Applicants with resumes that are tailored to the job posting have a higher chance of being contacted for an interview.
Learn about tailoring your resume.
Employers value related school, volunteering and extra-curricular experience as much as paid employment.
Learn about what counts as experience.
Your related skills and accomplishments are of more interest to employers than a list of duties.
Learn how to showcase your experience.
You may have heard that employers don't spend a lot of time reviewing your resume, let's hear some comments from employers who attended our Get Hired Fair.
The time spent reviewing your resume varies, so tailoring your resume it the best way to get the employer to notice you.
Tailoring your application—it's a process
► Step 1 Understand employer needs:
Remember that tailored resumes give you a higher probability of getting noticed. Before you can make a tailored resume you need to understand the employer needs.
Use the Position Requirement Analysis Tool** to carefully read through the entire job posting and name all the important requirements and functions of the role.
► Step 2 Identify relevant skills
You’ve listed all the important requirements of the job posting.
Use the Skills Identification Tools to see how your skills match up with the job posting.
► Step 3 Identify stories
Here’s where the fun starts. Now you get to tell your story in small chunks.
Use the Accomplishment Statements Worksheet* to build out the content of your resume.
Use the Cover Letter Worksheet to create the content for your cover letter.
►Step 4 Create the document
All the work is done. At this point, you just need to insert your accomplishment statements, skill summary statement, and your identified stories into your resume.
** Links are on on the left or at the bottom of the page depending on your device.
Do Your Research!
| Research the organization | Look at your qualifications |
|---|---|
| ► Do your values and personal attributes match the organization? |
| ► Do your skills and knowledge align with the position description? If they do, how can you demonstrate that to the employer? ► Write down specific experiences that prove your ability to do the work. Use the worksheet Position Requirement Analysis to determine the employers key requirements. |
With all this amazing research and self-reflection done, it is time for the most critical part of creating your resume. Tailoring it! Just like your favourite t-shirt feels as if it was made just for you, you want the employer to feel as though your resume was created just for them to read. Make them feel special.
What experience should be included
It’s not always clear what experience to include on your resume. You might wonder if the organization you worked at is known to the employer or is potentially controversial. You might wonder if work experience from outside of Canada or a family business is valued by employers. These decisions are both personal and strategic. Strategically, choose your relevant skills or experience that highlight what you bring to the job. Personally, choose the experience that you feel most comfortable discussing in an interview. Then make sure those two, the strategic and the personal, meet somewhere in the middle.
Skills and knowledge can be gained anywhere!
Guess what? Employers know that you are a student or a recent graduate and understand that your most relevant experience may come from your time at UTM. Take advantage of that fact and think about the cutting edge knowledge you have for a particular industry from your studies. Take pride and share with employers the in-depth research projects, lab-work, and portfolios of work you’ve created while at school.
Showcase your experience
Putting a list of job duties on your resume is not enough. It is up to you to make it clear that your skills are an asset to the role and the organization. Once you have identified the skill make the connection for the employer by describing the context and including a result or outcome you achieved using that skill. Tailoring your resume for each application means using the research you have done and the language used in the job description to write descriptive examples that showcase you. If you are wondering whether something you have done might not relate to the job, think about the skills you used. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.
Example — retail position application:
Sales Clerk, The NEXT
- Responsible for handling the cash
- Served customers
Sales Clerk, The NEXT
- Handled a high volume of clients at the express check out accurately and efficiently.
Example — client relationship manager application:
Sales Clerk, The NEXT
- Responsible for handling the cash
- Served customers
Sale Clerk, The NEXT
- Managed customer relations by understanding their requirements, making recommendations and providing solutions to problems. Results included highest sales within the branch and customer satisfaction commendations
Write Accomplishment Statements**
What did you notice about the two examples (above)?
- In each of the examples the information presented on the right gave the employer a fuller description of what they did and what they accomplished. (Accomplishment statements)
- The words 'responsible for' have been replaced with an action verb for a stronger more dynamic beginning about the experience.
- A group of tasks became one descriptive accomplishment statement.
- In the second example the verb 'handled' became 'managed' to connect the experience to the position title 'client relationship manager'.
Presenting your information as Accomplishment Statements is a powerful way to get noticed.
Use this formula: Action Verb + Describe / Scope (use quantifiers if you can) + Result (or reasons of your actions). See a list of Action Verbs.
Don’t worry about increasing the length of your resume; if you keep your bulleted points down to three to five accomplishment statements for each job or project, your resume will meet length expectations.
In the following examples compare which description provides the best information to the employer who is making the decision about an individual's skill set
Computer Lab Assistant, UTM
- Deal with user problems,
- Explained what they are doing wrong
Computer Lab Assistant, University of Toronto Mississauga
- Managed a 10 workstation computer facility
- Resolved users’ problems, explained and demonstrated relevant material
- Decreased downtime by 10%
Office Assistant, Enoha Spenger, Local MP Office
- Read local newspapers
- Assist with duties around the office
Office Assistant, Enoha Spenger, Local MP Office
- Monitored local newspapers and newsletters to find relevant articles and effectively organized the information for use within the team; attended meetings to assist MP
Yoga Instructor, UTM Athletics
- Teach yoga
Yoga Instructor, UTM Centre for Physical Education, Athletics and Recreation
- Instructed two weekly yoga classes for students and staff
- Received excellent evaluations from participants regarding ability to establish an inclusive, comfortable climate
Tutor, Tutoring Scholars (part-time)
- Tutored 4 high school students in math courses
Tutor, Tutoring Scholars
- Tutored 4 high school and 6 university students in math courses
- Developed exercises to demonstrate concepts
- Students raised their grades by 10% on average
Sales Representative, Dannell Fabrics Inc.
- Work with producers and suppliers
- Developed and advertised new product lines
Sales Representative Dannell Fabrics Inc.
• Maintained strong customer relations with existing retail customers and increased sales by 10% through targeted selling
• Travelled to various countries in the Middle East and Europe to establish new producer and supplier contacts
• Developed and marketed two new product lines including importing materials and working with the product team to develop packaging guidelines.
Administrative Assistant, Oakville Medical Clinic
• responsible for administrative duties
• addressed patient questions and scheduled appointments
• entered and updated patient information into database
(Notice this example shows a typo which shows poor attention to detail.)
Administrative Assistant, Oakville Medical Clinic
• Book appointments, manage the patient database, and prepare billing in a busy, multi-service medical clinic
• Screen patients in-person and over the telephone; when appropriate, refer to external resources for immediate physical and emotional care
Student Research Analyst, Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec)
- collected and analyzed data
- researched journal articles
Student Research Analyst, Behavioural Sciences Unit, Sûreté du Quebec
• Performed literature searches of archived and online forensic journals
• Collected data on psychological parameters of sex offenders
• Analyzed research data and presented to 10 member research team
Events Coordinator, UTM Communications Club
- Promoted and organized events for students
Events Coordinator, UTM Communications Club
- Organized four events for students to meet with Faculty members from the program
- Promoted the events using Instagram, Twitter and WeChat resulting in an attendance of 30 students
- Create a budget
- Created and monitored budgets for each event using Excel where all costs were below forecast
** Accomplishment statements are also referred to as Outcome statements or Accomplishment-based statements.
Action:
Use the worksheet Accomplishment Statements to help you tailor your experience to a specific position.
Resume Resources
Sign up on CLNx for one of the following:
- Attend a Building Your Resume and Cover Letter workshop.
- Book a resume or cover letter critique.
- Attend a resume or cover letter tutorial.
- Book an appointment with an employment strategist.
You can also find more resources on Services & Resources and scroll to the the Resources subsection to find resources for international students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ students to highlight a few of the resources available.
Resume Worksheets
Cover Letter Worksheets
Experience from academic work
Skills and experiences gained from academic work can showcase your most relevant skills. Work through the Skills Articulation Modules Series to discover your strengths.
