Preferred Resume Format & Tips

Candidate Name
Address, Telephone, Email address

EDUCATION

Education should always be listed first
Include any licenses you hold, designations achieved, programs completed
Include the name of the institution, location, name of the program and date completed
If you have completed some courses towards a program or designation, list the courses you have taken the year they were completed (if possible)

Month Year-Present
EMPLOYER , location (most recent first)
Position
Responsibilities:

Always list your responsibilities in point form
Tell us what you did in each job; try to include at least 4-5 points per job and use full sentences where possible. Be descriptive & comprehensive while keeping your points succinct
Use Bold, Caps, Italics or Underline to differentiate your dates of employment, employer and position.

Month Year-Month Year
EMPLOYER, location
Position
Responsibilities:

As much as possible, use action words & verbs to describe your responsibilities. Examples include: achieved, analyzed, communicated, created, determined, developed, evaluated, examined, explained, gathered, handled, increased, initiated, liaised, led, maintained, marketed, negotiated, obtained, organized, oversaw, planned, prepared, presented, produced, reviewed, sold, streamlined, supervised, trained, wrote
This is also the place to outline your accomplishments. For example, if you were able to increase the book of business from $1M to $5M in premiums; you successfully led your team to be the top producing team in the company; you supervised a department in which several of your employees quickly advanced their positions under your tutelage; you have a regular customer base who ask for you by name & the renewals to prove it.

Month Year-Month Year
EMPLOYER, location
Position
Responsibilities:

The further back your jobs go, the less important it is to give as many details.
You must include all your jobs, even if you were only there for several months or if they are not related to your current field of work. We recommend that you indicate if a position you held was a contract or temporary, such as maternity leaves.
*Please note, it is permissible to group jobs together if they are old or unrelated to your present career. For example:
1994-1999: Held a variety of positions within the retail sector (Guess, Club Monaco , Starbucks) while studying to become a software developer. These positions included customer service, handling money, and some staff supervision.

This is where you get to include your skills & proficiencies, such as: computer programs, languages (written, spoken, degree of fluency).
Avoid mentioning your strengths, such as “excellent interpersonal skills”. These qualities are best left for discussion at the interview stage.
Submit your resume as a Word attachment. This is the most common form of attachments and thus, the most easily opened.

You may also want to include a category for Volunteer Experience, Professional Associations you belong to, Specialty Training, Social Committees you belong to at work etc.

It is good manners to contact your referees prior to giving out their names and contact information. First, this will ensure you have the correct contact information. Second, it will refresh their memory as to who you are and they will be better prepared to give you a referral.
Professional references are required and carry more weight than personal or character references. Examples of people who qualify for providing a professional reference include: former employers, former supervisors, team leaders, senior coworkers who assisted in your training, professors & teachers, business associates. Please note, coworkers are not considered suitable for professional references unless they were senior to you &/or helped to train you.

About fonts: pick a common, easily legible font and stick with it ie. Times New Roman, Arial. We recommend using 12pt font, just don’t go any smaller than 10pt.
Don’t use Italics in the body of your resume, use for position or dates only
Don’t use a pre-set resume template; they can be difficult to manipulate & update.