Toolbox
The Résumé
The all-important résumé! A key part of your job search, it lets you showcase your qualities to find the job you want.
What makes for a successful résumé? The three Ps. Your résumé has to be precise, pertinent and pack a punch. You have about one minute to grab the employer’s attention. Here’s how to do it.
The format and page layout
- Go ahead and personalize it to reflect your tastes and imagination. But be careful! Your résumé has to be clear, easy to read and simple.
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- Avoid using multiple or ornate fonts.
- Avoid overusing dashes, bullet points, lines and other graphics.
- Don’t include your photo (unless you are asked for it).
- Avoid humour, which has no place in a résumé.
- Don’t include your salary expectations, social insurance number, date of birth or marital status.
- Don’t exceed three pages and make sure the information is up to date.
The content
- No matter what format you use for your résumé or the order you present the information in, you need to include:
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- Your aptitudes
- Your accomplishments in previous jobs
- Your experience that relates to the position you’re after
- Your technical skills (software, etc.)
- The languages you’ve mastered
- As for the rest...
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- Leisure activities You can include them, but be careful of how they may be interpreted, for example, you could be perceived as a loner if you don’t engage in team sports.
- Extracurricular activities : Yes, because they show your interest in achieving complementary objectives.
- Volunteer work : Yes, because it demonstrates your generosity and your values.
- References : You can indicate that they will be provided upon request.
The order of sections
You can draft your résumé with a focus on your experience, your skills or a mix of the two.
Here are three possible résumés, and the order for the sections:
- Focused on work experience
- Career objective
- Work experience (beginning with the most recent job)
- Education
- Technical skills
- Language skills
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- Focused on accomplishments
- Career objective
- Main accomplishments
- List of jobs (beginning with the most recent)
- Education
- Technical and language skills
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- Focused on skills
- Career objective
- Main accomplishments
- Technical and language skills
- Work experience (beginning with the most recent job)
- Education
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Language
Use words with impact, or action verbs, for example: accomplish, administer, communicate, create, lead, organize, participate, produce.
Reread it again and again – just one spelling mistake and your résumé could end up in the garbage can. Make use of every resource at your disposal (spell checkers, dictionaries, a friend, a parent, etc.).
Writer’s block?
Don’t reinvent the wheel! There are plenty of sample résumés available all over the web, even right from your word processing program.
Better yet, download Drakkar’s sample résumés and personalize them:
What are your career objectives? What have you accomplished? What are your strongest skills?
