DigitalGhost

I have been looking at converting my UK CV to a Canadian-style resume and have read through the Wiki but I know that in the UK IT CV's are normally exempt from a lot of the unwritten rules that generally apply and I was wondering if the same applies for IT resume's in Canada.

Generally IT recruiters in Britain will want a full comprehensive list of the technologies and applications in which you have experience and qualifications rather than just a short few points about what you did and achieved whilst you worked in a particular role.

Could anyone advise on this or ideally does anyone have any examples of Canadian IT resumes which I might be able to look at for inspiration?

Thanks.

pdarwin

One thing that is a bit different here in Canada to the UK is that age is not so much of a barrier to employment in IT, so this may reflect how you fill out your resume. Saying that, I have two different types of resume - one for contract work, which lists more detail about my technical achievements and capabilities; the other for long-term permanent employment that concentrates more on companies I worked for and my role there.
For agencies, key words are scanned for, same as the UK, so make sure to include them.
Tailor your resumes for each job as much as possible and include a nice cover letter with not one single spelling mistake. Mailing out a mass of form resumes does not work well in Canada I found.
Three pages seems a good resume size here, with a half-page cover letter. The idea is to tempt the company bosses to ask you in for an interview, where you can really sell yourself properly.
I worked nearly 20 years in IT - the last 10 in Ottawa.

dbd33

Send me an email address and I'll see what I can fish out on the weekend. For contracts you primarily want a grabbing opener:

"I am expert in 1401 Autocoder and have recent experience of programming magnetic stripe card accounting machines"

would allow the reader to determine your suitability in a second.

DigitalGhost

Thanks guys, much appreciated, I thought the rules would probably be a bit different for us so I wanted to check before I just followed the standard guidelines in the wiki.

dbd, I'll PM my email address to you now.

manningl

I followed exactly the same rules over here that I did to land myself a IT Job in London.

Initially I tried to cram it into 2 pages but speaking to agencies they told me not to as that doesn't apply to IT positions as you will be withholding some of your skills...

So I just changed the name of my CV to Resume and posted it on Monster & Workopolis(instead of Jobserve in the UK) and the calls started to come in I was a bit surprised after what I read on the Wiki but I have never included a cover letter - from time to time the odd agent asks me to do their job for them and write a summary of why I would be a perfect fit for a particular role but thats it.

What worked well for me was at the end of the month I would always upload my CV again even if I hadn't changed anything as agencies set up filters to these websites for New CV's, or if they are looking for a particular skill-set that I have. This kept the calls coming in thick & fast

At one of the Banks I interviewed at the HR lady told me I should try posting my CV direct on companies websites as they prefer not to go via agencies because of the extra fee. I did try that route once but had no joy - in the end I did manage to interview at that particular Bank via a agency so make of that what you will...

MarkG

I didn't get anything from the few weeks my resume was on Monster and Workopolis other than some emails about contract work in America, but I sent my revised resume direct to a company who had openings on their web site and had the job about a week later. I did include a cover letter basically just saying how my skills were relevant to their work, I've no idea whether that helped.

Either was I was kind of surprised, I was expecting to be looking around for months, but I had an interview two days after sending my resume out and started work a month later (it was the run-up to Christmas so no point bringing me in straight away).

zRichi

I'm watching this thread
If you could state your job title it'd be nice for us to gauge on job role.

DigitalGhost

Well in the UK I've done Support (1st-3rd line), SQL and Domain Admin, App packaging and testing and quite a lot of project based work, including end user training delivery.

JB0591

You probably know this but I did not make any reference to being a Permament Resident etc on either my Resume or Covering Letter.

I had two interviews this week and they both asked me about authorisation to work in Canada.....one company was happy with PR status and the other was not sure. As it only came up in the interview I had the chance to talk through their concerns and put it to rest :-) I think had I said something in the covering letter I would not have got an interview with them.

I did have my UK qualifications equalized by ICAS with a statement under each qualification on my resume. This was also discussed during the interview.

JB

DigitalGhost

I think that's generally the rule of thumb as far as I know although I imagine that if agencies there are anything like the ones in the UK then they will probably ask about your status quite early in the process unfortunately.

MarkG

I did: with fifteen years of jobs in the UK listed on the resume, I assumed that if I didn't say anything they'd wonder why I was in Canada.

JB0591

I have 14 years of jobs listed and UK qualifications. I removed PR status from covering letters etc after we arrived as I also changed address from UK to Canadian one.

I based this on the assumption, that if they are interested in you then they can ask how are you eligible to work in Canada at an interview.

JB

DigitalGhost

I suppose there could be numerous reasons for that though such as a Canadian who has been living overseas or something but I suppose it depends on the recruiter and what they look for at FPOC.

Even though I speak with a British accent and was born and raised in the UK, I have still occasionally been asked by some agents if I have the right to live and work in Britain before they have agreed to put me forward to their clients for interview.

allie2

Hi,

I'm a recruiter for an IT Consultancy in Vancouver so let me know if you still need any help.

Allie

DigitalGhost

Thanks, I might just do that.

I keep meaning to work on my resume but there never seems to be a dull moment right now unfortunately. It might end up being a job for the plane ride over I think.