ve completed. You can list them in the education section on your resume in a bullet point under your degree or create a dedicated section to list courses. Creating a designated section may be helpful if you want to list courses you took outside of your degree program or online courses. 

In either case, you can summarize the learning objectives to clarify what skills you learned in the class. This is particularly helpful for courses with vague names. You can also choose to alter the course's name to clarify why the class is relevant to the reader. For example, some class titles have associated numbers, which is less interesting to your potential employer than a title that correctly identifies the course topic. 

Relevant coursework resume examples

It can be helpful to look at some examples of resume sections that include relevant coursework. Explore examples from computer science and business administration degrees.

Relevant coursework resume: Computer science

Computer science is a broad field, and a computer science degree is relevant to many different careers. You may find it helpful to list relevant courses to specify what area of computer science you plan to work in before gaining experience in the field. 

For example, this format may work for an applicant with a bachelor’s degree in computer science applying for a position as an AI developer: 

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science 

Harvard University, 2019 to 2024

Coursework: 

• Artificial Intelligence with Python

• AI Essentials for Business

• AI in Business: Creating Value with Machine Learning

A computer science degree would also be relevant for a software developer. Consider this example of an applicant for a front-end developer position: 

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science 

Mid-State Technical College, 2018 to 2023

Coursework: 

• User Experience Design 

• Collaborative Application Development

• Introduction to Psychology

• Object-Oriented Programming

Relevant coursework for a business administration resume

Consider an example of adding relevant coursework to the resume of an applicant with a bachelor’s degree in business administration applying for a position as a health services manager: 

Bachelor of Science, Healthcare Administration

Western Governors University, 2018 to 2023

Coursework: 

• Emerging Trends in Health Care Administration

• Health Care Policy and Governance 

• Health Care Leadership and Community Engagement 

Read more: When Should You Include Your GPA on Your Resume?

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