Tutoring is obviously a great way to break into teaching or other roles that involve training people. But that’s not the only reason it belongs on your resume.
Tutoring involves a lot of in-demand transferable skills, from communication to flexibility to subject matter expertise. The key to putting tutoring on your resume is in identifying which of these skills are the most relevant to the job you’re currently applying for and tailoring your experience to fit.
Let’s start with a quick step-by-step guide on how to do exactly that.
Tutoring on a resume: A step by step guide
- Make a list of all your tutoring experience. This could include private, group, and one-on-one tutoring.
- Match that list against the job description to find out what parts of your experience are most relevant to the job you’re applying for.
- Alternatively, browse our database of skills and keywords or search directly for a specific job title.
- Choose where to put tutoring experience — this is most likely your work experience section, but it could also belong under volunteer work or extracurricular activities.
- List your employer, job title, and dates of employment (month and year is fine).
- Focus on your accomplishments by including numbers and other concrete metrics.
- Use an ATS resume scanner to help check your resume for any missing skills or keywords that could help you land the job.
How to describe tutoring on a resume
Where to put tutoring on your resume
Do include tutoring experience:
- In your work experience section
- In a volunteering section
- In an extracurricular activities section
Don’t list tutoring experience:
- In your skills section — tutoring isn’t a hard skill, so use your work experience bullet points to emphasize soft skills instead
Where you should put tutoring experience on your resume mostly depends on what type of experience it was (e.g. paid vs unpaid). It’s always okay to include it in your work experience section, but make sure to specify if it was a volunteer position. It’s also okay if you want to highlight extensive volunteer work or extracurricular activities by creating a separate section for those, but if in doubt, your work experience section is usually the best place to list relevant professional accomplishments.
Here’s an example of how to put tutoring experience in your work experience section:
And here’s an example of listing unpaid tutoring in a volunteering or extracurricular activities section:
Group similar tutoring roles together
If you’ve tutored multiple clients, you don’t need to list each one separately. It’s often easier — and neater — to list significant accomplishments by grouping similar roles together on your resume. This is especially relevant if you want to put private tutoring on a resume, or if you have a lot of tutoring experience in different contexts.
For example, if you spent a couple of years doing group tutoring sessions and had a few private tutoring clients on the side, instead of listing those as separate positions, you might want to group them under a single heading, like “SAT Tutor.” Use whatever job title makes sense based on your area of expertise, e.g. English Tutor, STEM Tutor, K-12 Tutor.
Use the right tools to strengthen your resume
Including tutoring experience on a resume is a great way to highlight soft skills — like communication and teamwork — that hiring managers are always looking for. Find out how well your resume conveys the right information by uploading it to the free tool below.
Tutoring resume tips
Focus on relevant skills and experience
Why should you put tutoring on your resume? For the same reason as including anything else on your resume: Because it’s relevant.
This could mean a few different things:
- The tutoring itself is relevant, e.g. you’re applying for roles in education or training
- The subject(s) you tutored are relevant and demonstrate subject matter expertise, especially if you tutored at college level or higher
- You can use your tutoring to demonstrate relevant transferable skills
The easiest way to find out what skills and experience are most relevant to the job you’re applying for is to use our skills and keywords finder, which allows you to search by industry or job title.
Quantify your accomplishments
If you’re struggling to pull concrete metrics out of your tutoring experience, consider:
- The number of students you tutored
- How many classes or group sessions you taught
- How frequently you led tutoring sessions
- What level or type of qualifications you tutored people for
- The number or percentage of students who successfully completed their qualifications
- The level of achievement of your tutees
Tutoring bullet point examples
Looking for concrete examples of accomplishments to list on your resume? Use these as a jumping off point.
How to put group tutoring on a resume
- Tutored 30+ students for GCSE, A-Level and Degree Level examinations in Mathematics.
If you tutored people in a group setting, include the number of students you had and what you were tutoring them for.
How to put private tutoring on a resume
- Coached 2 students to the final round of the Olympiad (BMO2).
If you were a private tutor, you can include a little more detail about what you were tutoring people for and what they achieved.
How to put peer tutoring on a resume
- Tutored 10+ students in computer science and economics, resulting in 100% pass rate.
Peer tutoring still belongs on a resume, especially if it was a regular (and not just one-off) occurrence.
How to put tutoring multiple grades or subjects on a resume
- Tutored students from K-12 in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics.
Don’t be afraid to put tutoring on your resume even if you didn’t have one particular area of expertise. Include the most relevant subject(s) you tutored and the grades or age ranges of your tutees.
How to put college tutoring on a resume
- Taught 2 classes of 45+ students per semester in research methods and analytics.
If you tutored professionally or at a high level, include the subject(s) you taught — especially if you’re now applying for roles in a related industry.
