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Ask HN: Should i put online courses in my resume?

14 points by kiloreux ↗ HN
I take a lot of online courses to keep my skills good, seeing the bad quality of education we have in my country, i find that online courses that i have taken contributed to my personal development more than my university courses, however i don't know if i should list such a thing on my resume, I am EE student and i have taken a lot of OS and Algorithms classes that i am pretty much comfortable explaining the concepts with full details but that can't be seen on my resume, you think i should list such things on resume ?

10 comments

[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 41.2 ms ] thread
TheCams
I would only put courses that lead to a degree on my resume under the Education section. If you have extra knowledge that you want to mention, a Qualification section would be the best place to add a line about it in my opinion.
tonyedgecombe
Yes, if it's important to you then you should try and find an employer that values it, hence it should go on your CV.
hnarayanan
Yes.

It indicates to employers that you have an inherent drive to learn things (i.e. beyond what is required as part of your formal education). And that is a good thing.

zhte415
Yes, put all of the ones you feel comfortable talking about (being asked questions on) down.

If there's a manager that knows about MOOCs, they'll notice.

If there's a manager that doesn't know about MOOCs, they'll either gratefully receive a new thing to try, or will not care.

I don't see a downside.

UnoriginalGuy
Yes, but don't over-sell it. Just throw it into an "other education" or "continued education" sections.

It should be something someone reading your resume nods at but doesn't challenge you about in the interview. A lot of people continue to view education as: "if there is no qualification it didn't happen." So you'll find people (particularly older people) asking you what qualification you got then outright discounting the entire thing if you got none.

GFischer
Some comments talk about "resumé" while others talk about CVs.

It depends on which country you're in and where you're applying.

US-style resumés are VERY different from, say, European-style Curriculum Vitaes (also used in 3rd world countries like mine).

In a CV, I would definitely add them. In an US-style resumé, I'm not so sure how they fit (seems like UnoriginalGuy has some good advice)

0x400615
I would recommend doing it if you already have a lot of white space on your resume. If you don't, then I wouldn't bother, as personal projects have more value than online classes.
pkinsky
Depends on the class. There's a series of excellent Coursera Scala courses taught by the creator of the language, those will stay on my resume for a while.
04rob
It shows an interest in refining your craft in your personal time, but as other posters have said, don't oversell it.
solomatov
It depends on what your degree is. If you have a CS degree (or other degree where this course should have been taken), putting Introduction to Algorithm course makes you look unprofessional. The same happens, if you have math heavy degree and have Introduction to Calculus course.