With every job hunt comes submitting your resume. But before that, you have to write one. Don’t assume all resumes are the same. Below is a guide on how you can make a chronological resume to help you on your job hunt in Canada.
What is a chronological resume?
A chronological resume is a resume that lists your past work. It’s also sometimes known as the reverse-chronological resume because you start with your most recent job then work backwards from there. This is the most common resume and this is usually what recruiters prefer.
What should go in your chronological resume?
Below are what typically go into a resume.
Contact Information
First and foremost, your name and contact information must be somewhere on the top of your resume. There are times people have forgotten to put any contact information so the recruiter had no way of contacting them for an interview. Please be sure to put at least address, e-mail address, and phone number. You may even add a link to your professional website, especially if you have a portfolio you’d like them to see.
Introduction
This part tells the recruiter a little bit about yourself and what skills you can bring to the job. This can also be your way of telling them why you’re best suited to the job you’re applying for.
Skill Set
Here, you can write what skills you can bring to the job you hope to get. This includes what technical skills you have. It would be good to include it here especially if the job description has a required skillset which are known as hard skills. You can also include your soft skills here. Soft skills refer to how you are able to interact with people. This is important especially when you have to talk to clients or customers.
Experience
This is where you list where you’ve worked, your position, and what you did for the company. Start with your most recent work experience then go to your previous job and so forth. Here, be sure to indicate what your position was. Also list down what your duties were and any notable accomplishments. Write down what you did for the company in bullet points and start your sentences with verbs such as “trained three new hires for the company” or “made a new workflow to make it more effective to…”. Go into detail so it will show how you contributed to the company and what impact you made. If you’re still at your current job while you’re apply for a new one, write your duties in the present tense.
Education
Like your experience, list your educational attainment starting from your most recent. Also indicate what you finished in that school.
Despite all the information you need to put in your resume, try not to go over two pages. One page is the ideal. Here are some sites with templates you can use for your resume such as Resume Genius, Novo Resume, and LiveCareer. Be short and sweet so that only relevant information goes in your resume. If you’re not sure, try having a friend go over it and give you some feedback.
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