Introduction
When you’re writing a resume, your education and past jobs are far from the only things that matter. The truth is, the past experiences and skills that employers care about can come from a number of places. And particularly when you’re a current student or an entry-level candidate, extracurricular activities can be a great addition to your resume. Extracurriculars are any structured, ongoing activity you took part in during school, but not as an academic requirement. They are often (but not always) affiliated with or run by the school you attended. And your participation in these activities (especially in a leadership role) can set you up to succeed in your future jobs.
How to Add Extra Curricular Activities on My Resume?
Getting a job isn’t like getting into college — hiring managers generally don’t care about your extracurricular activities. So why even bother including them on your resume?
Extracurricular are any structured, ongoing activity you took part in during school, but not as an academic requirement. They are often (but not always) affiliated with or run by the school you attended. And your participation in these activities (especially in a leadership role) can set you up to succeed in your future jobs.
Extracurricular activities can be a good way of showcasing your abilities when you don’t have a lot of work experience — in particular, if you’re still a student or have only just graduated. In that case, recruiters can look to your extracurriculars for evidence of transferable skills like leadership, teamwork, communication, and work ethic.
This doesn’t mean that extracurricular activities are a substitute for relevant experience — but they’re a good place to start.
If you don’t have a lot of work experience, you should aim to show enough transferable and soft skills that hiring managers and recruiters look for in your extracurricular activities. To find out if your bullet points in your extracurricular experiences are strong enough and have no mistakes, upload your resume to the tool below — it’ll perform a quick scan and let you know if your extracurricular experiences can be improved.
Three Ways to List Extra-Curricular Activities on Your Resume
How to List Extracurriculars in Activities Section
In an activities section
If you were heavily involved in extracurricular activities and want to showcase that, it’s okay to have a whole section of your resume dedicated to it. Title it ‘Activities’ or ‘Extracurriculars’ and include the name of the organization, the dates you were involved, your role or title, and 1-2 of your most relevant accomplishments.
How to List Extracurriculars in Education Section
In your education section
If your extracurricular activities were school clubs, they can go in the education section of your resume. For current students, your education section might be the most detailed section of your resume and can go at the top. You might also want to include other information like your major and relevant minor(s), awards, relevant coursework, study abroad, and GPA.
If you’re a mid-level hire who graduated less than 10 years ago, you can still include extracurricular activities on your resume if they’re relevant and particularly noteworthy. In that case, you should keep it brief by listing extracurriculars on a single line in a short education section at the end of your resume.
How to List Extracurriculars in Volunteering Section
If your extracurricular activities doubled as volunteer work, you can create a separate ‘Volunteering’ section on your resume. List each project or activity separately, including the dates you worked on it, and include 1-2 bullet points outlining your main accomplishments.
How to List Extracurriculars in Additional Section
If you want to include extracurricular activities on your resume without taking up a lot of space, consider including them in an additional section at the end of your resume. Include a subheading like ‘Activities’ and keep it to a single line.
Resume Section Titles For Extracurriculars
Lastly,
Here are some appropriate resume section titles
- College students and graduates can use:
- Foreign language activities — particularly study abroad
- Sports
- Performing arts
- Student government
- Tutoring
- Official clubs
- Fundraising
- Anything you can use to demonstrate relevant or transferable skills
- Mid career level
- Volunteer work
- Publications
- Business venture and other projects — if these are significant
- enough, you might even want to consider including them in your
- regular work experience section
- Senior Level
- Board memberships
- Consultancy
- Speaking engagements
- Business ventures
- Anything that demonstrates a high level of leadership