Crafting Your Resume

Your resume is usually the first impression that companies have of you, so you want to make sure that you include relevant information in it. If you’d like to build your resume from scratch, make sure to scroll down to the bottom of this page to download PDFs of resume templates to help you get started. Keep in mind, these are just sample resumes, and you should customize them as you see fit!

What you want to include

• Who you are: name, address, phone number, email
• Education history: where and what you’ve studied (or are studying)
• Employment history: where and in what roles you’ve worked (or are working)
• Relevant Skills

When listing out your education, include colleges attended, certificates obtained, and any additional education programs you’ve completed. You can include a GPA or grade average for degrees if you wish. It is not necessary to include dates for your education section.

If you are a new graduate, or are still studying, you’ll want to include a few additional details, like interesting projects that you did during your studying or highlight an elective subject that you took.  After a few years of professional experience, though, you may simply include the degree, year and location.

A “Functional” or “Skills based” resume format works well for new graduates or candidates with limited work experience. The focus of this format is more around your skillset, rather than your work experience. You can include a brief summary of qualifications, followed by a list of skills with examples for each. This format works well for candidates with less employment history, but lots of applicable skills.

For your employment history, you’ll want to highlight the skills that are most relevant for the position that you are aiming for. Use a chronological or reverse-chronological format for your employment history. List the month and year for each role accurately. List out achievements, not just tasks performed, and make them quantifiable. Use the sentence format of Action Verb + Specific Task + Quantifiable Point”. For example: “Automated imaging process for new computers, reducing 90% of manual work for the IT team.” Include responsibilities of your role, but don’t fill your resume with lots of bullets about every small task. Summarize and tailor your bullet points around the job description you’re applying to. For example, instead of saying “Created new user accounts, deleted old accounts, set passwords….”, say “Administered and maintained all user accounts”. 

Similarly for relevant skills.  You want to include the general topics that you are knowledgeable about, as in customer support, networking, system administration, programming, etc. You may list the operating systems that you’ve worked with and the programming languages that you are skilled in, but don’t try to list every networking protocol you’ve heard about or every IT tool that you’ve ever used.  The noise distracts from the relevant information.

Regardless of the format you decide to use (chronological, functional, etc.), make sure you keep the format and structure consistent throughout. For example, if you use full sentences for your bullets, be sure to use that format for all of them and include proper punctuation and grammar. Check your font sizes and styles to ensure those are consistent as well.  

Tailoring the resume

Before sending a resume to a certain job position, it’s a good practice to check that the contents of your resume match what’s in the job description. You should be tailoring your resume to each job you’re applying to. Sending generic resumes to as many roles as possible, is not a good strategy. A targeted approach is always better.

If you are applying for an IT support role, you may want to highlight your customer support experience, even if it only comes from a volunteer organization at your university.  Whereas, if you are applying for a programming job, you’ll want to highlight your software development experience, regardless of whether it was acquired in university or on the job.

Your online presence

Many companies nowadays contact candidates through online sites like LinkedIn, so it’s important to keep your online profile complete and up to date.  Start by writing a summary that describes both your current role (if applicable) and your career aspirations. Include a professional photo and up to date contact info (although recruiters may also contact you directly via LinkedIn).

LinkedIn profiles are much more in depth than resumes. You can include specific accomplishments from as many roles as you like, but use the same format as your resume (Action Verb + specific task + quantifiable point). 

Adding in personal projects can also be helpful, especially if you have something tangible to show from it. For example, if you’ve created an application, a website, or similar type of product as part of a hobby or school project, include it and provide a link to it.

Just like a resume, list your skills, your experience and what you are looking for as your next step. Make sure that you include all the relevant background information that a recruiter looking at your profile might be interested in. Make sure you are descriptive, don’t assume the reader will have context.