Should I include incomplete education on my resume?
Hi,
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question! 10 years ago I completed 1 year at a liberal arts college, and in the past 6 years I have received some credits at a community college, but I have neither an associate’s degree nor a bachelor’s.
All of my work experience thus far has been service industry (with some retail) and so it hasn’t really been a relevant issue thus far, as my resumes were geared towards those jobs. Now, however, I’m trying to branch out and apply to some other kinds of jobs, likely administrative or really anything else I can find that doesn’t have a degree requirement.
I’m wondering whether or not to list my time at either college, and if so, how. I recently moved to a new city, so I’m not currently enrolled at the community college in my previous city that I have credits from (both times I stopped/paused college were for financial reasons — pandemic-related for the community college), but once I’m working again in the new city, I do eventually intend to return to school, particularly if I find a job at which a relevant degree would help me advance.
Should I list the schools and the years I attended or leave it off entirely? It feels disingenuous to list them without clarification, especially since at the community college I was taking only a few credits at a time over several years — so I wouldn’t want the years I attended to make it appear as though I had actually earned a degree.
Posted Jul 9, 2025, 4:10 AM UTC