13 Resume Sections

Your resume should be organized into clearly labelled sections to make the information easy to locate. This chapter lists the essential resume sections and provides suggestions for each section’s content.

Contact Information

Create a professionally-formatted letterhead that includes these elements:

• Your full name
• Your home address (City and province is sufficient). Include your address when you’re applying for local positions, and remove your address if you are looking for jobs in different cities or countries.
• Your phone number. Your phone number should lead to a professionally-worded voicemail message.
• Your email address. Your email address should reflect your professional image. Avoid using a humorous or inappropriate email address.
• Links to your LinkedIn profile, online portfolios, or websites (if applicable).

Profile or Objective Statement

This section is a brief 1-3 sentence summary of your qualifications and experience as they relate to your overall job goal or job posting for which you are applying to.

• The profile can be written in point form, in a short paragraph, or in combination. Highlighting the number of years of experience or the program you are studying will give you a robust introduction.
• This section can also emphasize personal skills requested in the job posting (e.g. adaptable, innovative, quick learner, positive etc.).
• Many of you may be more familiar with the objective statement. Although this may have been appropriate when seeking interim employment, employers prefer the Profile to the Objective at a career-level search as it focuses more on what a candidate can contribute rather than just stating what they want.

Summary of Qualifications

This section must contain keywords from the job posting, as well as other related professional skills and experiences you gained through your studies, work, and volunteer activities.

• Include your strongest soft skills, such as interpersonal, communication, organization, problem-solving, leadership, and teamwork, as well as hard skills, such as computer skills and other relevant technical skills, and describe how or where you demonstrated them.
  • To list skills that match the job posting’s keywords, use the exact wording found in the job posting.
  • When listing other qualifications, use occupation-specific language/terminology and wording from educational program learning outcomes and course outlines.
  • List these qualifications in order of importance according to the job posting.
• Include required or asset certifications, such as First Aid, WHMIS, Health and Safety, etc.

Education

• In this section, include a list of your education in reverse chronological order (most recent information first), including diplomas/degrees/certificates, the year in which you obtained them, or the dates in which you are currently completing them, the school you attended, and the locations.
• Using bullet points:
  • List relevant courses using the correct course titles, especially courses that relate closely to the job requirements.
  • Briefly describe practical projects, labs, assignments, work placements, and co-op experiences you completed during your studies.
  • Include your GPA if it is notable, e.g. above 3.0 / 4.0.
• Include your secondary school information if it is your only other educational experience.

Work Experience

• In this section, list your work experience in reverse chronological order (most recent information first), stating the job title, company name, and dates clearly and visibly.
• Under each entry, your job descriptions should be written effectively as bullets, using scope and accomplishment statements (see next chapter) and strong action verbs (listed below) to highlight your relevant transferable skills.
• If you have relevant academic and applied projects, work or clinical placements, co-op, part-time, summer, and volunteer jobs, you can consider separating your work experience into “Related Experience” and “Other Experience.” The “Related Experience” would be presented first and would make a stronger connection to your current job goal. If you don’t necessarily have the experience that relates, you can simply place all of your experience under “Work Experience.”

Other possible resume sections include:

• Volunteer Experience
• Certifications
• Professional Development or Training
• Awards
• Memberships
• Activities