How to List a Sorority or Fraternity on Your Resume

Greek Life gets a bit of a bad rap.

Between reports of wild partying and hazing incidents, people forget that such behaviors don’t represent the whole experience.

In reality, being part of a fraternity or sorority involves leadership, philanthropy, and other important resume building traits that hiring managers seek out in new graduates.

How to Add a Fraternity or Sorority to Your Resume

One of the most important parts of including Greek Life on your resume is how you display it and where. Depending on how much you’d like to disclose about your fraternity or sorority experience, there are two options for smoothly incorporating it on your resume.

1. Include it in your professional experience

We recommend adding your Greek Life experience to your Professional Experience section in three circumstances.

1. You don’t have enough actual professional experiences to fill up a full resume page
2. You’re writing a grad school resume and have honors from your time in a fraternity/sorority
3. You had enough experiences during your Greek Life to justify 3-6 bullet points, particularly experiences that demonstrate achievements of some kind

Since this option allows you to go into detail on what you did as a member of Greek Life, it’s the clearest way to express how your experience has shaped you and how you’re a stronger candidate because of it.

2. Put it in your activities or volunteering sections

If you want to indicate your affiliation, but don’t want to dedicate a lot of space on your resume to Greek Life, add an entry to your Activities or Volunteering section.

Use this option if:

1. You didn’t hold significant positions in your fraternity or sorority
2. You simply don’t want to draw too much attention to your Greek experience

Even if you’re not devoting as much room on your resume to your Greek Life, be sure to quantify your experiences with numbers so your employer has a clearer idea of what you’ve accomplished.

5 Reasons to Put a Fraternity or Sorority on Your Resume

After learning how to add Greek Life to your resume, you may be wondering why you should go through the trouble of doing it. In fact, there are many compelling reasons why putting a fraternity or sorority on your resume can help you land employment.

1. Greek Life demonstrates leadership and other transferable skills

Similar to clubs and other extracurricular activities, Greek organizations have leadership positions, such as president or recruitment chair. If you’re someone who currently holds ones of these positions, you’ve probably planned parties or rushes for your fraternity or sorority.

Organizing these experiences requires soft skills that are transferable to a job, so you should list them on your resume as examples of your accomplishments, as well as evidence of your leadership skills.

As a leader of your fraternity or sorority, you may have honed transferable abilities like:

• Communication skills
• Teamwork
• Problem solving
• Creativity
• Interpersonal skills
• Attention to detail

These soft skills are invaluable for many types of jobs. With the experience you’ve gained from coordinating Greek events and running an organization, you’ll easily convince the hiring manager why you’re a viable candidate.

Even if you weren’t in a direct leadership position in your fraternity or sorority, you may have had experiences that nonetheless required leadership or other transferable skills.

For instance:

• Did you volunteer at a fundraiser held by your sorority?
• Did you secure supplies or equipment needed for a party?
• Did you situate or mentor new members to your fraternity?

You can spin these activities into bullet points that demonstrate your skills, especially if you quantify them with achievements. By quantify, we mean that instead of simply writing that you raised money volunteering, you can highlight the exact dollar amount raised.

Here’s an example:

Contacted lighting company and set up times for workers to install professional lighting for our talent show that raised $40,000 for disadvantaged children’s education.

2. Greek Life highlights your civic engagement

Philanthropy is another essential component of the Greek Life experience. Many chapters stress giving back to the community through charity work as a central tenet that their members are encouraged to participate in.

If your fraternity or sorority is charitable, think about how you contributed to raising money for charity and describe these experiences as bullet points on your resume.

Ask yourself:

• Were you part of the fundraiser planning committee?
• Did you help promote the fundraiser across campus?
• Did you participate in the fundraiser itself?

These kind of achievements show your employer how you work as part of a team, as well as your drive for getting things done.

Check out this example:

Ran social media accounts to promote the relay race our sorority holds to raise money for cancer research by scheduling daily posts across Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Similarly, if your chapter is active in civic engagement, introduce your volunteer work on your resume. Even though it’s unpaid, volunteering is still known as “volunteer work” for a reason. Community service helps volunteers develop valuable work-related skills that are highly prized by employers.

Consider the following questions:

• Did your fraternity devote substantial hours to the local soup kitchen?
• Did your sorority help build homes for disaster victims?
• Did your organization read stories to young children at the regional library?

Describe your role in these activities, emphasizing the results of your work with quantifiable achievements, such as how many people you assisted or how many homes you built.

Built 200 homes for Hurricane Harvey disaster victims during a two-week retreat with my sorority.

3. Greek Life provides networking perks

Take advantage of national Greek alumni networks during your job search by including your fraternity or sorority on your resume. If the hiring manager is also a Greek organization member, that connection could help you land an interview.

Another way to capitalize on the alumni network is to have your fraternity or sorority on your resume when you hand them out at Greek alumni events. By proudly displaying your affiliation on your resume, you’ll leave a stronger impression on the alumni contacts you connect with, possibly sparking conversations that lead to future job opportunities.

4. Greek Life can be a conversation starter

While having your fraternity or sorority on your resume isn’t an interview-granting guarantee, it’s a great way to break the ice during an interview. Acknowledging your Greek experience is an easy way for you to show another side of yourself.

Your skills and experiences aren’t the only measures for whether you’re a good fit for a company. Company culture is important, too. If the company culture values friendliness, socializing, or community, presenting your personable nature through your Greek experience could show your employer that you would fit right in.

5. Greek Life highlights your time management abilities

Being an active member of Greek life and a successful college student requires stellar time management skills. Between social events, philanthropy, volunteering, and other activities, balancing Greek life with a heavy course load is no easy task.

By disclosing both your academic achievements and active Greek participation, hiring managers will know that you can effectively manage your time.

This makes you a desirable candidate, especially if the company has a fast-paced environment where you’ll juggle multiple tasks.

Want more resume help? Don’t forget to check out our industry-tailored resume samples or our stylish, HR-approved resume templates.