How to Add a Conference or Seminar on Your Profile writing

Many people wonder if they need to put a conference or seminar on their resume. That's a great question. Including information about these events is a good idea, especially if you were giving a keynote speech or running the session. But when and how you include conferences and seminars will depend on a few things.

Find out if this is something you should put in your profile writing by reading on. We'll also show you how to list conference presentations on your resume in a way that looks good and gets the job done.

Do I need to list conferences and seminars on my resume?

Most of the time, a resume doesn't need a section for conferences or seminars. Recruiters will want to know more about your skills and real-world work experience. As there isn't much room on the page, you should be very aware of whether or not this information will catch the attention of the hiring manager.

But that doesn't mean that these details should never be written down. There are a few times when putting on your resume that you attended a conference or seminar could really help. This is true especially for:

• Career changers
• Recent graduates
• People who work in the higher education field

Even so, you should be careful when adding these parts. Here, we'll show you how to add a conference or seminar to your document.

Putting information about a conference on your resume

Even though it's not required, if you've given a big presentation at a conference or workshop, you should put something about it on your resume.

This can make a big difference if your job requires you to give presentations or lead well. Also, if the hiring manager has seen your keynote speech and is impressed by it, this could make a big difference. Obviously, for the sake of brevity, you won't need to talk about every single time someone was there or gave a presentation. This is especially true if your job requires you to do this every day. But if you give a major keynote speech at one of the biggest conferences in the world, this should be brought up.

When you make this section, you'll need to include the following:

• The names of the main speakers at the event
• when the meeting will be held.
• The talk's title
• The name of the event or the name of the group putting it on

If you work in higher education or have been working toward a Ph.D. until now, mentioning conferences you've been to can also be helpful. This is especially true if you are looking for your first postdoc job or want to show how well you know the industry.

On your resume, you'll need to do something different than what was described above. You must prove to the employer: 

• What is the name of the meeting?
• The group in charge
• The years in question

Adding information about a seminar to your resume

Going to seminars and workshops is a big part of getting ahead in your career. So, it can be a good idea sometimes to put this information on your resume. But, just like with the details of the conference, this should be done carefully.

Adding a section on seminars is a matter of personal choice. For some jobs, showing that you were at a certain event could have a big impact on how well your document does. But this information shouldn't take away from your work experience, skills, and education, which are more important.

Most of the time, you won't need a separate section for seminars you've attended. You could easily add this information to what you say about your work experience or training. If you want to draw attention to courses that you planned and led yourself, you might want to add a separate section. This should only be done if these details are likely to be interesting to the person in charge of hiring for the job you want. You might also want to include this information if you're trying to move into a different field. Showing how much extra work you've put into learning about the field can often lead to success.

The most important factor to consider when adding a section for either conferences or seminars (or both) is how useful they will be for the hiring manager. If you think this information will help you, you can add it to your resume using a professional resume format. If not, it would be smart to promote your other career achievements instead.

You can try adding one of these sections to your resume when you use our online tools to make it. They can walk you through each step of the process and let you try adding extra sections to see how they look before you download and send in your document.