How should a Graduate Certificate be listed on a résumé?

Question

I recently completed and was awarded a graduate certificate. After a conversation with my colleagues, it appears that there is some contention about how it should be listed on a résumé. One group says that it should be listed with the rest of the formal education, another says that it should be listed with professional certifications, the last says it should be listed like a minor, ex.:

Master of Science in Subject

• Graduate Certificate in Specialization

Assuming appropriateness to a job posting, what is the most common format for listing graduate certificates?

Answer 1

I have a Graduate Certificate in a field where I have no other graduate education and no intention of completing any more courses. I list it as a standalone item in my educational section, like this.

• BA (Philosophy, My College), 2004 -- minor in European History
• Graduate Certificate (Graphic Design, A Different College), 2012.

However, since you received your certificate essentially as a subset of the work towards a larger degree, I would say you fall into the third category - list it as part of your PhD.

• BA (Whatever You Did, Wherever), Whenever -- minor in Folk Singing
• PhD (Interdisciplinary), expected graduation 2019 -- includes completion of a Graduate Certificate (Focused Study), 2015

Answer 2

How should a Graduate Certificate be listed on a resume? Ideally so that it stands out as an additional breadth of training.

First, it is worth mentioning that you should consider listing that certificate on your resume if it is relevant to the job you are applying. Otherwise, it may be perceived as noise to your application besides taking valuable space on your resume (which should usually be compact).

If you decide it is relevant, then one way of putting it may be something like:

• MPhil in Awesome Studies Graduate - certificate obtained on [date] from [university]

If you consider it ok, you can then describe some key aspects of that training you wish to convey, like specializations obtained or similar, so it better fits your application to this current role you seek.

Another way to make it have more impact could be enhancing it to mention your current advanced studies on that subject (usually listing studies from most recent backwards):

• Currently coursing the PhD in Awesome Studes
• MPhil in Awesome Studies Graduate - certificate obtained on [date] from [university]