CV Writing Tips IV - Education

Education is another key element in your CV, which can help you stand out from the crowd.

The education helps to build on the foundations of work experience. It provides new skills and knowledge to enable the students to find their first job or to make the transition to a higher level of responsibility.


Where should you place education?

It depends on what you are trying to emphasize:
• You can place education before experience: if you are a recent graduate or have less than five years of work experience; if you are changing careers and your education is to support the new job target; if you have recently completed a strong financial qualification or a Masters program which you want to emphasize on.
• You can place it after experience: if you completed it more than 5 years ago or if it is not relevant to your target position.


What should you include in the Education Section of your CV?

You should include: university education, professional qualifications, training, courses, seminars and conferences. You can list them in two different sections: Education and Further Education.

In the Education section you may include your formal qualifications, while in Further Education the trainings, courses, seminars, conferences and others.

It you are going to place education before experience, add only the Education section. Better add the Further Education section after the professional experience. Otherwise this section could be too long and you are leaving your professional experience section too far down in your CV.


What format should you follow?

You should continue to follow the same chronological order as in the rest of your CV – listing the most recent education first and working backwards. For the formal education, the format would look like this:

Month Year – Month Year School / University Name City, Country
Diploma / Certificate / Degree / Major
Details of education completed: GPA (Grade Point Average; if you have a good score only), relevant courses (to the position you are applying to for), and other achievements (significant academic achievements only)

Your Further education should follow the same format but make it more summarized. If the list is rather long, you may want to include only year, education centre name, city-country and name of the education.

You need to put in particular care and good use of terminology when completing the Education section of your CV.


This advice is directed to finance and banking sector professionals and the tips match best the application process through job boards.