Creating a resume is not easy. Writing it for a person, group, department or entire government that has a particular set of standards can be intimidating. Giving you a rundown on how to create it in under 500 words would not do it justice. I'll break down the specific components of what is needed to write a resume for the Canadian Federal Government in order to get the job application in, send unsolicited emails to hiring managers or even that IT contract you have been waiting to get. 

There are a few main sections to each federal resume that much be factored in however they are all weighted differently and some are not even necessary. There are different factors for IT contractors writing their resume vs employees trying to get their first (or sixth) job withing the Federal Government. Either way, we will be breaking it down section by section so you can better understand how to give yourself a leg above the competition. 

The top part:

Include your full legal name. If you have a shortened condensed name, put it in (brackets) right after the legal name. Formal is nice, but include your personality as well. This is the first thing they see. 

Contact information: This is already getting tricky because this depends on whether you are applying for an employment role or a contract role and which company you are working with. Will HR remove it as well as your name? Sometimes your name and contact information is removed so as to remove any bias that might be present during evaluation based on a variety of reasons. 

Education: 

In general, a good rule of thumb is to put your most recent schooling you have graduated from. If you are about to graduate from University, put your expected date of graduation. 

Certifications:

If you have certifications related to the job, put those first. We deal with predominantly technical folks that have a myriad of technical qualifications and all the relevant ones should be included. If you are like some, and have upwards of 40 certifications (including Udemy and other possibly very short mini-courses) be mindful not to over do it. Sometimes they just are not relevant. No formula here but if they exist, put them down. 

Work History:

In an ideal world, all of your past experience is completely relevant to the job you are applying for. In this world, that does not always happen. Highlight the skills you have performed in your previous roles that are relevant to the role you are applying for...focus there. We will dive deeper into this one on a few more blog posts. Also, consider going through our resume builder application to provide perfectly templated responses to the position you are applying for to give yourself the best chance of getting the interview. 

References:

Simple, "available upon request."

Nobody (shouldn't anyway) will call your references without first speaking with you to confirm they will be calling your references. Also, ensure that this is the last step in the process. Do you really want to let your references know they will be getting a somewhat interested hiring manager calling them without really knowing how close to the finish line you are? No. This should be one of the last formal steps in the application process for contractors and employees.