No degree? No problems. History knows plenty of highly successful college dropouts who banked on practical experience over formal credentials. Besides, enrolling in a university isn’t the only way to obtain a quality education — you’ve got online courses, professional certification programs, and coaching programs!
Employers also increasingly recognize that screening out applicants based on their degree doesn’t work in their favor. Almost half of US companies have already eliminated (or plan to remove) degree requirements for most positions. Among them are large employers like Walmart, IBM, and Dell Technologies among others.
Yet, you’re still required to provide a coherent resume as part of the job application. So do you best address your lack of a degree in a resume?
This post provides several working resumes without college degree examples, alongside actionable writing and formatting tips for each section.
Creative growth manager in the SaaS domain, delivering user base growth of up to 35% YoY and churn reduction of 20%. Specializes in growth hacking, social media user acquisition, and PR.
Social Media Marketing｜Paid Media｜Influencer Outreach｜Digital PR ｜Community Management
Work Experience
SaaS Subscription Company, Superstition, Arizona
Growth Manager (Nov. 2017 – Present)
Food Mobile App, Phoenix, Arizona
Social Media Marketing Manager (July 2015 – October 2017)
Professional Certificates and Training
Certifications:
HubSpot Social Media Certification 2016-2019.
Google Analytics Certification
Facebook Ad Certification
Content Strategy for Professionals: Engaging Audiences completed in December 2017 at coursera.org. Offered by Northwestern University.
Influencer Marketing Strategy completed in April 2018 at coursera.org. Offered by Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content completed in June 2018 at coursera.org. Offered by Wharton School of Business.
Customer Success Manager for FinTech & EdTech Brands
Proactive CSM with strong people skills and a proven track record of improving business metrics. Reduced customer churn rates by 15% in one quarter for the personal finance management app. Maintained a 98% CSAT for managed customer accounts for a corporate learning platform.
Skills & Competencies
Work Experience
Customer Success Manager
FinTech Company
Atlanta, GA
May 2021-present
Joined as the first CSM hire to a Series B startup, offering personal finance and wealth management services to Millennial consumers. During the first year in the role, focused primarily on customer retention and churn reduction. Performed customer surveys and did sentiment and statistic analysis of responses. Conducted 1:1 user interviews to elicit new insights and pitch personalized service offers. Collaborated with the product management team on implementing new user retention features (investment goal tracking, automated savings, and round-ups, personalized market analysis digests). Achieved a 15% churn reduction in 12 months.
Junior CSM
EdTech Company
Atlanta, GA
July 2019-April 2021
Worked with a roster of corporate eLearning clients (primarily in the manufacturing sector). Facilitated with preparation of product presentations, demos, and sales decks. Took an active part in negotiating B2B contracts through a 12-month sales cycle. Developed and pitched up-sell opportunities with a 25% conversion rate. After a year, was appointed to run the annual CSAT program.
Customer Support Specialist
Ecommerce Business
Atlanta, GA
Sep 2018-June 2019
Handled customer support tickets via Zendesk for an online fashion retailer. Provided assistance with shipping tracking, product returns, and refund processing. Helped troubleshoot common payment and online ordering issues. Maintained an average customer review score of 95%.
Education:
University of Atlanta (2017-2018)
Atlanta, GA
BA: Business Administration
Completed 45 credit hours in 2017-18 before dropping out.
Professional certifications:
When it comes to listing education on a resume without a degree, several scenarios are possible.
First, you may have an unfinished degree. You’re still either pursuing it or decided that formal education isn’t for you. In this case, here’s how to style your education entry on a resume:
Education
University of Toronto (2022 – 2023)
Toronto, CA
BS: Accounting — Completed 25 Hours
Passed Grade 1 Certification Examination
An alternative scenario is that you’ve never even gone to college or a trade school (which is fine!). But it doesn’t mean the education section on your resume has to be blank.
In place of a formal degree, you can mention the following:
Here’s how a sample education section on a resume may look like in this case:
Education:
For hiring managers, degrees are often a quick proof point of the candidate’s competency. Your goal is to emphasize your qualifications through other means: On-the-job experiences, skills, and work accomplishments. Focus on showing what you can do in practice, rather than just stating that you know the “theory”. Below are step-by-step tips for writing a resume without a college degree.
Open your resume with a succinct and memorable resume summary pitching the value you can bring to the company. Think of it as a quick “punch line” that immediately grabs attention and brands you as an experienced and promising candidate.
Here are a few tips to help you brainstorm a solid summary statement:
Read more about writing and styling a winning resume header.
In the chronological resume format, the “Work Experience” section comes first. Thus, you’ll have plenty of room to make a solid impression before the HR scans to the bottom education part. Make this section the focal point of your resume. Speak to your accomplishments at every position you have held, quantifying them with relevant numbers whenever possible.
Showcase that you have solid hard and soft skills, highly relevant to the role. Prove that you are a solid performer that can bring a tangible impact to the new organization. Here’s a quick template you can use for that:
Dates of employment
Today formal education can be easily replaced with alternative training, offered by e-learning providers and MOOCs. Prestigious universities like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, and others offer free online courses and issue certificates of completion. Moreover, there are plenty of niche credentials you can obtain to complement your work experience and demonstrate that you have an up-to-date, hands-on skill set.
Add these to your education section to make it more authoritative. Also, you can list all the professional training you have obtained on the job, plus add masterclasses, conferences, industry certifications, and so on.
Finally, you can also list hobbies and interests if these are relevant to the job and help demonstrate your skill sets. For example, saying that you’re an avid marathon runner can strengthen your profile as a potential personal trainer.
Once you are done with the initial writing, change gears for a while and then sit down to review your resume once again. Specifically, look for any gaps or vagueness that may leave the employer wondering about your expertise.
Sprinkle in additional power words and keywords (taken from the job description) to better articulate your competencies. Beef up your accomplishments and duties and re-check the texts for any grammar and formatting mistakes.
Pro tip: Use our free resume builder to create a well-formatted resume 2X faster. The app automatically guides you through each section and then generates a recruiter-friendly resume in Word or PDF format in one click.
A lot of job posts come with specific education requirements in terms of BA/MA. Don’t skip on these if you feel that you are otherwise a strong fit. A lot of employers prefer candidates with strong hands-on experience to those with a less diverse background, but the said degree.
Thus, emphasize your skills and career progression to showcase what results you can drive for this particular company. The best way to do so is by writing a strong resume summary/career statement and placing a stronger accent on your skills.
Elena runs content operations at Freesumes since 2017. She works closely with copywriters, designers, and invited career experts to ensure that all content meets our highest editorial standards. Up to date, she wrote over 200 career-related pieces around resume writing, career advice. more
