The Résumé

1. The Résumé • A resume tailored to fit the job you are applying for is one of the most important tools you need to get an interview • It gives an employer a quick, general idea of who you are, what qualifications you have and why you want the job.

2. What to include • Personal information: name, address, telephone. Make sure to have a professional email address for job searching. • Job Goal: this is one sentence and will tell the employer exactly what type of work you are looking for. Link it to the job you are applying for. *optional- must be effective or do not include it. • Related Skills: the special abilities and skills that relate to the job you are applying for (paid, unpaid, volunteer experience, even hobbies) • Education: If your job experience is scanty or nonexistent, this section usually comes first since your educational qualifications are your primary selling point. Start with the most recent and work backwards. Include the name and city/town, the type of program, and the years you completed. This can also include mini courses such as first-aid or any other training that would be useful to the job you want.

3. Continued… • Work Experience: list the companies you worked for with cities and provinces and the dates (month, year) you worked in each job. When using a chronological resume, list from most recent to least recent; if using a functional, experience may be arranged according to type of work. Outline the type of duties you carried out, starting from the one that took most of your time or involved the most responsibility. • 5 duties should be maximum and should be “action oriented” (use verbs as lead-ins to the facts. For example, say “reviewed customer service procedures; trained new employees; prepared budgets). • Stress your accomplishments- simply stating your duties only outlines what the employer expected you to do. Rather than say “duties were to supervise customer accounts”, say that you “supervised the Customer Accounts Department”. • Interests/Activities: briefly outlines a few of your interests and activities that demonstrate something about you. Be sure to mention achievements or awards you may have received. If you have volunteer experience that is relevant to the job, make sure you put it in, transferable skills are important. • Many employment counselors say that a person with varied interests makes the best employee in the long run. However, you don’t want interests to dominate your resume, and you should concentrate on those that reveal talents and qualities relevant to the work you want such as leadership, imagination, or perseverance.

4. References • It is not mandatory to include references; however, it can save the employer valuable time. • Think carefully about who can act as references, and ask them if its okay before you give their names. • Type the names, addresses, and phone numbers of up to three references on a separate piece of paper, which matches your resume. • Keep your reference list as up-to-date as possible, so that you will be fresh in the minds of the people on it. If you can give your reference an idea of the type of job you are applying for, and whenever possible, let them know when you think an employer will be calling them, so they can be available and have time to think about what they will say. • Your reference can be: • Someone from your school (teacher, guidance counselor, coach) • Someone you have worked for (summer, part-time, or full-time employer) • *Someone you’ve worked for on a casual basis (babysitting, shoveling snow, delivering papers) • * Someone you’ve helped (as a volunteer or as a friend) • *Someone whose opinion is respected (elder, minister, community leader)

5. Matching Your Skills To The Job • Match your skills and experience to the needs of the organization. There’s no point emphasizing talents that have no bearing on the job you want. This is where research helps; you have to determine what kinds of skills and experience are best suited to the job. On the other hand, many of your past accomplishments, which may on the surface seem irrelevant, can add to your qualifications if presented properly.

6. What sets you apart? • Stress what sets you apart from the crowd. If an employer has a choice of applicants, all with much the same background, personal attributes will make the difference. These attributes could be a high energy level, leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, or any quality that helps you to stand out.

7. Get the employer’s attention • Don’t write an autobiography. Some career planning specialists suggest that employers and recruiters typically scan a résumé in 10 to 20 seconds. That brief period is crucial in deciding whether your application package will receive further consideration, so make sure to introduce vital information quickly.

8. Three Main Resume Types • There are three main ways to organize the information on your resume. Each type serves a certain purpose. How do you know which one is best? • Chronological Resume • Functional Resume • Combination

9. Chronological Resume • These are the ones you use if you can show steady progress in your education and employment. • You will use this to emphasize education and employment experience, ordered chronologically from most recent to least recent. • This is the best method to use when: • The name of your last employer is important; • You want to find a job in the same area as your previous one; • Your job history or education shows growth and development; • You are entering the workforce directly from secondary and post-secondary backgrounds • Don’t use a chronological resume if: • You want to emphasize skills you haven’t used in other jobs; • You’re looking for a job you’ve never done before; or • You’ve changed jobs a lot

10. Functional Resume • These are best when you have little or no actual work experience in the area in which you’re looking for work. • Instead of organizing work experience chronologically, you can organize information according to the type of work experience such as “Marketing Experience” or “Accounting Experience”. It’s often more effective, however, to stress your skills or accomplishments through headings such as “Initiative”, “Creativity”, or” Research Skills”. • Use this when: • You haven’t worked before • You want to emphasize talents and skills you haven’t used in a particular job. • You’ve had a variety of jobs in the past which aren’t connected; or • You’ve done mostly temporary work in the past. • Don’t use a functional resume when: • You have a steady pattern of jobs and education; or • Your past employers are important in relation to your job objective.

11. Combination Resume • This is a combination of the other types. It is best to use when: • Your education is an important part of your skills presentation, and your practical skills are limited; • Your background shows a wide range of unrelated skills; • Your work history isn’t reflective of you as a stable worker or you’ve held a lot of different jobs; and • Your work history shows more time in other work areas.

12. Tips for a great resume • Type your resume on a computer. Use good quality, white or off-white letter-size (8 ½- 11 inch) paper. • Make sure your resume is easy to scan. This means that it’s in a clear, legible font (Arial 12 point), and that you have left space between lines and paragraphs. • Choose your words carefully. Your resume represents you to an employer. • Keep it short. Employers get a lot of replies to ads, and may not read a resume that is messy or too long. • Make sure it’s accurate. People will check. • Proofread to catch mistakes, fix them, and print a new, clean copy. • Make sure your personal information is correct and current. • Don’t sign or date your resume. • Always send a cover letter with your resume. • Make your pages “breathe” by using wide margins- 1 ½ inches on either side is good. Its easier to read.

13. 10 Things NOT to put in your resume • How much you want ($) • Why you’re changing jobs, or why you left a previous one. • Social Insurance Number • Addresses of former employers • Your age • Marital Status • Whether you have children, or are pregnant • Height, weight • Health status or disabilities • Race or religion (if its important for the job, it should be in the cover letter)

14. Employers’ Pet Peeves About Resumes • More than 2 pages long • Poor quality or colored paper • Typing mistakes or hand-written corrections • Listing odd jobs that aren’t related • Repeated information, repeated information, repeated information… you get it! • Inflated or boastful claims • Fancy pictures or charts • A wrinkled or dirty resume, or a poor photocopy

15. Cover Letter • Its your first real contact with a person who may become your employer, and its your chance to show an employer what qualifies you for the job. • It should do more than state “Here’s my application and resume”. Can you imagine a prospective employer, with a stack of applications on the desk, wanting to read the following applicants resume? Dear Sir I am applying for the job in your Sales Department which you advertised. I am graduating from college this year and would like a job in sales. The enclosed résumé gives my qualifications for that kind of work. I hope you will think I am suitable and that I will hear from you soon. Yours truly Joe Sinclair • Not only is this an I-centered letter but it provides no particular reason for the employer to hire the applicant. Aside from what you say, the way you say it matters; a well written letter reveals important communication skills and will make a good first impression. • It pays to take time to learn about the company or organization that you are applying to. If your cover letter is tailored to the company and job, you’ll show the employer that you can be a good fit. • There are various ways to write cover letters, so we will look at samples that show how to follow up to an ad in the newspaper, a phone call you made to an organization, or for an unadvertised job.

16. Unsolicited & Solicited Cover Letters • The type of letter you write will depend in part on whether the company is actually advertising a position. An unsolicited letter of application is a letter of inquiry to a company that may or may not have openings. In this instance, your task is to interest the company in your background and qualifications rather than to apply for a specific job. • The solicited letter of application targets specific qualifications for an advertised position.

17. Guidelines • The following guidelines for a covering letter are not hard and fast rules. Applicants should not be like cookie cutters, producing identical products. Feel free to express your own personality, as long as you remember the reason for writing and the reader you hope to influence. • Get the Reader’s Attention. Try to say something that will make the reader want to read on. This could be an outstanding qualification or a reason for your interest in the firm. Here are some examples: • The article in Canadian Business on recent developments at Acme Industries suggests that you may be expanding. Are you looking for a dynamic salesperson? • I believe my skill as a writer and my experience as a peer tutor would be useful attributes in your Public Affairs Department. • Name dropping is another attention-getter. If someone respected by the employer has suggested you make the application or is willing to vouch for you, mention the person at the beginning of your letter, for example, “Arthur Stone suggested that I get in touch with you,” or “Arthur Stone has told me that your company regularly hires students as summer office help.”

18. State your Purpose. You want the reader to know early in the letter that you are applying for a job. Don’t beat around the bush and merely imply that you want employment- be specific. If you are responding to an advertised opening, say so. If your application is unsolicited, indicate the type of work you are applying for. Remember that a reader who is uncertain about your purpose is unlikely to act. • Give a Brief Summary of Your Selling Points You may create a second paragraph for this, but keep it as short as possible. A covering letter should not exceed a page. The shorter the better— as long as it creates interest in you. Here are some tips: • Link your skills to the employers needs: don’t just restate part of your résumé but adapt it to the company or organization. Focus not on how the job would help you, but on how you could help the employer. If you were a surveyor looking for summer held. Which sentence from a surveying student would appeal to you most? • X I would like to work for a surveyor this summer to upgrade my qualifications and gain some practical experience. • √ I believe the surveying courses I have taken will help me make a useful contribution to your summer surveying work.

19. Place any weaknesses in a subordinate position. Most of the time, your covering letter or résumé will not mention a weak area of your background. However, you may be asked to provide specific information that is not a selling point for you—information such as present employment or work experience in a specific field. If you must include something you don’t want to emphasize, do so in a way that emphasizes a more positive point. • X Unfortunately I have never worked in a job requiring accounting • √ My background in accounting includes four undergraduate courses that required major projects and honours seminars. • Don’t apologize. If you don’t think you can do a specific job, don’t apply for it. If you think you can, be confident in outlining your qualifications. Avoid apologetic phrases such as “I’m sorry,” “I regret,” or “unfortunately” when referring to your background or skills. • Ask for an interview. Applicants often forget to do this directly. You need to press for an interview politely. You can indicate specific days or times when you will be available.

20. The Follow-up Letter • When you have completed an interview, remember to send a brief thank-you letter to the interviewer. You can use this opportunity to show your enthusiasm for the company or staff or to emphasize a qualification the interviewer considered important. Even if you don’t get the job at this time, you will help create a positive climate for any future dealings.

21. Helpful Hints • Refer to the job that you are interested in. If there is a competition number, write it down. • Address your letter to the appropriate contact person, either the employer or a human resources officer. Use their name and title, and double-check the spelling. If the ad doesn’t supply a contact, phone and get the right name. Never assume a person is male or female based on a first name- check it out. • Refer to how you heard about the job (job posting, newspaper article, or from someone in your network of contacts)

22. Helpful Hints • Make sure the employer knows what action to take- will you call the employer or should the employer call you, and when? • Provide your name, phone number and address. • Keep your letter to one page. Type it out on good quality paper. • Proof read your letter, and ask someone else to read it as well. Correct the errors, and print a clean copy. • Email, mail or hand-deliver your cover letter and resume. Keep a copy for your files, and note the date that it was sent out. • Allow plenty of time for delivery. Don’t wait until the last day before a deadline.

23. Filling out Application Forms • When you apply for a job, you will be asked to fill in some kind of application form. Make sure you read the whole document first and follow directions carefully. • Print or write as neatly as you can, using a black or a blue pen or marker. If you make a mess of the application, as for a new one, and start again. • Answer every question. Write N/A (not applicable) if a question doesn’t apply to you. • Include all your paid and unpaid work in the “Work Experience” section. Be honest. Remember that you will have to sign your name to the information you provide. • When you are finished, sign and date the application, and attach it to your cover letter and resume (unless otherwise stated). • You may call to confirm that your application was received, but remember to be polite and professional.