Crafting an impressive resume requires quality content and efficient presentation. To help you with it, online certifications can serve a double purpose.
Firstly, resume certifications will likely enhance your knowledge in a given area that you are already experienced in. A free online course can broaden your horizon of knowledge, equip you professionally when applying to new industries, and make you a more versatile candidate overall.
Secondly, certifications will give you a much-sought-after degree to put in your resume.
In this day and age, with such fierce competition at hand, you need more than just skills to be considered for a position. You need to know how to write a resume and have the experience and degree to back up your professional knowledge
This is where free online certifications can come in handy. In this guide, we’ll dive deeper into the best free certifications courses to enhace your resume, why they are useful, how to pick the right one for you, and more.
Why Free Online Certifications are Important
Free certifications are a quick and affordable way to learn new information on various professional topics and showcase them as part of your resume.
Most free certificate courses available online tend to be more focused on different skills and fields of expertise. They also mainly apply to the most sought-after positions.
Holding a whole course for free can only be quite profitable if the industry branch of interest is hot on the market.
The majority of free online certification courses cover topics such as marketing, data analysis, content production, or online administration. Relevant industry certifications will essentially provide you with useful skills in the area and be a highly valued section of your resume.
Free certification courses are available at several levels, so you will be able to either improve on your pre-existing knowledge in a certain area or acquire a new skill from scratch and broaden your field of expertise.
The Importance of Having Certifications
Adding certifications to your resume such as degrees, titles, or licenses will do wonders for your chances of getting hired.
In fact a 2020 Gallup poll found that 36% of workers feel they are likely to get a promotion in their primary job compared with only 24% of workers without any official certification.
In the same poll it mentioned that with an official qualification such as a degree or license, employees are given more creative tasks. Here is a simple comparation of data from the Gallup Poll commissioned by Lumina Foundation
Employees Given repetitive Tasks
- With certification: 53%
- Without certification:66%
Employees Given Creative Tasks
- With certification: 58%
- Without certification: 43%
The expectations of employees with official qualifications to be able to complete more complicated tasks typically means a salary increase.
In general, when you have an official qualification you will be paid more. Whether that be when you are negotiating your first contract or asking for a raise.
That’s especially true for IT jobs, according to ISACA, you can expect to be compensated more if you have more qualifications.
With the amount of free online courses and certifications available, it’s much easier to make your resume stand out.
Free Resume Templates
Using resume templates that are proven to work will help you to move your career search forward. Start and customize as many resumes as you need with our free resume builder .
Where to Put Certifications on a Resume
When it comes to putting a certification in a resume, the placement will really depend on the resume format you have opted for. There are a few different options you can choose to function as your resume certification section, depending on the type of qualification and your format.
It could be in any of the following sections:
- Education
- Achievements
- Other Activities
- Experience
If your certificate is from a well-known institution with a good reputation you should place the certification at the forefront of your resume.
When adding non-university or non-official certifications to a resume, they should be included in the appropriate section to ensure they catch the attention of potential employers.
Technical or job-specific certifications, such as those in IT or project management, can be included in the “Achievements” section if they contributed to a significant accomplishment.
General certifications, such as those in leadership or communication, can be listed in the “Other Activities” section if they were obtained through a professional association or extracurricular activity.
Adding Certifications in progress
It’s also important to remember that if you haven’t completed a certification yet, it can still be added to your resume.
Unfortunately, some job seekers ask themselves, “Should I put certifications in progress on my resume?” and end up missing out on applying for an ideal position because they second-guessed themselves. Don’t worry; any certification in progress related to the job you want can still add plenty of value to your application.
However, it’s critical to understand how any ongoing certification should be mentioned in your resume.
You should only list an end date for a certification that is still in progress if you are certain of the month and year it will be completed.
If you are not entirely sure when you will complete your certification you should list “present” or “in progress” instead of an end date.
Here’s an example of how ongoing certifications should be included in your resume:
Education
University of California, Berkeley
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
2018-2022
Certifications
Data Science Institute, Online Learnin
Certified Data Science Professional
August 2022 – July 2023
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Online Learning
Professional Certificate in Artificial Intelligence
April 2023 – Present
As you can see in the example, the certifications are from different institutes, meaning each belongs in the education section.
While stating when the certification will be completed looks better, don’t invent an end date as you may be questioned about it during the interview.
Free Online Certifications in Marketing
To begin with, let’s look at one of the most worthwhile fields to get a free online certification in—marketing.
Free business and marketing certifications can be incredibly helpful for your chances of being hired and to be fair, you have plenty of options.
Below are some of the best marketing online certifications you can get at the time of writing!
- Cybrary’s PMP Course: With an overall duration of fewer than 6 hours, Cybrary’s Project Management Professional course is a prime example of what a great free certification course can be. Like Cybrary’s other free courses, the PMP course, too, will equip you with the required
- Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing Certification Course: The Inbound Marketing course aims to teach you all about SEO, online marketing, reporting, and conversion analysis, among other things, making it one of the best free courses for a resume.
- Google’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Course: Taken at your own pace, this course from Google incorporates 26 modules that aim to make you an expert in SEO, SEM, social media, and many areas of digital marketing, such as, mobile marketing, email marketing, and content marketing.
By taking any of these certifications you’ll gain valuable marketing knowledge and be able to prove it to hiring managers.
Free Online Government Certifications
If you are interested in becoming a federal employee, there are free online government training programs that you can take. The U.S. government is interested in having competent employees in public sectors, especially security.
Here are a couple of courses that the U.S. government offers:
- Federal Virtual Training Environment: The United States government wants you as a cybersecurity specialist. The Federal Virtual Training Environment (FedVTE) offers free cybersecurity courses to the public.
- Peace Cops Training Program: Volunteering looks great on a resume but is also a wonderful thing to do for society. The Peace Corps will teach you how to help others, learn a new language, and ensure that you stay safe.
These courses are provided by the federal government, meaning you can earn a valuable new certification provided by Uncle Sam.
Free Online Certifications in Programming
When you have official qualifications in IT and programming the sky’s the limit. Have a look at the following free courses to program into your resume.
- NASSCOM’s AI and Data Science for beginners: This NASSCOM course enables you to get a head start in the extremely in-demand fields of Artificial Intelligence
- Code Camp Certification Courses: You can get introduced to the basics of a variety of programming languages with many of Code Camp’s free certification courses. Their repertoire includes key courses on JavaScript, HTML5, GitHub, CSS3, and more.
- Amazon’s AWS Certification courses: These courses in cloud computing cover both AI and computer sciences, alongside marketing and programming. These courses are designed to introduce you to popular industry skills that are in high demand among recruiters
Some of these examples are not easy certifications for your resume, either way, you’ll gain some essential coding knowledge.
Free Professional Courses Related to Skills
The skills section of your resume is what some hiring managers focus on the most. If you can back up the skills you’re likely to be called in for an interview.
- Alison’s Supervision Skills Certification Course: With a duration of fewer than 3 hours, the course tackles the essentials of teamwork, peer support, as well as leadership strategies to motivate and uplift your coworkers successfully. Is one of the fastets certifications to get online.
- Business Communications: In this free course from edX, you will learn the basics of communicating in a business environment. A lot of us put down communication as one of our skills on our resumes, now you can prove it.
These are a couple of quick certifications that look good on a resume, you won’t have to spend years studying, and they will help you land your dream job in no time.
So, Is Adding Certifications to your Resume Worth It?
A resounding yes. If you have the time to do certifications related to the job you’re applying for, we cannot recommend doing them enough. It shows your prospective employer that you’ve learned relevant skills—on top of your degree, diploma, or work and volunteer experience.
Given that the job market is becoming increasingly competitive year on year, anything that can get your resume to stick out from the rest is always worthwhile. Add a certification to your resume and see for yourself!
You’ll land that job in no time.
Related Posts