Resume

Personal information

Include your name and contact information as well as other details, such as your LinkedIn profile.

Content

Summary of qualifications:

• Level of education and years of experience
• Job-related skills and abilities
• Organizations
• Field of specialization
• Technical skills
• Written and spoken languages
• Education
• Work experience
• Volunteer experience
• Awards

You can add sections to highlight your volunteer or community involvement, awards and achievements, extracurricular activities, areas of interest, etc.

Format

A resumé should be no longer than two pages, so be sure to follow these principles:

• Clarity: Information is well organized, logical and readable
• Conciseness: There is no repetition or redundancy
• Completeness: All relevant information is presented
• Consistency: Style and form are consistent
• Up to date: The information is accurate and reflects your current situation

Tips

• Repeat your name and contact information in the second page header.
• Use boldface for your name and phone number, as well as section headings and degrees, positions or job titles.
• Reduce the left and right margins.
• Align all dates to the right.
• Be consistent in your alignment, spacing, font selection, punctuation and bullets.
• Correct all spelling and grammatical errors. 

Before sending your resumé, take the time to revise it and pay special attention to the following:

Page layout

• Appropriate, clean and readable font (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman)
• Font size between 10 and 12 points
• Maximum of two pages (unless it’s an academic resumé)
• Contact information in the second page header
• Concise, simple and evocative style
• Educational institutions
• All degrees and diplomas earned, the years they were earned and the institutions are listed
• All awards are specified

Experience

• All experience relevant to your job search is listed.
• You've used action verbs and key words.
• Each example of experience is described in 3 to 5 lines and refers to a task or group of tasks.

Grammar and spelling

• You have read and reread your resumé, and you have had someone else read it to correct errors.
• You have run it through a proofreading program (Antidote, Grammarly, etc.).

Other ways to improve your resumé

• Always tailor your resumé to the position you’re applying for, highlighting your most relevant skills and experience for that position. 

Skill-based

• Allows you to highlight your skills if you have little to no experience.
• Helpful if you have gaps in your employment history.
• Focuses on your transferable or technical skills in research, communication, organization, etc.

Chronological

• Useful for highlighting relevant experience.
• Contains a section describing your experience in reverse chronological order.
• Allows you to add any other experience in a “volunteer” or “other” section.

Combined

• Ideal if you have developed skills outside of work (school, volunteer work, extracurricular activities).
• Allows you to list the skills you have acquired through your work experience and extracurricular activities.

Academic

Perfect if your career goals are related to academia:

• Research or teaching positions
• Applications for grants or scholarships
• Applications to graduate programs

This resumé is often longer as it includes experience, research, publications, awards, conference