Tips for Preparing Your Resume
- Format: Choose the right resume format that’s the best fit for your work experience, educational background and skill set.
There are 3 main types of resume formats:
- Chronological: Emphasizes on your work history
- Functional: Focus on your skills, abilities and experience
- Combination: It’s a mix between chronological and functional resume
Chronological is the most popular format that allows you to show off your work history. It is the best choice when you have work experience that is related to the job requirement you are applying for.
This format can be created in the following order:
- Objective
- Highlights
- Work experience, Canadian at top, overseas at bottom including volunteer work
- Education/Training/Exams
- Hobbies / interests
2. Font: Choose basic font such as Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Times New Roman and use font size that’s between 10 and 12. Make sure your name is in bold, and stands out from rest of the text. Be consistent throughout your resume with your margins, fonts, and line spacing.
3.Keep it professional: Stick to the facts, and avoid excessive detail. Make it targeted and tailor each resume to each job to let the employer know exactly what you can do for their company. Use different words instead of using the same verbs repeatedly e.g. worked, accomplished, advised, completed, assigned, performed. Make it well written, a resume is no place for gimmicks or funny email address.
4. Keep it short: Try to make your resume not more than two pages, if it is getting too long use the style of description of experience as paragraph rather than bullets, this will make your resume shorter. Adjust header and footer to accommodate your resume on lesser number of pages.
5. Use proper grammar tense: You may use present tense for your current job responsibilities and accomplishments and past tense for your past job: however, to keep it simple, you can list everything in past tense as well, even your current job. The key is to be consistent throughout the entire resume.
6. Include a Cover letter: You should include a well written cover letter as it demonstrates your communication skills, personal writing style, and professionalism that cannot be done through a resume.
7. Describe the terms: A description should be included for terms or abbreviations that you think will not be understandable to employers.
8. Review your resume: You must proofread your resume before submitting it. Once it’s complete, you may leave it for a day or so and get back to it with a fresh mind for fine tuning. You may also ask a friend or a family member to review it.
9. Send your resume: Follow the employers’ instruction for submitting resume. If no specific instructions are given, you may email your resume after 12 midnight. It is expected that next day your resume will be at the top of the mail list and more likely to be read first.
COVER LETTER SAMPLE
Your Name
Street Address Ph.: (000) 000-0000
City, Province, Postal code E-mail: xyz@hotmail.com
————————————————————–
Date
Employer’s Name (or the recruiter name)
Company Name
Street Address
City, Province, Postal code
Dear Employer’s Name:
You should explain what position you are applying for, where you learned about the position, and why you are interested in this particular role. If you are submitting your resume when no specific opening exists, indicate your career interest and the position you desire.
Highlight your skills, work experience, and academic achievements that directly relate to the qualifications required for the job. You can use information about your work history, professional accomplishments and your expertise to prove that you are the best candidate for the role.
Emphasize your soft skills such as being hard working, detailed oriented, having excellent communication skills and strong learning abilities etc. Show your willingness to discuss further and request an interview.
Thank the employer for their time and consideration, and mention that you are looking forward to hear from them soon.
Sincerely,
Your signatures
Your Name
RESUME SAMPLE
Your Name
Street Address Ph.: (000) 000-0000
City, Province, Postal code E-mail: xyz@hotmail.com
Objective:
Your career objective should be a short and specific statement that clarifies your goals and how your skills make you a good fit. A good objective should be 1-2 lines with the main focus on the employer’s needs rather than about you looking for a new experience.
Highlights:
Say something unique about yourself such as Masters in Mathematics with years of experience in teaching, strong communicator, exceptional interpersonal skills.
Computer Skills:
Can be written in bullet points or list them as in below example:
MS Windows, MS Excel, MS Words, and MS Outlook
Work Experience:
Your position title, Company Name January 0000- Present
City, Province
- List your work experience in reverse-chronological order, with your most recent job first.
- Tailor your previous accomplishments to fit with the skills listed in job requirements.
- List your key responsibilities and how you excelled in that role
- Use action verbs such as upgraded, invented, trained, advised, compiled, negotiated etc.
- Use an active voice as it makes your statement brief, clear and simple.
- Use proper tense, describe your past duties and accomplishments in the past tense, and your current ones in the present tense.
- Use bullet points to make it more impactful and to provide the employer with the better understanding of your abilities.
- Remember, you are selling your skills, so tell your career story.
Education:
Degree (reverse-chronological order) Date
School Name
Location
Hobbies and interests:
This section is optional; however, a list of good activities and interests can make you stand out from the crowd. Be selective, exercise good judgement and include hobbies and interest that are appropriate, real, and relatable to the desired personality traits for the job.
A.Rasool (Accounting Diploma, Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology, Toronto)
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