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Resume Guidelines!

CANADEM requests a specific résumé format. The more substantive your résumé, the more likely your name will catch the eye of the Human Resources Officer for the position you seek. Résumés formatted differently may be attention-grabbing, but difficult to email and not always acceptable.

 

GENERAL GUIDELINES

  • If your résumé is in French, it is a good idea to include an English version, as many human resources officers outside Canada do not speak French.
  • CANADEM requires your resume to be saved as a Word file for registration purposes.
  • Keep your résumé about 3 pages long.

 

SUGGESTED FORMATTING

  • Use point form (easier to read, especially if one has 30-40 résumés to look over).
  • Do not use tables, text boxes, columns, lines, fancy bullet points, graphics, etc… CANADEM GPS will return resumes that use this formatting.
  • Do not use hyperlinks.
  • Use an easy to read font, such as Times New Roman.

 

CONTENT BY PAGE

Page 1

Header or Footer

  • We suggest that you do not use headers or footers. If you do, do not use astericks or brackets and limit text to your name and page numbers.

 

Personal Section

  • Keep it short, but pertinent; suggested information includes:
    - Name (last, first, middle initial)
    • - Address (street, city, province/state, country, postal code)
    - Telephone/fax
    - Email (essential to have)
    - Nationality

NB: European resumes tend to include personal information such as marital status or date of birth. These are not recommended if you are targeting Canadian agencies, but you may wish to include these if you are targeting agencies outside of Canada.

Languages

  • Language skills, indicating for each the level (professional or conversational).

Professional Skills

  • A brief (4-5 lines) summary of relevant transferable professional skills for the position sought (to catch the reader’s interest). List computer literacy and other technological skills.

Professional Experience

  • Start your professional experience on page 1 to catch the reader’s eye.
  • List chronologically, most recentexperiencefirst (provide dates).
  • For short-term work include month and year.
  • Keep consecutive contracts/positions for the same employer in one listing, but include the dates for each contract/position if there were gaps.
  • Provide your title, the name of your employer, type of business and location.
  • Detail area of work, responsibilities and major accomplishments
  • If you have done the same type of work for a number of employers, don’t repeat details, make reference to the previous job and only list those details relevant to the position being sought.
  • Keep it relevant and succinct; use keywords not empty phrases.
  • Emphasize accomplishments

 

Page 2

Professional Experience (continue as required)

Page 3

Professional Experience (continue as required).

Education

  • Keep educational qualifications at the end of the résumé because professional experience is the primary interest (do not include high school).
  • Include name of degrees, year degrees were awarded and city & province of university (if not evident).

Professional Development

  • Brieflysummarize the courses you have taken (i.e., if there are many similar courses do not list each but summarize in one sentence).

Awards

  • Keep very simple and relevant,or better yet, eliminate this section.

Volunteer or Community Experience in Canada or Internationally

  • List relevant volunteer experience on last page (co-operant work, that is, semi-paid, international field work can be included under professional experience). List location and sector.
  • List experience in human rights or peace building.

Publications

  • Keep it short (UN restrictions: maximum of 4) and relevant; summarize remaining topics. CANADEM will cut all long publication lists.

Conferences/Workshops

  • Eliminate conference participation unless relevant and you were a presenter.
  • If a relevant workshop, include a 1-line summary under professional development.

Personal Interests/Hobbies

  • Preferably eliminate. If you must put it in, keep the section very short and relevant.

References

  • Suggest they are available upon request or include at the end.