How Do You End a Resume? The Perfect Way to Close Your Document

Most resume advice focuses on opening sections—crafting the perfect summary, highlighting your best experience, and making a strong first impression. But how you end your resume matters too. The final sections of your document complete your professional story and can influence whether you get called for an interview.

Unlike essays or letters, resumes don’t need formal conclusions or closing statements. However, the final sections you include, the order you present them, and how you format the ending all contribute to the overall impression you create.

This guide covers everything you need to know about ending your resume effectively—what to include, what to exclude, and how to ensure your document closes as strongly as it opens.

What Goes at the End of a Resume?

The bottom portion of your resume typically contains supporting information that doesn’t fit in the main sections. While the exact sections vary based on your experience and industry, here are the most common elements:

Additional Skills Section

A skills section often appears at or near the bottom of resumes, though placement varies by format:

What to include:

Technical skills (software, programming languages, tools)
Languages (with proficiency levels)
Industry-specific certifications
Relevant hard skills

Format options:

SKILLS
Technical: Python, SQL, Tableau, Excel (advanced), Salesforce, Google Analytics
Languages: Spanish (Professional Working Proficiency), French (Conversational)
Certifications: Google Analytics Certified, HubSpot Inbound Marketing

Or:

TECHNICAL SKILLS
• Data Analysis: Python, R, SQL, Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, macros)
• Visualization: Tableau, Power BI, Google Data Studio
• Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
• Cloud: AWS (S3, EC2), Google Cloud Platform

Education Section

For experienced professionals, education typically moves to the bottom of the resume:

Standard format:

EDUCATION
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

More detailed format (for recent graduates):

EDUCATION
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, May 2024
GPA: 3.7/4.0 | Dean's List | Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society
Relevant Coursework: Financial Analysis, Marketing Strategy, Business Analytics

Certifications and Licenses

Professional certifications can appear with skills or in their own section:

CERTIFICATIONS
• Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI, 2023
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance, 2022
• AWS Solutions Architect Associate, Amazon Web Services, 2023

Professional Development

For ongoing learning and training:

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Leadership Development Program, Company Executive Education, 2023
• Advanced Negotiation Workshop, Harvard Business School Online, 2022
• Data Science Bootcamp, General Assembly, 2021

Awards and Honors

Recognition and achievements:

AWARDS
• President's Club Award for Top Sales Performance, 2022 & 2023
• Employee of the Year, Customer Service Division, 2021
• Regional Sales Achievement Award, Q3 2022

Volunteer Experience

Community involvement and pro bono work:

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Habitat for Humanity, Austin, TX | Team Lead | 2021-Present
• Coordinate 10-person volunteer teams for monthly build days
• Completed 5 home construction projects

Junior Achievement, Austin, TX | Volunteer Instructor | 2020-Present
• Teach financial literacy to 8th grade students (4 classrooms annually)

Professional Affiliations

Industry memberships and involvement:

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• Member, American Marketing Association, 2019-Present
• Board Member, Austin Young Professionals, 2022-Present
• Member, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 2020-Present

Publications and Presentations

For academic, technical, or thought leadership roles:

PUBLICATIONS
• "Optimizing Supply Chain Efficiency Through AI," Supply Chain Quarterly, 2023
• "Customer Retention Strategies for SaaS Companies," co-authored, HBR Online, 2022

PRESENTATIONS
• "Building Data-Driven Marketing Teams," MarketingProfs Conference, 2023
• "The Future of Remote Work," SXSW Interactive, 2022

Languages

If not included in the skills section:

LANGUAGES
• English: Native
• Mandarin Chinese: Professional Working Proficiency
• Spanish: Limited Working Proficiency

Interests (Optional)

Personal interests are optional and should only be included if they add value:

INTERESTS
Marathon running (completed 3 marathons) | Photography | Open source contribution

How to Structure the End of Your Resume

Order of Final Sections

The optimal order depends on what’s most relevant to your target position:

For most professionals:

Skills (if not earlier in document)
Education
Certifications
Additional sections (awards, volunteer, affiliations)

For recent graduates:

Education (often placed higher, before or after experience)
Projects
Skills
Extracurriculars/Leadership

For academic positions:

Education
Publications
Research
Conference Presentations
Grants and Awards

For technical roles:

Skills/Technical Proficiencies
Projects
Education
Certifications

Formatting Consistency

Maintain consistent formatting through your document’s end:

Same font and size as the rest of your resume
Same section header style (bold, caps, underlined—whatever you’ve used)
Same bullet point style if using bullets
Same spacing between sections
Same margin width throughout

What NOT to Include at the End of Your Resume

”References Available Upon Request”

This phrase is outdated and unnecessary:

Employers assume you’ll provide references if asked
It wastes valuable resume space
It can make your resume seem dated
References belong on a separate document

Objectives (at the end)

While some modern resumes include an objective statement at the top, objectives never belong at the bottom. If you use an objective, it goes at the very beginning as your opening statement.

Personal Information Not Relevant to the Job

Avoid including:

Marital status
Number of children
Religious affiliation
Political party
Age or date of birth (unless required by location)
Physical characteristics
National origin (unless relevant to work authorization)
Social security number

Irrelevant Hobbies

Skip hobbies that don’t add value:

“Watching Netflix”
“Spending time with friends”
“Shopping”
Generic interests that reveal nothing meaningful

If you include interests, make them substantive or conversation-starting.

Salary History or Requirements

Never include compensation information on your resume:

Salary belongs in negotiations, not applications
Including it can limit your negotiating position
It’s often not even requested at this stage

Photographs (in most countries)

In the United States, Canada, UK, and Australia, photos are typically inappropriate:

They can introduce bias
They’re not expected or requested
They take up valuable space

Note: Photos are standard in some countries (Germany, France, parts of Asia). Know your target market’s norms.

Signatures

Resumes don’t require signatures:

They’re informal documents
Digital transmission makes signatures impractical
Save signatures for formal application documents if required

Creating a Clean Visual End

White Space Management

The bottom of your resume should end cleanly:

Good ending: The last section ends naturally, with consistent spacing, leaving some white space at the bottom of the page.

Bad ending:

Text crammed to the very bottom
Awkward large gaps
Orphaned single lines on a second page
Sections that look squeezed in

Page Break Considerations

If your resume spans multiple pages:

Do:

End pages after complete sections
Start new pages with major sections
Ensure at least 3-4 bullets continue if a section breaks across pages

Don’t:

Have a single line orphaned on a new page
Break in the middle of a bullet point
Leave large blank spaces at page ends

Final Line Alignment

The last line of your resume should look intentional:

Left-aligned text should align with other text
No hanging single words that could fit on the previous line
Consistent spacing between the last content and page bottom

Resume Endings by Career Stage

Entry-Level/New Graduate

End with sections that demonstrate capability despite limited experience:

PROJECTS
Senior Capstone: Customer Analytics Dashboard
• Built interactive Tableau dashboard analyzing 50,000 customer transactions
• Identified trends that informed marketing recommendations
• Presented findings to faculty panel and industry sponsor

SKILLS
Technical: Python, SQL, Excel, Tableau, Google Analytics
Languages: Spanish (Conversational)

ACTIVITIES
Marketing Club, Vice President, 2022-2024
Peer Tutor, University Writing Center, 2021-2023

Mid-Career Professional

End with supporting credentials and development:

EDUCATION
Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
MBA, Marketing Concentration, 2015

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, 2010

CERTIFICATIONS
• Google Analytics Individual Qualification, 2023
• HubSpot Marketing Software Certification, 2022

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Marketing Association, Member since 2015

Senior Executive

End with board positions, publications, or speaking:

BOARD POSITIONS
• Board of Directors, Austin Technology Council, 2021-Present
• Advisory Board, UT Austin McCombs School of Business, 2022-Present

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
• Keynote Speaker, SaaStr Annual Conference, 2023
• Panel Moderator, Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, 2022

EDUCATION
Harvard Business School, Executive Education
Advanced Management Program, 2019

Stanford University
MBA, 2008

Duke University
BS, Computer Science, 2002

Career Changer

End with relevant credentials and transferable skill evidence:

CERTIFICATIONS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Google UX Design Professional Certificate, Coursera, 2023
• UI/UX Design Bootcamp, General Assembly, 2023 (400 hours)
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), 2022

PORTFOLIO PROJECTS
• Redesigned mobile app checkout flow, increasing completion rate by 35%
• Created design system for financial services startup
• View portfolio: portfoliosite.com

EDUCATION
Boston University
Bachelor of Arts in Communications, 2015

Special Ending Considerations

Technical Resumes

Technical roles often benefit from prominent skills sections:

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Languages: Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, SQL
Frameworks: React, Node.js, Django, Spring Boot, FastAPI
Cloud/DevOps: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS), Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform
Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB
Tools: Git, Jenkins, Jira, Datadog, Splunk

EDUCATION
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS, Computer Science, 2018

Creative Resumes

Creative fields may end with portfolio references:

SKILLS
Design: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
Prototyping: Principle, ProtoPie, InVision
Development: HTML, CSS, basic JavaScript

PORTFOLIO
www.janedoedesign.com
Dribbble: dribbble.com/janedoe
Behance: behance.net/janedoe

EDUCATION
Rhode Island School of Design
BFA in Graphic Design, 2019

Academic Resumes (CVs)

Academic CVs have specific ending conventions:

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
• Reviewer, Journal of Marketing Research, 2020-Present
• Conference Organizer, AMA Summer Academic Conference, 2022

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• American Marketing Association
• Association for Consumer Research
• Society for Consumer Psychology

REFERENCES
Available upon request (Note: this IS appropriate for academic CVs)

Using Resume Builders for Professional Endings

Modern resume builders like 0portfolio.com help ensure your resume ends professionally:

Automatic formatting maintains consistency through the document
Section templates help you structure final sections appropriately
Page break intelligence prevents awkward breaks
ATS optimization ensures final sections are properly parsed

These tools eliminate common ending mistakes like inconsistent spacing, orphaned lines, or formatting that breaks when documents are converted.

Final Checklist for Resume Endings

Before submitting your resume, verify:

✅ Final sections are relevant to your target role ✅ Formatting is consistent with the rest of the document ✅ No outdated phrases like “References available upon request” ✅ No personal information that shouldn’t be included ✅ Clean visual ending with appropriate white space ✅ Page breaks are logical (if multiple pages) ✅ All sections are complete—no placeholder text ✅ Contact information is accurate (if repeated at bottom) ✅ No spelling or grammar errors in final sections ✅ Document ends confidently without trailing off

Conclusion

The end of your resume doesn’t require a formal conclusion or closing statement—it simply needs to complete your professional story effectively. Include sections that support your candidacy, maintain consistent formatting, and ensure the document ends cleanly without unnecessary elements.

Remember: every section of your resume, including the final ones, should earn its place by contributing to your overall candidacy. With thoughtful attention to how you end your resume—using professional tools like 0portfolio.com for formatting and structure—you create a document that’s as strong at the bottom as it is at the top.

Your resume’s ending may be the last thing recruiters see before making a decision. Make sure it reinforces the capable, qualified professional portrayed throughout the rest of your document.

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