Writing Your Resume: Purpose of Conveying Who You Are

Question: How can I make my resume stand out to potential employers in Canada?

Answer: Crafting a compelling resume is about more than listing past roles; it's about illustrating who you are and what you aspire to achieve. By using language that reflects your personal and professional growth goals beyond standard job duties, you create a document that resonates with employers. Enhance your Objective statement to convey the deeper purpose your career serves, showing how your skills and aspirations align with the opportunity. Discover how Placement.Legal, part of the Success.Legal ecosystem, can assist you in building a resume that reflects your unique story and ambitions.

Your Resume Should Paint the Picture of Who You Are Rather Than Just What You Have Done

Typically, a resume is written as a summary of data that states the workplaces, the education, the volunteer organizations, and the personal activities, that a person has done.  This organizational structure enables a potential employer, among others, to obtain a quick glance understanding of the positions, the titles, and the tasks performed, by job applicants; and accordingly, this cold data is necessary; however, a warmth can be included.

Generally, a resume will include data that indicates some sense of warm skills, such as a statement of: "Managed Team of 20 Service Representatives" which may imply people skills; however, why just imply so rather than state so?  A resume could reasonably and appropriately state: "Helped Team of 20 Services Representatives to Individually and Collectively Achieve Best Results".  Do you see the significant difference in these statements?

Objective Statement

When writing your resume, in addition to stating the details of your history, seek to show the desires of your future.  Beyond including just an Objective statement that indicates a desire to obtain the position applied for, use an Objective statement that describes in terms of personal growth and professional growth who you seek to become via the position.  For example, rather than an Objective statement that says: "To gain employment in a management position that contributes positive results for the employer", try an Objective statement that includes a growth goal such as: "To obtain employment within a position that offers opportunities to mentor junior level to achieve best-self levels of success and performance that inherently does same for myself and the employer".  Do you see the significant difference in these statements?

Resume Purpose

Again, a quality resume tells the story of what you have done and what you want to do as well as who you are.  When competing for a position, every good resume will attempt to convey these three same things; and accordingly, you must do something that helps your resume to stand out from the crowd within the pile of resumes that is likely sitting on the desk of the interviewer.  You need to convey some difference while still adhering to expected formats as well as ensuring quick-glance brevity.  The difference can arise simply within the use of language that is driven by the understanding that the resume can, and should, convey who you are and what you want to give and get from the employment opportunity.

Learn More About a Good Resume

• Five Things Your Resume Must Convey In Five Seconds (Forbes)
• How to Write a Good Resume (Government of Canada)
• Guidelines For What to Include In a Resume (The Balance Careers)
• Resumes With Impact: Creating Strong Bullet Points (Columbia University)
• The Ten Worst Resume Mistakes to Avoid (Monster)