7 Easy Steps for How to Write a Resume in Canada

Looking for a job can be a grind. With so many details to attend to — researching prospective employers, lining up professional references, practicing interviewing skills and checking the salary range for your role — it’s tempting to recycle an old resume and quickly top it off with your latest work experience. Resist the impulse.

Whether you are embarking on job searching in your local town or across the country, you’re going to need to add ‘how to write a resume’ in Canada to your list of priorities when job searching. That is because if you’re hoping to score an interview, you need a freshly polished and customized resume that’s going to grab readers’ attention from the start. The structure of a resume is crucial; what hiring managers read first could help differentiate you at first glance which is key during the hiring process. Depending on the level and type of job opening, how you lay the key facts about yourself in a resume can make a big difference.

1. Craft an exciting lead

Every other resume writing tip list will tell you the same thing: Start with your contact information. That includes your name, phone number, email address, links to your website or portfolio, and LinkedIn profile. All in the header of your resume. A decade ago, resumes also had an objective statement just below the contact info that explained the type of job a candidate was seeking.

But the top of the resume is valuable real estate. If you want the reviewers to give your resume more than a quick scan, you need something up there that’s going to make them want to keep reading.

Today, many hiring managers and recruiters expect to see a short, snappy paragraph that’s more like a profile snapshot. Think of these important two or three sentences as your 30-second elevator pitch to the hiring manager. They should quickly summarize your experience and training, highlight your relevant skills for the role you’re seeking, and contain keywords that match the type of job your seeking. Expand on your qualifications deeper in your resume and in your cover letter.

2. Show impact

The bulk of your resume should focus on your work experience. List your past jobs in chronological order, from most recent to oldest, and take a results-driven approach to describe your duties and accomplishments. That means including meaningful information about how you benefited a project or the company (driven revenue growth, new processes, YoY results etc.)

To show how you excelled in the position, use action verbs, give specific examples and add quantifiable results. Don’t simply say, “oversaw project management,” for instance. Instead, give a concise, specific project description, along with your role (“Project manager for a six-person team with impeccable deadline accuracy”) and concrete numbers to show impact — the costs you saved your employer, for example, or the percentage growth in sales revenue. If you don’t have that kind of data, report the solutions your team delivered or other project outcomes. The goal is to show you made a difference.

Need help understanding salary expectations? Use the Robert Half Salary Guide Calculator for jobs in Canada.

3. Include soft skills

Remember that interpersonal skills are critical to your career success. Effective writing and verbal communication, critical thinking, time management, creativity, and problem-solving abilities are all in-demand skills in todays job market. That makes it crucial for you when you are thinking about how to write a resume that will land you a job. It’s important to add them to your resume. But how do you show, rather than simply list, these attributes?

A thoughtfully written resume and cover letter are a start. Both documents, if carefully organized, free of grammatical and spelling errors (see tip No. 7), and tailored for the role you’re applying for, will be clear demonstrations of your writing skills. You can also frame your work history and accomplishments to show such abilities as collaboration, adaptability and leadership.

Other soft skills might be more difficult to showcase on a resume. Unfortunately, we all can’t link to a TED talk or other online video or podcast we did to prove our verbal and presentation skills, for example. But we do all have a LinkedIn profile. Use this as an extension to your resume. Ask a handful of your colleagues, former coworkers or others in your professional network to write recommendations that include some mention of your creativity, leadership qualities, teamwork and similar qualities. It is also a place where you can upload samples of creative portfolio work or project case studies that demonstrate your soft skills.

4. Highlight tech skills

Share your software skills and technical knowledge when writing your resume. As an example, job candidates for an administrative assistant position or similar role are expected to have Microsoft Office experience. Eager candidates would list their levels of proficiency with each of the suite’s applications, as well as any training or certification programs completed. Demonstrating how the software was leveraged under the past job experience section of your resume will give hiring managers a good sense of your capabilities.

Other jobs can require more advanced tech skills. Using the job description of the job your are applying to as a guide. When you begin to answer how to write a resume for this specific job ad, discuss your expertise with the software required for the role in sections of the resume like the snapshot, education/certifications, work history. We recommend certifications and training to be listed to help save space on the resume.

Read this post for more tips on creating a compelling resume skills section.

5. Be unique

Highlight talents that are relevant to the position or company. Fluency with other languages, for instance, could give you an edge in getting an interview if the employer has international operations. Your role as a volunteer or organizer for an external group related to your industry can show leadership skills. Whatever your passion, use your unique qualities and experiences to make yourself stand out.

Many hiring managers like to gain a more complete picture of potential employees so don't be afraid to mention some outside interests. Just don’t go overboard by providing a laundry list of hobbies and personal pursuits. Always keep in mind that your resume is a professional document.

6. Include keywords

Many companies scan resumes and cover letters for the keywords used in their job postings. How to write a resume effectively comes down to matching what the hiring manager is seeking. Tailor your resume for every job description you reply to — and that means sprinkling the document with some of the language each posting uses. For example, if an employer is seeking an applicant with experience “maintaining executives’ calendars,” use that same wording in your resume instead of a more casual phrase like “keeping track of schedules.”

7. Proofread!

An employer sorting through a dozen or more resumes doesn’t need much reason to remove you from consideration. Meticulously proofread your resume for spelling and grammatical errors. In addition to running spell-check, read your document aloud slowly so you can focus on each word. Finally, ask a friend to double-check your work. One simple typo can kill your chances of landing an interview. As an added tip, don’t overuse adjectives and extra words to prop up your experience. Hiring managers value brevity and being concise when reviewing resumes.

Want to know how to write a resume? Don’t write things like this:

“Education: Earned a diploma from a very repudiated college.

“Experience: Academic tudor.”

“Skills: Excel at working within a tea-oriented culture.”

“Work history: My last employer fried me for no reason.”

“Qualifications: I ooze mangnetism.”

“Salary requirements: Looking for a bass salary of $40,000.”

“Referees available by request.”

Every job, every industry and every candidate will require some adjustments of these resume writing tips. Creative professionals, for example, will want to include links to their portfolios. New college or university grads won’t have much work experience to highlight, but they can still draw from class projects, labs and seminars to demonstrate their technical and soft skills.

When you consider how to write resume that will resonate with hiring managers or teams, the takeaway is this: Employers want to hire people who can make an impact. Be strategic with the tips offered in this article by Robert Half Canada, and write a tailored resume that shows a distinctive, results-driven professional, and before long you may find yourself preparing for the job interview.

Looking for a job? We can help! Send us your resume today.

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