Resume Development

Job Tips: Creating Your Personal Resume

Your resume and cover letter are your own personal marketing tools. They should make you stand out from the crowd so that the employer will want to invite you in for an interview. While you may spend hours writing and refining your resume and cover letter, the employer will only take a minute from his or her busy schedule to look at them. With this in mind, ask yourself how you can best get your message across to each potential employer.

Developing Your Resume

Resumes usually contain the following elements:

• contact information
• career objective
• skills and/or accomplishments
• work experience, education

While there are many formats you can use, the functional resume format – which focuses on skills and accomplishments rather than work history – is most appropriate for people with limited work experience. Even if you don’t have any work experience, you can sell yourself by highlighting some of the skills and attributes you identified in your personal skills profile.

J.P. Roy
1000 Pine Street
Eganville, ON, K0J 0J0
(999) 555-1234

Performance-oriented high school student, with an excellent reputation as a responsible and hard-working achiever, seeking a retail position in the fashion industry.

Skills and Attributes

• people-oriented, motivated and honest
• strong communication and teamwork skills
• organized, reliable and methodical
• creative problem-solver

Work and Volunteer Experience

Eganville Soccer Association, Eganville, ON 2019-2022

Assistant Coach
Instructed and supervised junior team
Performed administrative tasks for coach as required

Education

Eganville Senior High School, Eganville, ON 2018

 

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Technology & Your Resume

Organizations lose productivity when positions remain vacant. Technology has now provided employers and recruiters with new tools to expedite the recruitment and hiring process, enabling quicker access and evaluation of job applicants and their qualifications. Many organizations are utilizing web based applications or e-mail as a preferred delivery option for resumes.

Many recruiters prefer to receive resumes electronically because it moves applicants quickly through the hiring process; they either scan the document visually or send it on for computer scanning, electronically forwarding to hiring managers those resumes that meet job requirements.

Other organizations request job seekers visit their website and complete applications online. But not all organizations are either set up or want to receive their resumes or applications in electronic format, so you must identify and comply with organizational requirements before you apply.

When to Send in a Resume

You’ll prepare and submit a resume when:

• A hiring manager or recruiter requests one.
• An employment listing states you should forward your resume and provides an e-mail address.
• An organization requests on its website that you use its e-mail address to deliver your resume.
• An organization provides an on-line form on its website to quickly forward your resume and cover letter.

What to Say on a Resume

Resumes start out as either traditional or scannable resumes, so you’ll use the appropriate content from your traditional or scannable resume.

• • Don’t use an electronic mail address from work; use a personal electronic mail address.
  • Avoid unprofessional-sounding screen names. Remember, when employers open their electronic mail, they see a listing with the subject and sender. It is more appropriate to send a message from Sambates@abc.com rather then Poodlelover@abc.com.

TIP: Choose black text only. Color text will take longer to transmit and may be unreadable.

How to Say It in a Resume

• STEP 1: Evaluate the job you are seeking and locate the job requirements.
• STEP 2: Determine if you have an existing resume on file that meets the criteria.
• STEP 3: If your resume meets the criteria, follow the directions under “Formatting Electronic resumes.”
• STEP 4: If your resume does not demonstrate that you meet the job requirements, save it as a new document and work through each section, detailing skills, experience, education, training, and credentials that match job specifications.

Tips on Writing a Resume

• Prepare your resume in your word-processing program and use the spelling checker.
• Proof the electronic mail address, subject, and your electronic resume carefully before sending. It is easy to hit the wrong keys when using electronic mail so carefully check for errors before transmitting.

Formatting a Resume

How you format your resume prior to transmittal determines how it will look when received. Follow the instructions carefully to ensure legibility.

• Use left justification for all text.
• Remove all special effects such as ruling lines, bullets, bold, italics, and underline.
• Use uppercase to emphasize section headings, job titles, organization names, colleges/universities, and degrees. (These are just examples; choose uppercase only for the items you want to highlight.)
• Balance spacing and uppercase to complement appearance and legibility. Space text carefully for clarity.
• Set your right hand margin to 6 or 6.5 inches to ensure there are no more than 75 characters per line. This should eliminate the problem of premature line wraps.
• Convert all text to ASCII.
• Save the entire document as a text file.

Producing a Resume

When you are ready to mail your resume electronically, follow these steps:

• STEP 1: Copy your resume using the pull-down edit menu.
• STEP 2: Open your electronic mail program.
• STEP 3: Select “compose a message”
• STEP 4: Fill in the address section with the e-mail address of your recipient.
• STEP 5: Use the subject area to state what you are sending, for example: “Resume for Billing Supervisor” or “IT Manager Resumes.”
• STEP 6: Paste your resume into the body of the e-mail message.
• STEP 7: Review the message to ensure adequate spacing, no premature line breaks, and ease in readability.
• STEP 8: Send your message. TIP: Send a copy of your electronic resume to yourself, print it out, and evaluate its visual appearance.

Providing References

References are your chance to get credit for things you’ve done in the past. A reference can be anyone other than a family member or close friend who knows about your work habits or your personality. An employer may want to call your references to find out more about you. There’s no need to list references on your resume – you may indicate that they are available on request. If someone is willing to provide you with a written reference, you might want to have a few copies handy. Remember to always keep your resume short, easy to read and error free. Have a friend, parent or teacher proofread your resume – a well written resume increases your chances of getting an interview dramatically!

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This Employment Ontario service is funded in part by the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario and is administered by Algonquin College in Pembroke, Eganville and Barry's Bay.