A Little Spring Cleaning to Freshen Up Stale Resumes
Featuring Career Development Expert Minto Roy
Whatever hemisphere you were born in or when your seasons changed, people the world over tend to celebrate the coming of Spring, with its longer days and much-craved sunshine, by doing a little Spring Cleaning in a burst of out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new energy and a desire to be unencumbered for the exciting new adventure to come. As we open our windows and doors and let the warmth and light in, we feel an instinctive need to wash and dust, sort and purge. The same impulse can be applied to your resume: get rid of what you don’t need, and organize what you do.
Minto Says:
If we’re spring-cleaning your resume, that’s got to mean getting rid of the resume photo. I know it’s a common practice in other countries but it is rarely done here and – outside the film and entertainment industry – is generally regarded as displaying poor taste. Because a photo is almost exclusively included on a resume of someone new to Canada, it sends the very “No Canadian Experience” message you are trying to avoid.
The only thing worse than the photo is its combination with a bolded header or footer saying “Permanent Resident” or “Legally Entitled to Work in Canada” or “TOEFL Score 580.” Again, instead of drawing attention to your skills, you’ve got the recruiter wondering where you came from and whether you speak sufficiently fluent English. Please also get rid of any maple leaf clip art and references to visa, passport or even social insurance numbers. We know you add these things because somewhere along the line someone probably asked a question about your work status and because you want to communicate you are now proudly Canadian. The resume just isn’t the place for displays of legal documentation or patriotism and including such things here makes you seem defensive, not open. Save it for the interview.
And while you’re deleting the unnecessary information, you should also get rid of the most obvious markers of “foreign” application practices such as date of birth or age, height, weight, health status, marital and family status, nationality and compulsory military service. Most of that information is illegal or highly unconventional for Canadian employers to ask and no Canadian-born applicant would include it.
Minto Roy
President
CareersToday Canada
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.mintoroy.net