Awards and honors are third-party proof that you did good work. Listed well, they help your resume stand out. Here’s which awards to include and how to present them.
Which Awards to Include
- Work awards: employee of the month or year, sales awards, customer service recognition.
- Academic honors: dean’s list, Latin honors, scholarships, thesis awards.
- Industry awards and competition wins.
- Community or volunteer recognition, if relevant to the role.
Prioritise recent and relevant awards. A sales award matters for a sales job; a high school science fair prize usually doesn’t matter once you have a degree.
Where to Put Awards
- Under the relevant job, as a bullet point, when the award came from that role. This connects it to your experience.
- In your education section for academic honors.
- In a separate “Awards” section if you have three or more significant awards.
How to Describe an Award
Include the award name, who gave it, the year, and a short explanation of why you won it or how selective it was.
Top Sales Performer, Q3 2025 – Acme Corp. Ranked first of 40 account executives by revenue closed.
Employee of the Year, 2024 – Riverside Hospital. Selected from 300 staff for leading a patient-safety initiative.
Example: Awards Under a Job
- Grew regional sales by 22% year on year, earning the company’s President’s Club award (top 5% of sales staff).
Example: Separate Awards Section
Awards
Innovation Award, Northwind Labs, 2025 – for launching an internal analytics tool used by 200 staff
Dean’s List, University of Arizona, 2019–2021
First Place, State Business Plan Competition, 2020
Tips
- Add context. “Employee of the Month” means more with “(of 60 staff)” after it.
- Don’t pad the section with participation certificates.
- Keep the format consistent with the rest of your resume.
For formatting academic honors alongside your degree, see how to list a degree on your resume.
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