Writing · 2026-08-22 · 12 min read

Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn courses on a CV: which ones count

Udemy is not a master’s. ATS looks for the skill, not the marketplace. How to pick 4 courses and where to put them. ClarCV.

Online courses on a CV count when they are a skill you can prove, not when they are a list of 40 Udemy diplomas. People searching “Udemy on a CV” often have a bloated junior PDF or a senior who wants to look current. ATS does not score “Udemy”. It scores Python, Excel, HubSpot, if those words are in the ad and in your experience. The marketplace is noise; the tool is the keyword.

This guide covers what to keep, what to drawer, where to place them (education vs skills vs a job bullet), and how not to mix an 8-hour MOOC with a master’s. Related: ATS keywords, CV with no experience. ClarCV helps when “additional training” is longer than experience: upload the file and trim.

You will not delete everything you learned in pyjamas. You will leave four lines that survive “what did you do on that course?”. If the answer is “I watched the videos”, it is off the PDF.

The 30-second rule

Keep it if you can name a deliverable: a dashboard, a real ad, a repo, a proctored certificate (Google, AWS, Meta, a Coursera with an exam). Cut it if it is a €12 pack of 20 courses, a one-hour LinkedIn Learning, or an “intro to” something you never used later. A Google Data Analytics certificate with a project weighs. “Complete Python Bootcamp” with no script on GitHub does not.

• Yes: a certificate with an ID or exam (AWS, Google, Microsoft, HubSpot Academy, DELE).
• Yes: a long course tied to a project already in Experience or Projects.
• No: 15 Udemy intros from the same year.
• No: repeating the same word seven times in Skills and Courses (stuffing).
• No: treating the platform as a university (“Udemy master’s”).

Before: Additional training — 18 courses (Udemy, Domestika, YouTube). After: Google UX Design (Coursera, 2024) — Figma prototype of a clinic booking app. Excel (Power Query) used in monthly reporting on my internship. Two lines. ATS finds Figma and Excel. A human has a smart question.

Where to put it

If the course is the only signal of a tool the ad asks for, put it in Skills and in a bullet (“modelled the funnel in GA4 after course X”). If it is extra, a short “Certifications” block at the end, with year. Do not put it above real internships. A junior mid-degree should not open with Udemy. See internship CV.

Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Platzi, Domestika

The platform is not prestige by itself. Coursera with a partner university and a project > a one-video LinkedIn Learning. Platzi or a school known in your market can be a local signal. Domestika: useful in design if there is a portfolio; useless as a list. Do not lie about duration or “professional certificate” if it was a free course.

Clean the PDF you already have

Delete the list, keep four, move tools into Skills as text (no bars). In ClarCV you upload Word or PDF, see density and structure, apply an ATS template. Free: 3 analyses and 2 downloads / 30 days, no card. Pro €7/month. The model must not invent an AWS Certified that is not in the file.