Education and Professional Development

1.

      If your Education is 5 years old or more, put it on the

 

      second page of the resume after Work History. If it is new or presently being

 

      worked on, put Education just after your Profile or Highlights on page 1.

2. When your degree is from another country say: “Degree
equivalent to Canada’s Bachelors Degree in Engineering – Peru.”

3. To avoid having your age revealed, omit graduation years
from Education. This may put up a red flag so be prepared to explain yourself in
the screening interview.

4. Name your degree, written in full, then the school you
graduated from. Put graduation year only. E.g.) Bachelor of Science, University
of Alberta – 1979.

5. If you did not complete your post secondary education,
say, “completed 2 years” or “completed courses in …”

6. List only courses you have taken in recent years that are
relevant to the position sought. They can be listed under Education/Courses or
Professional Development.

7. If you combine Education/Courses, list your degrees in
reverse chronological order.

Business Affiliations

8.

      List current or very recent memberships in associations,

 

      your role with them and the years you have belonged. Do not include old expired

 

    memberships.

Community Involvement or Volunteer Work

9.

      List Volunteer Experience, again only if it is current

 

      or just recently completed. Use discretion when listing religious/cultural or

 

    political involvements.

Interests

10.

      The last heading is Interests. Don’t list things like

 

      bungee jumping and use discretion when including politics, religion or race.

 

      Three or four items are appropriate. Eg) Skiing, reading and music. Show some

 

    diversity if you can.

Picky Points that make a difference

11.

      Is each line in order of importance you want the reader

 

      to see?

12. Do not say you have “excellent communication skills”;
tell me what your skill is. For example: Deliver presentations confidently and
articulately to groups of all sizes. Or: Write concise, grammatically-perfect
reports, minutes, articles and letters.

13. Don’t use “responsible for” or “successfully” or
“assisted” or “ability to” to start a sentence. Start with the action verb, not
an adjective.

14. Say “increasing”, “resulting in” instead of which
resulted in. No need to use two verbs like: “increased xxx which resulted in…”

15. If you have too much content read each line and ask
yourself, if I leave out a particular line, could I still get an interview?

16. Combine two thoughts together in one line.

17. Check for redundancies. Watch that you haven’t said the
same thing twice but in a different way.

18. Write the Action – Result statement in simple language
understandable to all readers.

19. Would bolding make something stand out better, is it
aesthetically pleasing? Bold the action verb or a catchy word in the middle of
the statement.

20. Make mention that you worked on a team, at the end of a
sentence. E.g.) Designed the marketing plan to introduce squeezable ketchup
bottles to the Canadian marketplace, as part of a team.

21. If something you did was hands on, don’t use managed
alone, try: E.g.) Managed and trained employees on a new system designed by R
& D department.

22. Spelling, grammar and punctuation must be perfect.

Colleen Clarke

Career Specialist and Corporate Trainer

www.colleenclarke.com

Author of Networking How to Build
Relationships That Count and How To Get a Job and Keep it