The Education Section: Often Rushed, Always Read

In most CVs, the "Education" section takes two minutes to fill in: a degree title, a year, an institution. Done. The rest is left empty, generic, or for the recruiter to interpret.

That's a mistake. Education is one of the few sections where you have concrete material to showcase — projects, specializations, results, international experiences. A junior candidate with no professional experience can turn this section into a genuine argument. An experienced profile can use it to anchor technical competencies. A career changer can use it to establish credibility in their new field.

This guide explains how to present your education based on your profile, what to include, and what to avoid.

Where to Place the Education Section in Your CV

The position of the education section depends on your profile:

Junior or student profile — Education first, before experience. It's your main asset. Lead with it.

Experienced profile (5+ years) — Experience first, education after. The recruiter wants to know what you've done before where you studied.

Career changer — It depends on how relevant your education is to the new role. If you just completed training in your new field, lead with it. If your original degree is old and unrelated, place it after experience.

Senior profile (15+ years) — Education can be condensed into a few lines or reduced to essentials. See our guide on executive and manager CVs for specifics.

What to Include in Each Education Entry

A well-written education entry includes:

The full, exact title of the degree or program (no opaque abbreviations)
The institution and location (city, country if abroad)
Start and end years — or "ongoing" with expected completion date
Grade or honors if strong (First Class, Cum Laude, Distinction)
Content highlights: key subjects, specialization, thesis, notable projects

Basic Entry (Avoid This)

MSc Marketing — Paris-Dauphine University, 2024

Developed Entry (Use This)

MSc Digital Marketing and Commercial Strategy — Paris-Dauphine University, 2022–2024 Specialization in brand content and acquisition. Thesis: "The Impact of Micro-Influencers on Purchase Intent in the Cosmetics Sector" (18/20). Projects: group B2C digital campaign (€50,000 simulated budget), competitive analysis for a real startup.

The difference is obvious. The second shows who you are; the first says nothing.

Old Degrees: What to Keep, What to Remove

A common question: should you include your high school diploma? What about degrees from 20 years ago?

The General Rule

Keep degrees that provide useful information for the recruiter. Remove those that add nothing — and take up space unnecessarily.

Keep:

Your highest degree, always
Any specialized degree relevant to the role (even if old)
High school diploma if you have less than 5 years of experience, or if the specialization is relevant
Recent continuing education and certifications relevant to the role

Remove or condense:

High school diploma if you have 10+ years of experience and a higher degree
Generic training unrelated to the role
Intermediate qualifications if you completed the full program afterward

For experienced profiles wondering whether old degrees still matter, also read what to include on your CV — and what to leave out.

Certifications and Continuing Education

Certifications are increasingly important on CVs. They signal updated skills, personal initiative, and sometimes replace formal degrees in fast-evolving sectors.

Where to Place Them

Depending on their importance:

Major certifications directly relevant to the role → in the education section, at the same level as degrees
Complementary certifications, validated MOOCs, short courses → in a dedicated "Certifications" or "Continuing Education" subsection
In-progress certifications → mention them with "(in progress)" and the expected completion date

How to Present Them

Always include the certifying organization, year obtained, and if possible the score or level:

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate — Amazon Web Services, 2025 Google Analytics 4 Certification — Google, 2025 (renewed) TOEIC: 925/990 — ETS, 2024

For technical skills and software, also see how to integrate them in our article on computer skills on your CV.

Education for Career Changers

For a career changer profile, the education section is often the central credibility argument. If you just completed a bootcamp, a certification program, or a professional qualification in your new field, put it at the top of your CV — even before your past experience.

Example:

Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp — Le Wagon London, 2025 (9 weeks, intensive) Stack: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL. Final project: a platform connecting gardeners with homeowners, deployed on Heroku.

This entry is worth ten bare titles. It shows the duration (credible), the stack (readable by a tech), and a concrete result (the project).

For all the specific advice for this profile, see our guide career change CV.

International Exchange Programs and Overseas Education

A semester abroad, a full year at a foreign university, a certification earned in another country — these are all elements worth explicitly showcasing.

Include:

The institution and country
The period
The language(s) used
Notable subjects or projects

Erasmus Exchange Semester — Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), 2023 Courses taken in Spanish and English. Research project in behavioral economics.

This simultaneously strengthens your education section AND your languages section, while demonstrating international openness.

Education for Senior Profiles

When you have 15, 20 or more years of experience, the recruiter won't look to your education for what they need — your experience speaks for you. But that doesn't mean education disappears.

Condense it to 2–3 lines for your main degrees:

MSc Corporate Finance — HEC Paris, 1998 | BSc Economics — University of Lyon, 1996

Then give more prominence to recent certifications or continuing education: they show you're staying current, which is a real asset when you're a more senior candidate in a fast-moving market. More advice in our guide senior CV: how to stand out after 45.

Education for Profiles Without Experience

The reverse applies: education is your most developed section. Describe it in detail, include projects, results, specializations. It compensates for the lack of professional experience by showing you've already produced concrete things.

For complete strategies for this profile, see CV without experience: how to convince with a short background and the complete CV guide for recent graduates.

Common Mistakes in the Education Section

Incomprehensible Abbreviations

Acronyms and abbreviations that mean nothing to someone outside your institution — or to an ATS system — should always be written out in full at least once.

Missing Years

No dates = no chronological context. The recruiter cannot understand your background without knowing when you did what.

Reflex-Placing Education Last

If you're junior or recently retrained, place it first. Your CV structure adapts to your profile, not the other way around.

Overloading With Irrelevant Training

A 2-hour YouTube course has no place on a CV. A validated Coursera certificate does — provided it's relevant to the target role.

Presenting Education in Coherence With the Rest of Your CV

The education section doesn't work in isolation. It's part of an overall narrative the recruiter reads in a few seconds. Make sure:

The skills listed in your skills section are consistent with what you studied
The job title in your header is consistent with your specialization
Keywords from the job posting appear somewhere in your education or project descriptions

On that last point, our article on how to find the right CV keywords for your sector is a useful complement.

Build Your CV with CV Creator

CV Creator lets you structure your education section properly, with the layout that gives it the weight it deserves based on your profile. Among the available templates, some are designed to foreground education (junior profiles), others to condense it elegantly (experienced profiles). No sign-up required, one-time €2, unlimited CVs for 2 hours.

Education and Degrees on Your CV: How to Present Your Academic Background to Impress