In Canada, a resume is a short summary of your work and educational history that will persuade an employer to hire you. It should be 1 – 2 pages and focus on your most recent and more relevant professional experience. Likely this is similar to resumes in other countries, but here are some common tips to make your resume suit the Canadian job market.

Functional Vs. Chronological Resume

There are two types of resumes that are common in Canada.

  1. A chronological resume lists your most recent experience first and your oldest experience last. This is best for people with a lot of related experience.
  2. A functional resume list experience by your skills that you have developed. This type of resume is best for recent graduates, for those who gaps when they were not working, or for those changing careers.

Want to know more? Find samples of chronological and functional resumes: How Do I Create a Canadian Style Resume?

Typical Sections of a Canadian Resume

1. Contact Information

Place your contact information at the top of the resume. Canada has laws against discriminating against someone based on gender, background, or other personal items. To ensure that resumes are fair and there is no discrimination, Canadian resumes only include basic contact information.

Include

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • City and Province (optional)
  • LinkedIn profile

Do NOT include:

  • Photo
  • Age or birthday
  • Relationship status, children or other family members
  • Country of birth or immigration status
  • Religious or political beliefs
  • Identification numbers like driver’s license, social insurance

Social Media

LinkedIn is a good choice to include on your resume if you have a profile. Post other profiles only if they are work-related. Make sure that your LinkedIn profile matches the titles, dates, organizations listed in your resume. When employers check your profile, they may have doubts if you present different information on LinkedIn compared to your resume and cover letter.

An employer may search for your social media profiles even if you do not include them, so make those accounts private or only share information that you are comfortable sharing with a potential employer. Before you start applying for jobs, search for your name on the Internet and see what comes up. Make sure accounts are private or delete anything that would make you look undesirable to a potential employer. If you are unsure about what would be undesirable to an employer ask your mentor, a colleague, or a reliable friend to review and give you some honest feedback.

Want to know more? Learn how you can review your social media during your job search: How to Clean Up Your Social Media for Work

2. Summary

Write 3-5 lines about your professional experience to show how your strengths can contribute to their company’s success. Focus on your work history and not your hobbies or personal information.

Customize your resume. Focus the summary to highlight your experience that matches the job posting.

3. Skills

Some Canadian resumes list keywords to showcase their key skills. This is usually formatted as a bulleted list of skills with 2 columns (5 per column). This is a good tool for employers to skim resumes to find those that best match, especially for technical jobs.

Limit your list to 5-10 and use specific terms like “Bilingual in English and French,” “Public Speaking” or list specific credentials like “Java Script Programmer” or “Heavy Equipment Operator.” Avoid general terms like “hardworking” or “team player” because they will not show your unique skillset.

Customize your resume. Use keywords to customize your skills to match the specific job posting qualifications and job duties.

4. Professional Experience

Listing your professional experience is the most important part of your resume. The current practice is to describe accomplishments rather than listing your job tasks. To keep this section short, you don’t have to list every job you ever held. If you find it difficult to identify your accomplishments, review previous employee appraisals. These are specific to your previous performance and can reveal your previous accomplishments based on your work experience.

Include

  • Most recent and relevant experience
  • Accomplishments with examples and numbers
  • Promotions and position changes within a company
  • Related volunteer experience
  • Link to a portfolio if you are in a creative field

Do NOT include:

  • Experience before graduating high school unless you are a new graduate
  • Experience more than 10 years old unless it is relevant
  • Experience unrelated to the job posting
  • References or salary expectations unless requested

Want to Know More? See examples of accomplishments here: Resume Accomplishments Examples

5. Education

Include all completed education and training and indicate which post-secondary education and training is in progress. For example:

Bachelor of Commerce Degree, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Completed 2019

OR

Currently completing 4th year of Bachelor of Commerce Degree, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, 2019.

Indicate the name of the post-secondary institution and where it is located. Employers are impressed to see continued education even if it isn’t completed. Just be sure to clearly indicated what is complete and what is in progress.

Include

  • Post-secondary education
  • School and degree earned
  • City, province, and country if it is outside of Canada
  • Professional designations or accreditations
  • Honours and awards

Do NOT include:

  • Highschool unless it is your highest level of education
  • Courses, papers, or details of your education

How to send the Resume

Your final resume needs to be in a text-scannable format. Most employers use software to search resumes for keywords related to the job for the first review. This is why it is important to customize each resume to a specific job posting.

Always send your resume in the format and method requested in the job posting. They may also ask you to use a specific file name or title in the posting. PDF and text formats are the most common:

  • A PDF version allows you to control the format because it will look the same whenever an employer opens the resume.
  • A text version pasted into an email or a website, may not be as consistent but is often requested to make it work well for a software scan.

Use this template to help you create your own resume: Sample Resume

Want to Know More? Read more articles about writing Canadian resumes:

Find your Match!

Ready to become a mentor or find a mentor? Connect to a mentoring organization in Alberta.