Students
What's in it for you?
Today's new workforce faces challenges requiring practical skills and a variety of experiences to adapt to changing labour market needs. By participating in Work-Integrated Learning opportunities, you'll be exposed to different experiences and workplaces. Through these placements, you'll build your portfolio of skills and connections to successfully prepare you to tackle real-world problems and become competitive in your job search.
Some FAQs at a glance
A resume’s main goal is to get you an interview with the employer. The two basic principles are to keep the resume brief and to be formatted correctly. A standard resume should be 1-2 pages in length (if you have limited experience, keep to 1 page), and in reverse chronological order (most recent on top) when listing your education and work experience. When describing work experiences, use bullet points to list accomplishments (both qualitative and quantitative). Each bullet is a full sentence using action words listing the outcome of that action.
Sections to consider including (Order can very):
- Education
- Work Experience
- Volunteer Experience
- Personal Projects
- Skills
- Hobbies and Extracurricular Activities
- Awards
For a full resume guide with templates and examples, see University of McGill’s How to write a CV.
Cover letters are about convincing the employer that there is a match between your skills and qualifications, and the employer’s needs. The goal should be to answer the following questions:
- “What do you want the employer to know about you and your experiences?”;
- “Why do you want to work for this organization and work in this role?”, and
- “Why should they hire you?”
The cover letter should fit on one page, and should be tailored to each position, employer, and industry you’re applying to. To customize your cover letter, demonstrate knowledge of the organization and relate your skills and experiences to identify how you can help them accomplish their mandates.
Extra note: Spend some time researching who to address your cover letter. This shows commitment to wanting to go the extra mile, and can help make you stand out from more generic cover letters.
For a full guide with templates and examples, see McGill’s Cover Letter Guide.
Resume:
It is important to note that irrelevant work experience is still work experience; it shows you’ve reported back to a supervisor, worked in a team and followed a work schedule. These past experiences have taught you skills that you can highlight for the position for which you’re applying. For example, soft skills such as communication and teamwork are always relevant.
Other skills can come from different types of experiences:
- Volunteer experience → development of soft skills in a work-like setting, teamwork, etc.
- Education → courses in which you’ve written essays developed your writing and communication skills; labs developed your research and analysis skills, etc.
- Personal projects → websites created, apps developed, blog, podcast, etc.
Cover Letter:
Your cover letter is your time to shine to showcase how relevant and irrelevant experiences have taught you the skills to excel in this new position. Draw from your work and volunteer experiences, education background and personal projects outlined in your resume. Always relate these back to the position for which you’re applying and how they’ll help you excel in your new role. Providing evidence of your knowledge of the company to show your interest in the position will also help set you apart.
Your post-secondary institution may have a job portal or website dedicated to listing student jobs from around your community. Each province and territory, as well as the federal government, has a job board available to all. These jobs are posted from all sectors of the economy, including private and public sectors.
Corporate job sites are also a common way to find jobs. Places like Indeed, Workopolis, and Glassdoor are all popular job posting sites. The other place to check out is LinkedIn, where you’ll be able to build up your profile and use it to apply directly to jobs or network with recruiters.
The first thing to consider is whether or not you meet the ‘core’ requirements. If you are able to meet the basic requirements to do the job, then it may be worth applying to. The next step is to consider if you are able and willing to obtain the remaining skills on your own. Although an employer will know that you are missing a requirement, if you have a plan to fill that gap, it may be enough for the employer to give you a chance. Remember that you don’t know who else applied for the role, and you have nothing to lose by trying your chance.
