Using Quotes on a Resume: Should You Include Testimonials?

In the quest to make their resumes stand out, some job seekers turn to an unconventional tactic: including quotes and testimonials from previous managers, colleagues, or clients. The idea is appealing—what better way to prove your worth than through the words of people who’ve actually worked with you? Third-party endorsements can feel more credible than self-promotion, potentially giving your claims about teamwork, leadership, or expertise the validation they need.

But is including quotes on your resume actually a good idea? The answer isn’t straightforward. While testimonials can be powerful in certain contexts, they can also backfire, consume valuable space, or appear inappropriate for your industry and target position. This comprehensive guide explores when resume quotes work, when they don’t, how to use them effectively, and alternative approaches to achieving the same credibility-building goals.

The Case for Including Quotes on Your Resume

Let’s first examine why some job seekers and career experts advocate for including testimonials:

Third-Party Credibility

When you write “excellent leadership skills” on your resume, you’re making a claim. When your former VP writes “Sarah’s leadership transformed our department’s performance,” that claim gains external validation. The testimonial provides social proof—evidence that someone with firsthand knowledge of your work reached the same conclusions you’re asserting.

This third-party credibility addresses a fundamental limitation of resumes: they’re self-promotional documents where candidates obviously present themselves in the best possible light. Quotes from others suggest that your self-assessment aligns with how colleagues and supervisors actually perceive you.

Specificity and Memorable Details

Generic resume statements like “strong communication skills” blend into the background of countless similar claims. A specific quote like “John has an exceptional ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders—his presentations consistently receive the highest marks in our client surveys” provides concrete, memorable detail that distinguishes your application.

Testimonials can capture nuances about your work style, personality, or impact that bullet points rarely convey. They humanize your resume and provide texture beyond standard resume language.

Differentiation

Most resumes follow familiar formats with predictable content. A well-placed testimonial breaks the visual and content pattern, potentially catching a recruiter’s attention and making your resume more memorable. In competitive fields where many candidates have similar qualifications, any positive differentiation can help.

Support for Key Claims

Strategic testimonials can reinforce your most important selling points. If you’re applying for a leadership role and leadership is central to your candidacy, a quote specifically praising your leadership abilities directly supports your positioning.

The Case Against Including Quotes on Your Resume

Despite potential benefits, many career experts and recruiters advise against resume quotes. Here’s why:

Space Considerations

Resume real estate is precious, especially on a one-page resume. Every line devoted to a testimonial is a line that can’t be used for accomplishments, skills, or other information. Given the limited attention recruiters give each resume, using space efficiently matters enormously.

A three-line quote takes significant space that might be better used demonstrating your achievements directly.

Verification Concerns

Recruiters may reasonably wonder: Is this quote accurate? Did the person actually say this? Was it taken out of context? Without easy verification, quotes can raise credibility questions rather than answer them.

Unlike LinkedIn recommendations that can be verified on your profile, resume quotes exist without apparent confirmation mechanism. Skeptical readers might discount them entirely.

Format Expectations

In many industries, resumes follow conventional formats. Quotes can appear unusual or inappropriate, potentially signaling that you don’t understand professional norms. Conservative industries like finance, law, or traditional corporate environments may view testimonials as unprofessional or gimmicky.

Hiring managers who review hundreds of resumes develop expectations about format and content. Deviating significantly from those expectations can work against you, regardless of the content’s quality.

Self-Selection Bias

Obviously, any quotes you include will be positive. Recruiters know this, which limits the quotes’ persuasive value. If you could cherry-pick the best things anyone ever said about you, of course you’d sound great—but what aren’t you including?

This self-selection makes testimonials inherently less convincing than they might initially appear. They represent curated highlights, not complete pictures.

Risk of Appearing Desperate

In some cases, including testimonials can seem like you’re trying too hard to convince employers of your worth. Confident candidates let their accomplishments speak for themselves. Relying heavily on others’ words to make your case might suggest you can’t make it independently.

When Quotes Might Work on Your Resume

Despite the concerns, certain situations make testimonials more appropriate and effective:

Creative Industries

Fields like marketing, advertising, design, and entertainment often embrace unconventional presentation. In these industries, creative resume formats are more accepted, and testimonials may be seen as innovative rather than inappropriate.

Sales and Business Development Roles

Sales positions inherently involve persuasion and relationship-building. Testimonials from satisfied clients or partners can demonstrate these skills in action. Sales resumes often include performance metrics alongside endorsements.

Client-Facing Positions

Roles where client relationships are central—consulting, account management, client success—may benefit from testimonials showing client satisfaction and relationship quality.

Career Changers

When transitioning to a new field, testimonials from current-field colleagues can address concerns about transferable skills. A technology executive moving to nonprofit leadership might include quotes about leadership qualities from tech colleagues.

Situations Where Accomplishments Are Hard to Quantify

Some roles don’t produce easily measurable achievements. For positions focused on collaboration, culture, mentorship, or other soft contributions, testimonials may capture value that numbers can’t convey.

Freelancers and Consultants

Independent professionals often rely on testimonials as primary evidence of their value. Client quotes are standard on freelance proposals and portfolios, making their inclusion on resumes less unusual.

When to Avoid Resume Quotes

In contrast, certain situations make testimonials particularly inadvisable:

Conservative Industries

Banking, law, accounting, medicine, government, and academia generally expect traditional resume formats. Testimonials may appear inappropriate or unprofessional.

Senior Executive Positions

At executive levels, accomplishments and credentials should speak for themselves. Relying on quotes can seem beneath the expected gravitas of senior candidates.

Technical Positions with Clear Metrics

Engineering, data science, and other technical roles where performance is measurable through concrete outcomes often don’t benefit from subjective testimonials.

Limited Space Situations

If you’re struggling to fit essential information on one page, quotes are among the first elements to cut.

Quotes Without Substance

Generic praise (“great to work with”) doesn’t add value. Only include quotes that provide specific, meaningful insight.

How to Use Quotes Effectively

If you decide to include testimonials, execution matters enormously:

Source Selection

Choose quote sources strategically:

Former managers and supervisors: Their opinions carry significant weight as they had authority to evaluate your performance.

Senior colleagues: Peers at your level or above can speak to collaboration and professional respect.

Clients (with appropriate permission): Particularly valuable for client-facing roles.

Industry figures: If you’ve been praised by recognized names in your field, that carries special weight.

Avoid: Current managers (you’re job searching behind their back), junior colleagues (less credibility), personal friends (obvious bias), and anyone the employer couldn’t verify if they wanted to.

Quote Selection

Not all positive feedback makes good resume material:

Choose specificity over generality: “Marcus increased our team’s efficiency by streamlining our reporting process” beats “Marcus is really efficient.”

Focus on relevant qualities: Select quotes that address requirements of your target position.

Avoid clichés: Quotes that could apply to anyone (“hard worker,” “team player” without context) don’t differentiate you.

Favor measurable impact mentions: Quotes referencing concrete outcomes carry more weight.

Formatting Options

Several approaches to including quotes exist:

Integrated with relevant sections: Include a brief quote within your experience section, directly following the role it relates to:

Marketing Manager | ABC Company | 2022-2024
• Led campaign that increased brand awareness by 45%
• Managed team of 5 marketing specialists
"Jessica's creativity and strategic thinking elevated our entire marketing approach." — Tom Smith, VP Marketing, ABC Company

Dedicated testimonials section: Create a small section specifically for quotes:

TESTIMONIALS
"Amanda's analytical abilities consistently provided insights that drove business decisions."
— James Wilson, CFO, XYZ Corporation

Sidebar or pull-quote: In designed resumes, quotes can appear as visual elements in margins or callout boxes.

Attribution Requirements

Always fully attribute quotes:

• Full name of the person
• Their title at the time they worked with you
• Company name
• Optionally, relationship to you (“former manager,” “client”)

Anonymous quotes have no credibility and should never be used.

Permission and Accuracy

Always obtain permission before including someone’s quote on your resume. Verify that the quote is accurate—don’t paraphrase or modify their actual words. Using fabricated or modified quotes is dishonest and could backfire badly.

Quantity Guidelines

More isn’t necessarily better with testimonials:

One or two strong quotes: Usually sufficient if you choose to include any.

Maximum three: Beyond this, quotes dominate your resume and suggest over-reliance on others’ opinions.

Quality over quantity: One powerful, specific quote beats three generic ones.

Alternative Approaches to Third-Party Validation

If you want the credibility benefits of testimonials without including them on your resume, consider these alternatives:

LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn provides a natural platform for collecting and displaying recommendations. You can request recommendations from colleagues and supervisors, then direct employers to your profile. Recommendations on LinkedIn can be verified as authentic.

Link to your LinkedIn profile on your resume, knowing that interested employers will likely see your recommendations there.

Reference Letters

Reference letters allow former employers to provide more detailed endorsements than brief resume quotes permit. You can mention “references available upon request” or provide letters as part of your application package.

Portfolio with Testimonials

For creative and client-facing roles, consider creating a professional portfolio that includes testimonials. Resources like 0portfolio.com can help you build an online presence that showcases testimonials alongside your work samples, keeping your resume clean while still providing third-party validation.

Cover Letter Mentions

Rather than cluttering your resume with quotes, you can briefly reference notable praise in your cover letter: “My former manager described my client relationship skills as ‘exceptional,’ reflected in my 95% client retention rate.”

Interview Preparation

Save your best testimonials for interviews, where you can share what previous managers said about you in response to relevant questions. This approach doesn’t use resume space and allows you to present endorsements conversationally.

Performance Review Excerpts

If you have written performance reviews with quotable praise, consider bringing these to interviews as documentation. You can reference them without including them on your resume.

Special Situations

Certain circumstances affect whether and how to use resume quotes:

Academic Resumes (CVs)

Academic CVs sometimes include brief descriptions of teaching evaluations or external letter writers for positions where such information is relevant. This is more accepted in academic contexts.

Executive Resumes

Senior executives typically don’t include testimonials. However, brief mentions in a summary section (“recognized by industry publication as…”) can work if the recognition is prestigious enough.

International Applications

Resume norms vary by country. Research whether testimonials are common or unusual in your target market before including them on international applications.

Online Applications and ATS

Applicant tracking systems parse resume content into databases. Testimonials may not be parsed effectively and could confuse these systems. For ATS-submitted resumes, consider keeping testimonials minimal or absent.

Making the Decision

Use this framework to decide whether to include quotes on your resume:

Ask Yourself:

1. Does my industry accept or expect unconventional resume elements?

   • Yes → Quotes might work
   • No → Probably avoid quotes

2. Do I have specific, powerful quotes that address key job requirements?

   • Yes → Consider including
   • Only generic praise → Skip them

3. Do I have adequate space after essential content?

   • Yes → Room for strategic quotes
   • No → Don’t sacrifice important information for testimonials

4. Would quotes appear as a strength or desperation?

   • Strength (supporting strong achievements) → Consider them
   • Desperation (compensating for weak experience) → Avoid

5. Are there better alternatives for conveying third-party validation?

   • Yes (LinkedIn, portfolio, etc.) → Use those instead
   • No → Quotes might add value

The Conservative Approach

When in doubt, err on the side of not including quotes. They’re not expected on most resumes, so omitting them never hurts. Including them when inappropriate, however, can negatively impact your candidacy.

Conclusion

Quotes and testimonials on resumes remain controversial for good reason. They offer genuine benefits—third-party credibility, specificity, differentiation—but also carry significant risks: space consumption, verification concerns, format deviation, and potential appearance of desperation.

The decision whether to include testimonials should be based on careful assessment of your industry, the specific role you’re pursuing, the quality of quotes available to you, and your overall resume strategy. For most job seekers in most situations, quotes are optional at best and inadvisable at worst.

If you do choose to include testimonials, execute thoughtfully. Select specific, relevant quotes from credible sources. Attribute them properly. Keep them brief and limited in number. And ensure they complement rather than substitute for your own accomplishments and qualifications.

The most effective approach for most candidates is to leverage alternative channels for third-party validation—LinkedIn recommendations, portfolios, reference letters—while keeping resumes focused on achievements and qualifications. This approach captures the credibility benefits of endorsements without the risks of unconventional resume content.

Whatever you decide, remember that testimonials are supporting evidence, not primary content. Your resume’s foundation should always be your own accomplishments, skills, and experience. Quotes, if included, simply provide additional validation for what your resume already demonstrates.