Writing a competitive professional resume
A resume is a document that highlights your key achievements, skills and experiences tailored to a specific professional opportunity. The primary job of a resume is to get you an interview. Essentially, it is your personal highlight reel and an opportunity to show your attention-to-detail. You may have heard the terms CV and resume used interchangeably in the past but what you need to submit depends on the type of opportunity you are applying for. A CV is often used for academic purposes (e.g applying for research oriented graduate programs) while a resume is used for professional jobs and internships. A CV details the projects you have done over the course of your career and will also include references. Thus a CV tends to be a much longer document, unlike the resume where your qualifications needs to be communicated in 1-2 pages (1 page if you are still in university).
Thus, if you are applying for professional opportunities, what you need is a 1 page resume. If you are in the early stages of building a resume or trying to improve the one you have, use the documents attached below, as a guide to the following:
- Essential elements of a resume and what is optional
- The right format to use and how to present your resume
- How to describe your experiences
- Sample resumes for a guide to what works
