Certifications are a quick way to gain skills that will boost your resume and raise your value as a job candidate. While not all certification programs are free, there are several reputable certifications that won’t take up too much time or money. Here are five carefully-vetted free online certifications we recommend.

#1: Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification Course

The Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification Course teaches you the basics of SEO, blogging, conversion analysis, and reporting, among other concepts. A course in inbound marketing can make you appealing to startups and entrepreneurs interested in hiring someone who can help them grow their businesses.

Bonus: Marketers looking for more cheap certifications can also check out Google Digital Garage for digital certification in search engines and social media, as well as Google’s Academy for Ads to get Adword certified.

#2 LinkedIn Learning Certifications

LinkedIn Learning has partnered with organizations to provide thousands of certifications and courses online. While not all of the courses are free, many of them are (like this one by Danny Sullivan on SEO).

From marketing to product and manufacturing to web design, whatever it is you want to become skilled in, LinkedIn Learning has you covered.

Note: There’s no way to filter free courses in LinkedIn Learning, but if you take the time to search for them, it’ll be well worth it.

#3 Project Management Professional (PMP) Course

Cybrary provides tons of free and paid courses on different topics. The Project Management Professional (PMP) course teaches you how to initiate, plan and manage any project and takes just over five hours to complete.

Project Management is a great skill for anyone to have as it shows hiring managers that you can take charge and solve problems, but it’s especially useful for engineers, healthcare professionals, financial professionals and more.

#4: Free Code Camp Certifications

Free Code Camp can teach you the basics of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, GitHub and more. Today, coding is a hugely in-demand technical skill, and this type of skill set makes almost any employee more valuable to a company–really, we’ve seen it first-hand!

Earn quick certifications that can be added to your resume, and when you’re ready, gain some free experience by working on open source projects used by nonprofits. This course is geared toward beginners, walking you through each “challenge” in a step-by-step manner.

#5: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

If you want to find free job training, a MOOC from a well-respected university might fit your bill. The open online course system offers a range of subjects, from marketing to writing to history. There are many free courses, like Crisis Management: Proseminar in Public Relations, but if your goal is to earn a credential, some courses do require a nominal fee.

Now more than ever, skills that relate to your industry are a necessary component in your resume. Certifications help back up your skills for a true ATS-friendly resume.

#6: AWS Certification

Amazon offers free digital AWS training as well as a free entry-level certification. Just sign up with the link above using your Amazon login info.

Amazon Web Services is a widely-used cloud computing platform that is used within many different industries and companies of all different sizes. Cloud computing helps make companies more organized and more competitive. Getting AWS certified will make most applicants more desireable job candidates.

Jobscan uses AI and machine learning to identify the most important skills to the job. To get an idea of which certifications would benefit your job search the most, try running your resume and an interesting job posting through Jobscan.

#7: Google Analytics Academy

Google Analytics Academy hosts free courses for all levels. There is a course for beginners, advanced users, power users, Google Analytics 360 users as well as courses on using Data Stuido and Google Tag Manager. Each course is quick and can be viewed at any time.

Google Analytics is a program used by most companies to measure site metrics and other user data. Whether you work in content, product, engineering or just want to learn more about how companies measure progress, getting to known Google Analytics will benefit you.

#8: Web Design by Udemy

Interested in learning more about web design? Web Design for Web Developers: Build Beautiful Websites! by Udemy is a good place to start. It only takes an hour and is packed with tips for beginners.

You’ll also get access to a free course e-book that you can reference whenever you need a refresher.

How to List Certifications on a Resume

Now that you know which certifications to include in your resume, let’s talk about how to list and format them correctly.

Create a Designated Section

Create a section specifically for your certifications at the very bottom of your resume. You can call it “Certifications”, “Professional Training” or “Courses”. This way, your hard-earned certifications will be easy to spot, since hiring managers typically only spend a couple of seconds skimming each resume.

List Certifications in Reverse Chronological Order

Just like your work experience section of your resume, your cerfications sections should include dates. You can put the dates in parentheses and organize them in reverse chronological order, with your most recent course taken at the top.

Dates, and the order in which you list them, ensures that all information is parsed correctly by applicant tracking systems.

Make Important Details Bold

Bold font can be used to highlight important details, like the name of a highly-distinguished certification program or a follow-up project you completed as an additional component of the certification.

Here’s an example of how your certifications section should look:

This article was originally published on December 1, 2016. It was updated on September 6, 2019.

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