Résumés/CVs/Cover Letters

Résumés

Our updated résumé guide will help you create an effective document that targets the skills employers need and highlight your individual strengths. Click on the blue links to download the documents.

Résumé - Background revised 2009

At Career Services, we encourage you to avoid templates and downloads people often use to make a professional looking résumé.  There are ways to create easily reproducible résumés once you know how do certain things.  Ask us to walk you through the formatting touches that can be useful to you, or how to avoid some formatting issues you have been been having.

Arts example

Science example

Commerce example

Format for someone with a lot of work experience related to the job : In case you want to put a little more personality in your résumé.

Sample for someone applying for one of their first jobs : For filling in gaps if you do not have much experience

Useful tools for your résumé arsenal:

Have a ‘master’ résumé that has all your work and volunteer experience listed.  Include dates, duties, significant achievements, and names of supervisors.  This can be more than 2 pages as it is not intended to be sent out.  It is a bank of information for your use. Let it be as long as it needs to be to hold the information.

Write a list of skills you will be using for your résumés, which can be based on the different roles you have played in your working and volunteer life.

Create a list of action words and adjectives to also be able to reference when looking for words and verbs to describe you, your working habits and your experience.

Have a file of copies of your profile statements used in the past.

All of these are going to help you create effective résumés faster because you don’t have to have go looking for information or wording on short notice.  You may also be able to compare and contrast with résumés and cover letters that worked well as opposed to those that did not.

In addition, here are some guides to help you put together the lists and résumé components:

Action Verbs

Adjectives

Profile Guide

Guide to submitting electronic and scannable résumés

Hard cover resources at our site (some involve résumés, CVs, cover letters letters of intent, others career information and grad school summaries) are summarized:  Books and Hardcopy resources

Curriculum Vitae

These are more requested for academic purposes and international purposes.  They provide in some cases more personal information and are more formal in structure.  However, there is still some room for creativity and personal expression.

Curriculum Vita Guide

Cover Letters

Many individuals ask whether cover letters are still needed if you are providing a résumé. They are a must for many professional positions, be they entry level or higher.  Graduate schools request a cover letter, although they sometimes call it a letter of intent or an introduction letter and their format is slightly different because you don't have to make it match a certain set of characteristics.

Our updated cover letter guide can help you craft a letter that includes some specifics you could not fit on your résumé.  Cover letters can tell an employer why you want the job and give an opportunity to show your personality as well as your qualifications. 

Cover Letter Guide revised 2009

Compare our advice with the ineffective cover letter.