Virtual Help
- Chat with library staff now
- Contact your library
Writing & Communication : Résumés & Cover Letters
Résumés & Cover Letters: sub-module 2 of 3 career prep
Your résumé and cover letter are often your first introduction to an employer, and they have to impress them enough that they want to meet with you. This module will show you how you can create effective résumés and cover letters.
Résumés
List Relevant Knowledge & Experience
A good résumé will summarize your education, skills, work, and achievements as they apply to the job. The employer needs to be able to find the essential information quickly. Often, résumés are read or scanned in only 30-60 seconds.
By placing all the most relevant and important information on the first half of the page, you are strategically increasing the chances of having the employer identify the qualifications that you demonstrate that match the requirements of the job. Therefore, résumés with strong profiles and summary of qualifications sections are more likely to be selected for an interview.
A well-planned résumé will:
- Provide an example of your ability to organize and present ideas clearly
- Demonstrate your attention to detail by being free of grammar and spelling errors
- Provide details of relevant experience and education credentials
- Demonstrate your fit with the company culture
There are several types of résumé formats, but this module will cover a skills-based résumé format (also known as a combination format). This format lets you highlight skills you learned in your program as well as practical experience from jobs, field placements, co-op, applied research and team projects.
Résumé Checklist
- Your contact information: name, address (optional), email, and phone number.
- Your qualifications/skills: relevant skills, knowledge, certifications, etc. that you obtain through your experience. This should show that you would be able to do the job for which you are applying.
- Your education: Any diplomas, degrees, or certificates you have earned or are completing. Include your GPA if it is high (3.0/4.0 or higher).
- Your experience: Your work experience, along with relevant academic projects work placements.
- Volunteer/community involvement: Volunteering positions you have held, with an emphasis on skills or responsibilities that are relevant to the job.
- Awards / Certifications / Extracurricular Activities / Interests.
Research the Role
Tailor your résumé to the requirements of each job to demonstrate that you can perform the essential duties of the role. Use the following resources to research and understand the typical job requirements in your occupation:
- Job postings you are interested in applying to.Examine the qualifications/duties listed and match then with your skills, knowledge and experience.
- Labour Market Information resources such as the Job Bank – Explore Careers website. - opens in a new window Review career and occupational profiles and understand the required duties and responsibilities.
Identify your Skills
A résumé is both a marketing tool and summary of your qualifications. Identifying your main skills and strengths is an essential first step in building an effective résumé.
Technical or Industry Specific Skills
These skills are specific for your industry and the type of jobs to which you are applying.
Example: Administrative Assistants need to have skills such as the following:
- How to use Microsoft Office software to prepare and format business documents.
- How to manage physical and electronic records.
- How to record day-to-day business transactions.
- How to use Microsoft Excel to create and manage basic spreadsheets.
To identify your Industry-Specific Skills, review the Learning Outcomes section on your program website as well as your course descriptions.
Essential Employability or Transferrable Skills
Transferable Skills are more general and are essential to succeed in any job. You develop and use these skills in a variety of experiences and everyday tasks.
Here are some examples:
- verbal and written communication
- interpersonal skills
- problem solving
- time management
To identify these skills, think of what skills helped you to perform effectively in your job or educational experiences.
The resources below provide examples of essential skills sought by employers:
- Career Readiness - opens in a new windowfor the New College Graduate—The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
- SkillsZone - opens in a new window is a gateway and companion resource to the Ontario Skills Passport (OSP). It provides games, interactive learning resources and learning activities linked to Essential Skills and work habits (ESWH).
- Essential Employability Skills - opens in a new window—Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development
- Employability Skills - opens in a new window—The Conference Board of Canada.
Build your Résumé
Use your list of skills and the job requirements that you researched in Step 2 to build your résumé. You can format your own résumé from scratch, or use the résumé template.
Watch the video or read the information below to find out how to create an effective résumé.
Elements of the Résumé
Customize your résumé for each job. The following are key sections to include in your résumé:
- Header: Include your full name, contact information, email, and LinkedIn (or portfolio) link if applicable. Keep it professional and easy to read.
- Summary: Summarize relevant skills, knowledge, certifications, etc. that you obtained through your experience. This will make it easy for the employer to find and match your qualifications to their requirements.
- Education: List your school, any diplomas, degrees, or certificates you have earned or are completing, expected graduation date. Include GPA if it’s strong and relevant.
- Relevant experience: Your relevant work experience, academic projects, work placements, co-op, and volunteer experience. Describe your experience using accomplishment statements. When describing your job duties, start with the responsibilities and accomplishments most relevant to the job requirements.
- Other work experience: Include other work experience that is not related to the job.
- Volunteer/extracurricular experience: Showcase clubs, teams, organizations, or volunteer positions where you’ve taken on leadership roles or gained relevant experience. Emphasize skills or responsibilities that are relevant to the job.
- Optional additional sections: Awards/certifications/projects/interests.
Format and Style
A two-page résumé is the standard at this stage, and the format should be consistent, simple, and professional. Use the following format guidelines.
You can use a résumé template if you need a starting point. Follow these guidelines to make sure your résumé is consistent and easy to read:
- Use white space between sections and headings.
- Make sure your bullets points use the same style and are aligned to the same place.
- Dates should be aligned and in a consistent format.
- Use industry language and keywords to show that you understand the occupation and industry for which you are applying.
You can use the résumé checklist (PDF) - opens in a new window when creating your résumé to help you remember what to include, what to leave out, and how to structure the document.
Identify your Accomplishments
Add ‘accomplishment statements’ to your job descriptions. Accomplishment statements explain how your actions accomplished or contributed something.
Read the steps below or watch the video to learn how to write accomplishment statements.
Steps to Writing Accomplishment Statements
- Brainstorm: Think about the tasks and activities you performed exceptionally well in your past or current experiences. When thinking about each experience, ask yourself the following questions:
- How was my performance measured in this position?
- What value did I bring to this workplace or organization?
- Use the STAR technique: Make the connection between your actions and a positive result—Describe the Situation or Task, the Action you took, and the Result of your action
- Write statements: Use this information to write statements that explain what you have accomplished.
e.g. “Created the department’s first operations manual [action], which increased the effectiveness of the new employee training, and significantly reduced the expenditure of time and resources. [result]”
- Update your résumé: Add these accomplishment statements to your job descriptions.
Tip: To make the most impact, accomplishment statements should:
- Incorporate metrics such as numbers, figures, statistics, percentages when it is possible. E.g. ‘increased sales by 15%’.
- Describe your actions using strong action verbs, such as completed, raised, achieved, delivered, etc.
- Be relevant to the employer and the position, and make a connection with the job requirements.
Examples
Below are examples of how transferable skills can be phrased as accomplishment statements.
Written Communication
- Skill: Skilled at communicating information in a written format with clarity, accuracy and with a proper use of references.
- Duty: Produce research reports using variety of reliable sources, qualitative and quantitative data.
- Accomplishment Statement: Prepared over ten accurate, well-researched, concisely written, and properly cited reports,10+ pages long on average, in a two-month period.
Professionalism/Work Ethic:
- Skill: Competent in assembling and allocating physical, human, and financial resources, to deliver projects on time.
- Duty: Coordinated schedules and assigned tasks to the team.
- Accomplishment Statement: Led a team of five to deliver a final research project one week ahead of the deadline through careful coordination of tasks and effective resource and time allocation.
Customer Service/Interpersonal Skills
- Skill: Able to engage others in friendly manner, develop rapport with coworkers and customers, and resolve conflicts
- Duty: Welcomed customers to the store and engaged them in conversation to understand their product needs and interests.
- Accomplishment Statement: Consistently achieved daily sales targets by demonstrating interest in customer needs and actively interacting with them in a friendly, non-invasive manner throughout their visit.
Proofread
Grammar and spelling mistakes can cost you an interview. Employers may interpret errors as lack of interest in their job and not review your résumé further. Here are a few strategies to help you avoid embarrassing errors:
- Proofread your résumé (on screen and a print version). Do not rely solely on spell check. Some words can be spelled correctly, but are out of context, which won’t be caught by spell check.
- Have a second person proofread your résumé.A second set of eyes may see what you have missed.
- Visit an employment support centre.Attend a résumé drop-In session or make an appointment.
Cover Letters
Expand on your Qualifications
Cover letters must be customized for each employer because they are intended to show why you are a good fit for that specific job. The employers want you to demonstrate several things in your cover letter:
- your knowledge of the company
- how you could benefit their team
- compelling reasons why you’d like to work for them
Avoid presenting information not covered in the résumé.
There are several reasons for this:
- In some cases, a cover letter is not a requirement. If the employer chooses not to read it, he or she may miss some key information about you.
- There is more emphasis placed on your résumé as it serves as proof of the skills, knowledge and experience you describe in your cover letter.
Your cover letter is opportunity for you to highlight the skills and experience that are covered on your résumé and explain how they make you a good candidate for the position for which you are applying.
Cover Letter Checklist
- Your contact information: Your name, address (optional), email, and phone number in the same format as your resume.
- The date of submission.
- The company contact information: the employer name and title, and the company name and address.
- The job title and reference number (if applicable).
- The recipient of the letter: Address the letter to the hiring manager or contact person. If you don’t know their name, write ‘Dear Hiring Manager.’
- An introduction using the 4 Ws:
- Who: Introduce yourself
- Why: Explain why you are applying for this job.
- What: Include the job title or the type of job that interest you.
- Where: Include where you heard about the job.
- Your qualifications and accomplishments: Expand on the knowledge and experience in your resume. Make sure to use Accomplishment Statements.
- Why you want to work for the company: Target that employer and show that you know something about them.
Research the Employer
Cover letters must be customized for each employer because they are intended to show why you are a good fit for that specific job. Research the company to which you are applying, and examine their products, services and culture. There are several places you can look to find relevant information:
- their website (the About Us page, etc.)
- their publications
- their social media channels
- any other media sources
As part of your research, try to find the name of the hiring manager. Do not be afraid to call the reception or front desk to ask the name of the hiring manager.
Tip: Researching a potential employer is also good preparation for common interview questions, such as “What do you know about our company/organization and why do you want to work for us?”
Begin Writing
Use the information from your research and from your résumé to write your cover letter. It should be one page, and the style should match your résumé. You can use the cover letter template or start from scratch.
Watch the video or read the information below to find out how to write your cover letter.
Elements of the Cover Letter
- Header: List your contact information, the employer’s details, and the date. Many candidates use the same header on their cover letter and résumé for a consistent look.
- Greeting: Address the hiring manager or recruiter by name when possible; if not, use a neutral, professional greeting such as Dear Hiring Manager.
- Introduction: Introduce yourself to the employer using the 4 W’s:
- Who: State who you are.
- Why: Explain why you are applying and what excites you about the company.
- What: Mention the job title or type of position you’re interested in.
- Where: Indicate where you found the job posting.
- Qualifications Highlight your most relevant skills, experiences, and accomplishments that demonstrate your fit for the role.
- Values and goals: Show how your values align with the company’s mission and explain how your goals connect with their vision or current projects.
- Call to action: Thank the employer for their time, express enthusiasm for the opportunity, and invite them to contact you for an interview.
- Signature: Close with a professional sign-off (e.g., Sincerely or Best regards) followed by your name.
Describe your Qualifications
In the body of the cover letter, describe your skills, knowledge and experience that match the key requirements of the job, or that will allow you to add value to the job and the company. Relate your skills and knowledge to specific academic, volunteer, or work experience. This is your opportunity to elaborate on the experience that you included on your résumé.
Emphasize how you contributed by phrasing your experience as ‘accomplishment statements’ to demonstrate how you contributed to your workplace or project. Read Step 4 in the Building Your résumé tab to learn how to write Accomplishment Statements. This adds credibility and makes a stronger impression on employers.
Your cover letter is also a place to explain gaps in your résumé or highlight asset points, such as willingness to relocate, etc.
Target the Company
When writing your cover letter, it’s important to show that you’ve taken the time to learn about the company, and that you genuinely want to work there. Start by explaining why you're interested in the organization. Use the research you did earlier to highlight specific things that stood out to you, such as the company’s mission, values, culture, recent projects, or reputation in the industry.
Next, connect this information to your own career goals and interests. Why does this company appeal to you more than others? What makes it a good fit for your skills, values, and professional direction? Demonstrating this alignment shows the employer that you're not just looking for any job. You’re looking for this job, at this company.
You can also briefly discuss what excites you about the industry or role overall, but always bring the focus back to the company. The more clearly you can show how your goals and values align with theirs, the more persuasive your cover letter will be.
Proofread
Employers may interpret errors as lack of interest in their job and use it as a reason not to read your résumé. Here are a few strategies to help you avoid embarrassing errors:
- Proofread your cover letter (on screen and a print version). Do not rely solely on spell check. Some words can be spelled correctly, but are out of context, which won’t be caught by spell check.
- Have a second person proofread your cover letter.A second set of eyes may see what you have missed.
- Visit an employment support centre.Attend a résumé and cover letter drop-in session or make an appointment.
Plagiarism
Avoiding Plagiarism in Your Résumé and Cover Letter
Even in résumés and cover letters, it's important to use your own words. Watch the video below to learn about how to avoid plagiarism in your résumé and cover letters. Then complete the activity to test your knowledge.
Tips to Avoid Plagiarism
- Don't collaborate on your résumé/cover letter.
- Write in your own voice.
- Personalize every detail.
- Read your college's plagiarism policy.
- Use simple language.