budda

Surrey Expat,

Ok, sorry.

I think the crux of what i am saying is dont put it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets not get bogged down in the technicality of the offical legal line. This thread is based on helping people write better, more professional looking resumes (which, in my opinion does not include a photo, or a date of birth, or marital status)

Cheers

John

Surrey Expat

I agree completely on what you said about what should and should not be included. Resume writing is about attention to detail and presentation skills. Helping people prepare for employment is also knowing the technicalities.

Alan2005

You say this, but every time I've ever received a cv (er I mean resume) from an agency, they have consistently screwed up the candidates original format so it looks like a complete mess - i never did understand why they did this,

It doesn't surprise me, but it is depressing. I've done my share of recruiting, and to be honest, I wouldn't care if the candidate wrote their resume on a postcard with 'gis a job' on it; if they had the right skill set I'd interview them just for the cheek

MarkG

I suspect a lot depends on how skilled a job it is and how many people are applying for it; when I was recruiting in the UK I really couldn't much care what their CV looked like so long as they had the right kind of skills, since so few people actually did.

That said, I think most of the work I did reformatting my CV into 'Canadian format' would have been beneficial for the UK too.

Judy in Calgary

I have added to the Wiki an article called Resume Checklist.

If you are British and if you're still living in the UK, I believe you would benefit from getting your "Canadianized" resume checked by a couple of people who are familiar with Canadian resumes.

But honestly, if you follow the checklist, I believe you would be well on your way to creating a good Canadian resume.

YYZlover

Judy's constant nagging at us to READ THE EFFING WIKI NO MATTER WHAT is an advice we should all take very seriously. I did, re-wrote my resume and a few here have had a look at it and said I've done a good job with it and given me a few pointers on what I could change and spotted typos. Including Judy (THANK YOU!!!!)

I used one of the sample resumes in one of the offsite links. As a mac user and having iWork (I have the latest) I pulled up a resume template I liked and used that and formatted it according to the sample.

Oh, and one thing I learnt, use Tahoma font and not Verdana. Tahoma, I've been told, is more popular in Canada. (Personally I like Palatino but that's just me).

So, run a long now and

READ THE WIKI!!!!!

Judy in Calgary

Thanks for the endorsement, YYZlover.

If I do say so myself, I believe the new Resume Checklist has made it easier to "Canadianize" a British CV.

Just one thing about fonts. Surrey Expat, who seems to know something about these things, has stated that it is better to adhere to bog standard fonts -- Arial or Times Roman. The reason, according to him, is that these are the fonts that most reliably show up well on PDF documents.

But, on a personal note, I share your fondness for Palatino, and I also like Garamond.

MarkG

Yeah, I used Times Roman; maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I've rarely seen much reason to use anything else .

Alan2005

wtf!!! I actually would not want to work for anyone who made decisions based on the bleedin' font I use in my resume. Sheesh, what is it with these Canadians!!

YYZlover

Actually, there is a reason for sans-serif fonts (arial, verdana, tahoma) because the serife font (times and times new roman in particular) were developed for printed use and are deemed not suitable for reading off a screen. There are serifed fonts designed for screen usage and one is Georgiana.

So, if you are sending off your resume in printed format - by all means use times and/or serifed fonts. If you are sending off your resume in an electronic format - use non-serifed fonts.

I agree about standard font usage as well. Whatever group you pick (serife or sans-serif) chose one that is standard with all computers.

I've been a bit artsy on my resume and have used different colored headings. I did this partly because it was in the template and partly because I am in the artsy field.

Someone I knew was going for a job for which he was, to be honest, under qualified, but he managed to snag the job simply by grabbing the recruiter's attention. He got magazine clippings, reviews of plays he'd acted/directed, and so on, went to a professional print shop and had it printed and bound with a bright orange cover. It didn't matter how deep in the pile of appilcants he'd end up his package was still visible and attention grabbing.

He got it because they figured he had paid attention to detail, had experience as actor and director and took a chance on him being good at the administration. The position was as manager of a theatre with complete budget responsibility from private funding, ticket sales and government funding. Artistic responsibility etc.

daft batty

At college in Canada we are told to use Tahoma or Verdana. These are preferred and are more commonly used and so more acceptble to Canadians

When I worked for the British Department of Health we had to use Times for the content and Arial for headings.

bazzz

Whatever you do, don't use Comic Sans MS. Ever. For anything.

http://bancomicsans.com/home.html

YYZlover

Unless you mill it through illustrator and completely change it.

Other than that - I totally agree with you.

moondevil

and a big thank you to batty and judy for the help they have given us on the resume

Hubby has a interview in january, sadly in england, but it will do him until we can get an offer somewhere in canada

Mind you he got a call of a guy last night as he saw his resume on monster.ca :curse: he is being head hunted this side but nothing in canada, keep on trying for now

Gill

shahzadandkelly

Karma comng your way Budda for starting this thread, resume writing in "on the list"!

Kelly