Resume Writting

By Shaaleen Goel

Types of resumes

Depending on your work experience, the job you’re applying for, or your personal
preference, you may want to use a particular type of resume. Here are three types of
resumes to choose from:

A functional resume focuses on your skills

If you haven’t had a lot of work experience, a functional resume that focuses on your
skills is a good way to market yourself to potential employers.

Instead of focusing on your previous work experience, a skills-focused resume highlights
the transferable skills you gained from previous jobs, activities, experiences, or
volunteer work.

It’s most commonly used when you’ve had a large gap in your employment history, or if
you have never worked before.

Template of a functional résumé

Your Name

Home Address
City, Province Postal Code
555-555-5555
your.name@email.ca

Skills and abilities

Summary

•  Use this space to give your prospective employer a brief summary of key skills
and professional characteristics

•  Add some notable value-added skills, such as a second language, licences, or
certifications

Skill #1

•  Use these bullets to highlight key accomplishments or further define your skill to
provide the employer with a deeper sense of your skills and abilities

Skill #2

•  When describing your skills, do not just list them—showcase how you used those
skills and describe the results

Skill #3

•  Select the skills you are showcasing based on the requirements of the job you’re
applying for

•  Each résumé should be tailored to a different job

•  If the job you’re applying for requires someone who is good with numbers,
include your skills that involve accounting or budgeting

Experience

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

Volunteer experience

•  Use these bullets to list a few places you volunteered to gain and develop your
transferrable skills

Education and training

College or University – MajorYear–year
City, Province or Territory

High schoolYear–year
City, Province or Territory

A chronological resume focuses on your experience

Focusing on your work history is one of the more popular ways to structure a resume. It
shows employers all your work experience, focusing on positions you’ve held and your
past responsibilities and accomplishments.

The chronological resume is organized with your most recent information first. The goal
is to give a comprehensive work history, organized by each job you’ve held. You give
your position title, place of employment, how long you worked there, and a breakdown
of your responsibilities or accomplishments.

This is a great multi-purpose resume that works for most job applications, including
retail.

Template of a hybrid résumé

Your Name

Home Address
City, Province Postal Code
555-555-5555
your.name@email.ca

Education and training

College or University – MajorYear–year
City, Province or Territory

High schoolYear–year
City, Province or Territory

Skills

Summary

•  Use this space to give your prospective employer a brief summary of key skills
and professional characteristics

•  Add some notable value-added skills, such as a second language, licences, or
certifications

Skill #1

•  Be sure to discuss a transferrable skill that is useful in any job, like “leadership”
or “teamwork”

•  Pick specific examples where your skills helped you work effectively

Skill #2

•  Showing your transferrable skills through accomplishments is important

•  Describe particular successes you’ve had in the workplace and how your skills
have helped you achieve those successes

Skill #3

•  Consider including a skill that is job-specific, such as “Kitchen skills” or
“Administrative skills”

•  Describe how these specific skills have helped you in the past, and how they will
help you in your new position

Experience

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

Volunteer experience

•  Volunteer organizationYear–year

•  Volunteer organizationYear–year

•  Volunteer organizationYear–year

Accomplishments

•  Sports achievements

•  Other certificates or awards

•  Academic awards from school

Template of a chronological résumé

Your Name

Home Address
City, Province Postal Code
555-555-5555
your.name@email.ca

Education and training

College or University – MajorYear–year
City, Province or Territory

High schoolYear–year
City, Province or Territory

Experience

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

•  Describe tasks you would perform in this role and your overall accomplishments

•  Be sure to highlight the skills you learned that could transfer to the new position
you’re interested in

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

•  Highlight any significant responsibilities you may have held in your previous
position

•  Describe how your responsibilities specifically helped the organization

Job titleYear–year
Company name, City, Province or Territory

•  Experience is the most important thing to communicate in this résumé

•  Be sure to provide a variety of tasks, skills, and responsibilities when discussing
each of your previous jobs

Volunteer experience

•  Use these bullets to list a few places where you have volunteered

•  Be sure to describe how you developed specific transferrable skills

Accomplishments

•  Sports achievements

•  Academic awards from school

•  Other certificates or awards

A hybrid resume is a combination of the two

A hybrid resume is also known as a combination resume. It combines the elements of
a functional and chronological resume to create a resume that focuses heavily on skills,
but also includes dates, titles of previous jobs, along with essential information about the
position.

This is a good resume to use when you want to prioritize your skills but also
demonstrate how your career has evolved.