Ordering the Sections

Strongest relevant evidence first

The usual sections are Experience, Projects, Skills and Education, sometimes with Open Source, Publications or Awards. Order them so the most relevant evidence is seen first. Experienced engineers usually lead with Experience. Students and new graduates often lead with Education (if recent and relevant) or Projects, then internships. Within Experience, list roles in reverse chronological order (most recent first). Give more space to recent and relevant work and compress older roles to a line or two. A short summary at the top is optional; if you include one, make it specific, not generic adjectives.

Two common layouts

Pick based on your strongest evidence.

Experienced engineer              Student / new grad
---------------------             ------------------
Header                            Header
Experience (recent first)         Education
Projects (optional)               Projects
Skills                            Experience / Internships
Education                         Skills
                                  Activities (hackathons, TA, clubs)

Weak summary:   "Hardworking, passionate, team-player developer."
Better summary: "Backend engineer, 3 years building Java and Postgres
                 services for a fictional logistics platform."

A shop window

You put your best products at eye level in the window; minor items go inside on the shelves. Section order works the same way.

Quick check: How should roles within the Experience section usually be ordered?

• Alphabetically by company
• Reverse chronological, most recent first
• Oldest first
• By salary