Landing a new job means going through a training program that equips you with all the necessary tools, skills, and information that you will need to perform your tasks adequately. If you’ve been through such training programs in your career, you’ve received services from a learning and development expert. As part of the HR team, these individuals are there to recognize and fulfill skill gaps within employees so the workforce can be as productive as possible!
For a Learning and development expert, recruiters are searching for a mix of qualities and skills. Educational background with a bachelor’s degree in HR or Education is preferred along with the hard skills of knowing the instructional design, learning KPI management as well as understanding human behavioral sciences.
On the other hand, you need to be an effective communicator who has an encouraging and healthy attitude towards employees. This makes for a well-liked learning environment within an organization. Let’s look into the learning and development resume templates we have to see what makes a successful resume in this profession!
Jump to a template:
Jump to a resource:
Get advice on each section of your resume:
To be hired as a learning and development specialist, you have to look through the lens of a recruiter. They are seeking an individual who elevates the workforce productivity through their personable training. Having an educational background and experience within HR or training is considered a bonus point as it highlights your sound knowledge and familiarity with the industry itself.
Once you’re working as a learning and development specialist, your tasks will be to evaluate the current skills within the workforce through focus groups, surveys along with feedback and the future skills that are needed to achieve business goals. You will also be tasked to create effective training programs that are suitable for employees.
Now take a look at this successful learning and development specialist's resume:
Recruiters love to hear that an applicant knows how the industry works. Show off your knowledge and expertise through relevant work experience in other companies so the recruiter knows you’ve already got the skill set needed to excel as a learning and development specialist at their company! This takes other experiences to play a positive role in helping you get hired.
The trick to show and not tell your technical skills is to use the language that does the work for you. Including specific technical terms to show you understand industry-related terminologies. Some of these examples can be found consistently in the templates in this guide, so keep an eye out for them!
Much like the learning development specialist, a Group L&D Specialist is responsible for training programs for a company’s workforce. A Group L&D Specialist is responsible for tailoring and delivering employee training programs for a company and can easily transfer their skills into multiple sister industries as training remains mostly similar.
This position requires the specialist to work towards training employees in a group setting rather than focusing on each individual separately. You will need soft skills and a handful of work experience that shows a team-working attitude and leadership qualities!
Here’s a Group Learning and Development Specialist resume template you can view to see what a successful application should show:
Since a group learning and development specialist has a job that requires great interpersonal skills, mentioning your achievements through previous work experiences can be a great way to show you have what it takes! Enroll in training courses in the industry and use those certifications to signal your growing abilities to recruiters.
Never shy away from writing down all the important skills you possess that help you excel as a Group L&D Specialist. These can include technologies and frameworks that are needed in your industry as well as your employee engagement and training techniques. It helps recruiters know that you can do the job better than other applicants.
Learning and development executives are not entry-level HR employees, so they require a much more carefully crafted resume to succeed in the hiring process. Having a specialized degree in education and training can boost your portfolio in this case. Proving work experience will also help you get ahead as it will show you are capable of performing as an executive.
A typical job description of a Learning and development executive includes monitoring how effective learning sessions are for employees as well as clear application of adult learning theories. An L&D Executive will be tasked to administrate user training and content management amongst other L&D specialists.
Look at the resume we have provided below to visualize an A+ Learning And Development Executive:
Differentiating yourself from other applicants can be done easily if you impress potential employees with your work record and mention milestones that you achieved in those positions. You can qualify those successes by mentioning the positive impacts on a business's productivity and the costs that your training had. You can also mention if you were awarded for performance excellence.
Industries such as the L&D critically commend the ability of a peer who is able to have a learning attitude towards life because that will make them a trainer who adapts to the never-ending changes in an industry. The best way to do so is completing courses, online or through local academies that show your interest in learning and hence, in spreading that knowledge.
An L&D Manager is an individual responsible for creating and introducing effective training strategies and designing them into courses, workshops, and plans for employees to engage in. They are also responsible for maintaining budgets and costing such programs, whilst coordinating with consultants and experts.
Recruiters are looking for managers who can deliver cost-effective plans that show great learning results for employees. Training entry-level L&D specialists also come under the wing of a manager and you’ll need many technical skills, previous work experience as well as familiarity with training theories.
Here’s how to write an impressive Learning And Development Manager resume:
Managers need to be well-liked and thoughtful of their actions to do well at their jobs. Mention successes that your team had under your leadership and don’t be shy of putting in work experiences that are closely linked to the one you are applying for, so the recruiter knows they can trust you.
Numbers can quantify your ability as an L&D Manager, allowing a recruiter to think statistically and find you more attractive than other applicants. You can talk about how much cost reduction you resulted in a previous managerial position through percentages as well as the number of L&D Specialists you had in your team. Tiny details like that can make a positive impact on your resume!
As a hiring manager who has recruited top talent at leading companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon, I know what it takes to create a compelling Learning and Development resume. The following tips will help you craft a resume that stands out and showcases your skills and experience in the field.
Emphasize your experience in designing and developing learning programs that align with business goals and engage learners. Include specific examples of your work, such as:
Avoid generic statements that lack context, like:
Use a clean, easy-to-read font like Arial or Calibri, and keep the formatting consistent with the rest of your resume. Avoid using multiple fonts, colors, or graphics in your header.
Make sure your name stands out and is slightly larger than the rest of the text (18-24 pt font size usually works well). For example:
Jane Smith
[email protected] | 555-123-4567 | New York, NY
Steer clear of hard-to-read fonts, distracting colors, or logos like this:
Jane Smith
[email protected] | 555-123-4567 | New York, NY
A resume summary for a Learning and Development position is optional but can be a valuable addition, especially if you are a career changer or an executive with extensive experience. It provides context and highlights key qualifications that may not be immediately apparent from the rest of your resume. However, avoid simply restating information already covered in other sections. Instead, focus on providing objective, measurable achievements and tailoring your summary to the specific role you are targeting. Keep it concise, ideally no more than a paragraph, and avoid generic soft skills or corporate buzzwords.
Your work experience section is the heart of your resume, where you show hiring managers what you've accomplished and the skills you've developed in previous roles. Recruiters and hiring managers will often skim your work history first before reading the rest of your resume in detail, so it's essential to get this section right, especially for L&D roles.
The education section of your resume is a critical component, especially if you're a recent graduate or changing careers. It's where you showcase your academic achievements and relevant coursework. Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling education section that will catch the eye of hiring managers in the learning and development field.
Having strong action verbs can modify your resume into a grander appearance. L&D requires you to train individuals to do their tasks with more proficiency and since it is training-focused, words such as “trained” and “taught” can be quite useful to hint at your abilities.
Here’s a list of action words to subtly place in your resume:
For more related action verbs, visit Teaching Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
When you’re talking about your skill set in your resume, ensure that you are putting your best foot forward. As L&D personnel, you should have a greater range when it comes to training employees of an organization. For that, your skill set should show variety in terms of training methods and technological adaptability.
Mentioning authoring tools that can create courses or the use of project management tools to show you are a team worker can be great skills to put on your resume! Organizational skills are always a plus on the resume to impress your employees as well as showing a lifelong learning attitude through certifications and acknowledgments!
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Learning and Development job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
