You’ve probably already planned on completing an internship abroad sometime in the near future. Whether you need to complete an internship abroad for University credits OR you simply want to see the world while building your resume, you will need to “Canadianize” your internship resume to apply for internships in Canada.
While participants on our Internship programs will be given resume revisions, it will save time if you have drafted a solid resume to get started with. The faster your resume can go out to different employers, the faster you can secure your internship in Canada and start to have your awesome work experience! To get started, we’ve compiled our top seven tips to creating a Canadian resume…
We’ve seen a lot of internship resumes from abroad that are formatted in the style of the participants’ home country. While your internship resume may be acceptable back home, there are certain Canadian resume standards to watch out for when you start to apply for internship positions here. Some of the more common ones include:
While it’s a good idea to take a look at templates and draw some inspiration from them, it’s important to make sure that your final product doesn’t end up looking exactly like the template. Instead, take note of the styles you like, and then create a customized internship resume.
Fill it out with your information and spruce it up to make it more unique. Depending on your desired industry, you may also be allowed to get creative with your header.
For more creative fields, try designing a personal logo, and try incorporating an accent colour in a professional colour such as blue or green.
Instead of overused fonts like Times New Roman or Arial, go for something clean and professional, but still unique. Some fonts to look into include: Garamond, Cambria, etc.
You may choose to list a job and then have some bullet points underneath to describe your tasks and responsibilities on your Canadian internship resume. Or, you may have a very short summary written in a paragraph style. Whatever method you are choosing to describe your previous work experiences, make sure you use the “action and result” method of writing. This is where you describe what action (or tasks) you carried out, and then outline the end result.
For example, instead of saying “Served customers food and drinks as a waitress”, it’s much better to say “Served customers food and drinks in an efficient and friendly manner to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat visits.”
For younger students with limited work experience, it’s important to stay professional. This applies to every aspect of your internship in Canada, including your internship resume.
The email that you list on your Canadian internship resume should be changed if it’s too personal or unprofessional. Instead of something like “dogluver09@gmail.com”, opt for an address that only includes your first, last name, and maybe some numbers like “janetsmith09@gmail.com”.
Don’t list your social media profiles, unless it is LinkedIn. The same idea goes for hobbies and interests. It’s acceptable to list your interests on a Canadian internship resume, but only if they are relevant to the job you are seeking.
Now that you have the “action and result” method down, back up your descriptions with data. Employers tend to favour descriptions that have a quantitative measure.
You might want to get an internship in the finance industry but you may have only worked as a cashier in a clothing store in the past. That’s completely okay! Most employers know that interns generally have limited work experience so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Most of the qualities that they look for in an intern you probably already have: good work ethics, a positive attitude, eagerness to learn, and more.
It is good to list your previous work experience in a way that puts the emphasis on transferable skills. That way, your potential employer can see how the skills you’ve learned in your past job may help you succeed in your internship in Canada. You can also describe the transferable skills you’ve gained if you have done any volunteer jobs in the past.
Common transferable skills include: interpersonal skills, communication skills (including a high level of English), teamwork, leadership, and anything else you think is relevant.
While many candidates will run their internship resumes through spellcheck (and if you haven’t been doing so already, you need to get on that asap!), it is always a good idea to get another person to read through it and give you their honest feedback on your internship resume.
Try to get a friend or family member that has a high level of English to do this for you. Or better yet, ask a teacher or professor nicely if they would be able to take a quick look as well. It’s very important that there are no mistakes or misspellings in your resume! Everything needs to make sense to another person reading it, which is why it’s appropriate to ask for help.
We can help by guaranteeing your Canadian internship for you. Every year we help hundreds of international students secure their internship placement either for University credits or because they want to add some professional international experience.
Get in touch to see how we can help you secure your dream internship in Canada!