When applying for a job, you want to make sure that your resume looks the best that it can. A resume showcases all of your accomplishments, from your educational attainments to your related experiences. You want to put these accomplishments in the best light possible and one way to do so is to make sure that your resume has proper capitalization.
Your resume is the first impression you make on a new employer and so adherence to proper grammar conventions is a must. Your future employer could make the decision between you and another candidate solely based on grammar alone if all other parts of the applications are similar. While there are a lot of grammar rules that go into resumes, today we will focus only on resume capitalization rules.
There are a lot of rules that you should take into consideration when creating resumes. But capitalization rules are one of the most important things to consider since employers often scan a resume in under six seconds to determine whether they should read further.
Not only is capitalization one of the first things that your employee might see, but it’s also important to highlight the important parts of your resume such as your previous jobs and education. Hence, capitalization rules are very important so that you can show that you pay attention to details to your future employer. In this article, we will highlight some common resume capitalization rules. Please be mindful of these rules because they could make or break your next job application.
If you want to quickly and easily capitalize parts of your resume, you can use our free title capitalization tool here.
Job Title Capitalization
Job titles are one of the most complicated resume capitalization rules. In most cases, people tend to capitalize their job titles since these are hard-earned titles. However, you shouldn’t necessarily capitalize job titles all of the time. There are instances when you have to capitalize job titles, but there are also times when you do not. Take a look at some of these resume capitalization rules under job titles.
- You should capitalize specific job titles. However, do not capitalize a job title if it is used as a general job description. For instance:
Specific job title: “As the Program Chair of the Department of Management…”
General job title: “I am seeking a position as a program chair…”
2. Capitalize a job title if it precedes the name of the person. For instance:
“Chief Executive Officer Mark Thomas.”
“Vice President Henry Griffin.”
3. Capitalize a job title if it is used as a heading in the resume. For instance:
“Chief Operating Officer (2015-2016)”
“Branch Manager (2010-present)”
4. Do not capitalize a job title when it is used to describe the person. For instance:
“Mark Thomas, the chief executive officer of…”
“the vice president of administration, Henry Griffin…”
5. Do not capitalize job titles if you place them as part of a summary of jobs.
“In my fifteen years as an employee, I worked as a professional teacher, a college professor, a clinical instructor, and a clinical nurse.”
Capitalizing Work Experience
Usually, you do not capitalize the descriptions of your work experiences. In most situations, you would only state the nature of your previous related work. However, you should note that there are always exemptions to the rule. You should capitalize parts of your work experiences if they include a proper noun – such as product or company names, acronyms, or initials. You should also capitalize the first word in the sentence. Let’s see how these resume capitalization rules are applied by studying the example below.
Example: “Developed a new content management system (CMS) for the Seattle Public Library.”
In the prior sentence, “CMS” is capitalized because it is an acronym and “Seattle Public Library” is capitalized because it is a proper noun.
Capitalizing Degree Programs
One of the resume capitalization rules that you should pay special attention to is the capitalization of degree programs. Here are the rules to remember.
1. You should capitalize the name of the degree program if it is a proper noun or refers to a specific subject that you studied. Usually, these proper nouns are languages. For instance:
- Bachelor of Arts in English
- Bachelor of Arts in French
2. Do not capitalize the majors, programs, academic disciplines, and courses of study. For instance:
-
- D. in marine biology
- S. in environmental and natural resources
3. Here’s where it gets a little tricky. You can capitalize the degree on your resume as long as you list it as your degree. For instance:
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- Harvard University – BA in History, summa cum laude (2010-2014)
- University of Virginia – BS in Computer Science, cum laude (2015-2019)
4. Capitalize academic degrees only when the full name of the degree is used. For instance:
-
- Bachelor of Science
- Master of Arts
5. Capitalize the abbreviations of academic degrees. Depending on the style preferred, you may or may not put a period in between these abbreviations. For instance.
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- MA in education
- D. in environmental sustainability
6. Do not capitalize if the program is used as a general reference. For instance:
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- I have a master’s degree in education major in mathematics.
- I have a master’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in physics, and a doctorate degree in science education.
Capitalizing Offices and Departments
You have to capitalize the name of the offices or establishments only when you use the official name. For instance:
- Department of Arts, Sciences, and Teaching Education
- Basic Education Department
- Institute of Culinary Arts
You should take note that there are some departments or offices which contain proper nouns. Hence, they should always be capitalized. Be cautious with these resume capitalization rules because some people tend to overlook this.
- Timber Lane Elementary School
- Seattle Department of Transportation
Other Resume Capitalization Rules
Aside from those which we have mentioned above, there are other resume capitalization rules that you should always remember.
- A common convention in any formal writing, the first word of each sentence should be capitalized. Even when writing in bullet points, you should still capitalize the first word of each point. Even short sentences.
- Always capitalize the names of companies. Some of these company names tend to be a little tricky, so you should have ample idea of the correct capitalization. If in doubt, better double-check the name online.
- Always capitalize proper nouns. Of course, this is a basic rule of English title capitalization.
- Never write in all caps. It’s a common rule in all forms of writing. Some consider it as shouting, so you better be careful.
Resume Grammar
While not the primary topic of this article, you want to make sure that you use proper grammar on your resume. A simple typo could make your resume go straight to the trash can.
We highly recommend using Grammarly. You can either use their site to check your resume or they have plugins for Microsoft Word and Google Chrome.
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Conclusion
Resume capitalization rules can get a little tricky, especially if you lack the knowledge on which words to capitalize. Therefore, you need to understand these rules very well so you could create the perfect resume to impress your future employer. As they say, practice makes perfect. Keep on practicing as you improve. And also, good luck job hunting!
And remember, if you want to easily capitalize your resume job titles and other headers, try out our free title capitalization tool.
Chief Executive Officer should always be capitalised. Imho.
I find the interchanging of ‘capitalize on’ and ‘capitalize’ to be confusing, as the distinction between the two isn’t clearly stated. It may be a clever and colourful use of the English language, but without explaining the difference it could lead to misunderstanding.
“In most cases, people would tend to capitalize on their job titles since these are hard-earned titles. However, you shouldn’t necessarily capitalize job titles all of the time. There are instances when you have to capitalize on job titles, but there are also times when you do not.”
The use of ‘capitalize on’ means to get an advantage from a situation, whereas ‘capitalize’ in this context means to write the first letter of the word as a capital.
In your linked article ‘Should Job Titles Be Capitalized’ (by clicking ‘capitalize on their job titles’ above), your fifth bullet point appears to use ‘capitalise on’ incorrectly instead of using ‘capitalise’.
“5. Do not capitalize on job titles if you place them as part of a summary of jobs.”
In reality, we are all capitalizing on our previous job titles in order to get the job, but that doesn’t mean that we should necessarily capitalize the titles when we write them!
Apologies for my inconsistent spelling of ‘capitalize’. I’m British, so I’m used to spelling it with an ‘s’ as opposed to a ‘z’.