How To Format Your Resume in Canada

But crafting a resume that gets you noticed doesn’t have to be a mystery.

In this post, we’ll break down the key elements of a Canadian-style resume, helping you present your skills and achievements in a way that speaks to employers. Whether you’re unsure about formatting, confused by local expectations, or just don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered. Let’s turn your resume into a powerful tool that opens doors to job opportunities in Canada.

Key Takeaways

• There’s a very specific format you should follow for your resume in Canada – and one very strong reason you should use it: it makes it easy for your potential employer to understand what you bring to the table. 
• Your sole objective in writing a resume is to pique the reader’s interest so that you get an interview. 
• You should tailor your resume for each application you send in. Quality over quantity is key to your job hunt, especially when it comes to the resume you submit. 

Start off with this webinar from recruitment expert and Moving2Canada founder, Ruairi Spillane, about how to create the best resume for the Canadian jobs market:

When you’re done reading through these tips, visit our Jobs Board and review our practical advice for finding jobs in Canada.

What’s Different About The Resume Format in Canada?

In Canada, you should shift the focus away from telling the employer everything about yourself or listing the job duties. Instead, focus on things that will make them believe you can help their company by referring to your achievements.

As a result, the Canadian resume format has a few key differences compared to other countries, which are important for newcomers to understand:

Length: Canadian resumes are typically shorter, even for experienced professionals. This contrasts with countries where longer, more detailed CVs are common.

Skills-Focused: Canadian employers prefer resumes that focus on skills and accomplishments. Highlighting what you achieved in each role is more important than listing every responsibility.

No Personal Details: In Canada, it’s not appropriate to include personal information like your photo, age, marital status, or nationality. Canadian resumes emphasize qualifications, not personal identifiers.

Professional Summary: Many Canadian resumes open with a brief professional summary—a few lines that capture your core skills and career goals. This is a concise way to introduce yourself and catch the employer’s attention quickly.

Customization for Each Job: Canadian employers expect applicants to tailor their resume for each specific job. Using relevant keywords and aligning your experience with the job description is key to making it through applicant tracking systems (ATS).

Action-Oriented Language: Canadian resumes favor action verbs (e.g., “led,” “improved,” “managed”) to describe achievements and results, focusing on how you contributed to company success.

Finally, the resume format in Canada must contain (in this order):

1. Contact information
2. Professional / career summary
3. Work experience
4. Education / professional development

You may also add technical skills and volunteer experience / community involvement, especially if you’re newer to your profession and need to bulk out your resume. 

How To Format Your Resume In Canada

Here’s some useful advice to help you craft the contact, career summary, and work history sections of your resume.

Contact information:

• Do not list your date of birth, gender, marital status, religion, or parents’ names. It’s not required under the employment law in Canada, and is not a necessary part of the resume format in Canada (in fact, it comes across as oversharing.
• For your address, just include the city/town name. You don’t need to include your full home address (it isn’t relevant). If you’re landing in Canada in the near future, you could list the Canadian city/town. 
• Include a Canadian cell phone number.
• List an email address that looks professional. It should include a combination of your first name and last name, and avoid slang terms or nicknames. 
• Avoid email addresses with country-specific domains, like .co.uk, or .co.in. If necessary, set up a new email address for your job hunt.
• Add your LinkedIn profile URL (ideally make it clickable). Create a custom LinkedIn profile URL so that it isn’t as ‘clunky’ as the one that LinkedIn designated for you. You want to make it as easy as possible for the employer to find your profile, particularly when viewing a printed version of your resume. 
• Optimize your LinkedIn profile for your job search, including making sure it contains a strong summary. See this great guide on being successful with LinkedIn.

Professional / Career Summary

This is a micro resume that will allow the reader to understand your goals and how you can help their company.

Four or five short sentences will suffice to set the tone for the detail that follows. Outline what makes you different, whether it is personality, technical ability, managerial skills, team building, or some other talents.

Begin by stating your objective clearly. You should list the title of the role you want to target — if you’re responding to a job posting, this role will be the job you’re applying for. If you want to be a Project Manager, then call yourself a Project Manager. Don’t expect a company to identify what role you’re suited for. 

If you would like to do two or three different things, then build two or three specific documents, and follow the resume format in Canada in each. Listing “Marketing / Admin / Finance Professional” is not attractive, so have a clear focus for the relevant job application.

• Mention how many years of relevant experience you have, what type of experience this is, and your future ambitions.
• Avoid generic comments (e.g. “honest and hardworking professional”). Instead, give the reader a true insight into your strengths and objectives (e.g. “able to continually identify cost savings and efficiencies, and routinely trusted to manage projects effectively, mentor junior colleagues, and solve problems”). These should be specific to you, and not things that anyone can write on their resume.
• Mention your career aspirations, whether this is professional designations, supervisory work, managerial work, or other work.

Work Experience

When writing your Canadian-style resume, focus on relevant roles and emphasize achievements, not just duties. Employers already know the basic responsibilities of most jobs, so skip the long lists. Instead, use three to four concise bullet points to showcase your impact.

Think about key achievements in each previous role, then build each point by highlighting a specific problem you encountered, actions taken, and results accomplished. Every successful problem solved brings either an increase in revenue or decrease in costs. This is how managers think, so speak their language.

You can use this formula to highlight your work experience:

Problem/Situation >> Action taken >> Results/Achievement

• Problem/Situation: Every action that you take in a job is for a reason. Who asked you to perform this task? What was the objective? What was the background behind the task or the problem you set out to solve? Identify what the problem or situation was that prompted the action.
• Action taken: This is where you incorporate the steps that you took to resolve a problem or situation.
• Results/Achievement: Some questions to think about: What would happen if you didn’t perform this task as well? What was the impact of doing the task well? Did you gain recognition for this work? Did it improve efficiency, increase sales, reduce costs, or all of the above? Where possible, try to quantify the result in terms of either a percentage or Canadian dollar value.

Here’s an example that would meet the resume format in Canada requirements:

Investigated and oversaw implementation of new communication system, resulting in increased productivity, cost savings, positive reaction from staff, improved customer service, and $20k in extra sales in six months. 

Provide your potential employer with three or four short illustrations of your abilities that showcase what you have achieved in previous roles.

If you’re unsure whether a point you made is useful or not, keep asking yourself “so what?” and try to develop it using the above formula. Explore the impact of your actions and try to bring each point back to a business problem with quantifiable results. Think about the increase in revenues, decrease in costs, or customer satisfaction.

For occupations that are project-driven, outlining your projects in a clear manner is key.

• Do not make a long list of every project.
• Focus on outlining a few key projects that demonstrate your skills. Remember, you don’t need to tell them everything you have done — you can do this in the interview.
• Highlight the project name, an outline of the project (e.g. if construction then mention commercial, industrial, residential, etc), project duration, the value of the project in Canadian dollar terms, as well as your role.

Education & Professional Development

Finally, you should include information about your education and professional development. This section should highlight how your learning and growth have enhanced your skills and helped you achieve specific goals. Think of it as another chance to show your value to prospective employers, not just the qualifications you hold.

When listing your education, include relevant degrees, certifications, and any professional courses or workshops you’ve completed. But don’t stop there—show how these experiences translate into real-world skills. For example, if you earned a certification in project management, mention how it helped you lead a successful project or improve team efficiency. If you completed a specialized course, explain how it gave you tools to solve industry-specific problems or stay ahead of trends.

Actionable tips:

• Highlight practical applications: Instead of just listing your degree, note how it equipped you with essential skills relevant to the job you’re applying for.
• Include ongoing learning: Mention any recent courses, webinars, or certifications that show you’re staying current in your field.
• Quantify your impact: Whenever possible, link your education to measurable outcomes. For instance, if a course helped you reduce project costs or increase sales, include those figures.
• Don’t include years at school. Just list the program(s) you graduated from, not the year you graduated. 

Here’s an example:
Certified in Lean Six Sigma, which enabled me to implement process improvements that reduced operational costs by 15% within six months.

By framing your education in terms of practical applications and results, you can position yourself as someone who actively applies knowledge to drive success, making this section more than just a formality—it becomes another opportunity to showcase your skills and accomplishments.

Tips To Improve Your Resume For The Canadian Job Market

Stick To The Canadian Resume Format

The Canadian resume format is familiar for Canadian employers – which means it’s convenient and skimmable. You want to make reading and understanding why you’re an ideal candidate for a role as easy as possible for the employer, so sticking the the format they know is an important starting point. 

Here are some other quick tips for formatting your Canadian resume: 

• 2 pages is ideal, but never go longer than 4: If you have extensive relevant experience, focus on your most relevant experience to trim it down.
• Highlight skills and achievements: Use bullet points to emphasize your accomplishments.
• Avoid irrelevant personal information: Don’t include your photo, age, marital status, religion, exact address, SIN, or work permit numbers.

Pro tip: Customize your resume for each job application, aligning your skills with the job description. Yes, it’s more time consuming but you’re best off adopting a tailored, quality-over-quantity approach than simply spraying your resume all over and praying someone hires you. 

Focus on Your Most Relevant Experience

Canadian employers want to see the experience that directly relates to the job you’re applying for. Tailor your resume by emphasizing your relevant skills and accomplishments.

Actionable tips:

• Start with a professional summary that highlights your top skills and lures the reader into learning more about you.
• Use bullet points to describe your achievements in previous roles.
• Include quantifiable results where possible (e.g., “Increased sales by 20% over 6 months”).

Pro tip: Use action verbs like “led,” “developed,” “implemented,” and “achieved” to make your accomplishments stand out.

Structure Your Resume Effectively

Organizing your resume in a clear and logical way makes it easier for employers to scan quickly. Remember, you only have a few seconds to make an impression, so make sure any key information stands out. 

Here are a few ways to do this: 

• Use the Canadian resume format outlined above. 
• Use bullet points effectively to improve skimmability. 
• Use headers to make the content more skimmable too. 
• Use bold font strategically for your top achievements to make it stand out. (Though, in order for it to stand out, you must only use bold font in an extremely limited number of places (around 1-2 per page).
• Your font should be readable too – aim for size 12 font for the body text, and larger for headers. 

Quantify Your Achievements

Employers love seeing numbers. Quantifying your results adds credibility to your resume and gives a clear picture of your impact.

Actionable tips:

• Instead of “Managed a team,” say “Managed a team of 10, increasing efficiency by 15%.”
• Instead of “Improved sales,” say “Increased sales by 25% over 12 months.”
• Add specific numbers to your work experience to make your achievements more tangible.

Tailor Your Resume for Each Job

One-size-fits-all resumes don’t cut it in Canada’s job market. Tailoring your resume to each job you apply for makes it more relevant and shows employers you’ve done your homework.

Actionable tips:

• Align your skills and experience with the job description.
• Include keywords from the job posting to pass through automated applicant tracking systems (ATS). This one is key in today’s job market. 
• Showcase how your experience directly relates to the specific job and industry.

Pro tip: Take a few minutes (or a few hours for highly skilled professional roles) to adjust your resume for each role—it increases your chances of getting noticed.

Keep It Professional and Error-Free

A well-formatted, error-free resume reflects professionalism and attention to detail. Double-check for spelling or grammatical mistakes – and run it though an editing tool to be sure. Also, keep your tone formal yet approachable and easy-to-read.

Actionable tips:

• Proofread carefully: Even a small typo can make a bad impression.
• Use clear, professional fonts (e.g., Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman).
• Stick to a clean layout with enough white space to make your resume easy to read.
• Have a friend or colleague review your resume for errors you might have missed.

Add A Tailored Cover Letter

In Canada, a strong cover letter can make all the difference. It’s your chance to tell the employer why you’re the best fit for the role and what excites you about the opportunity.

Actionable tips:

• Personalize your cover letter by addressing it to the hiring manager if possible.
• Highlight how your experience and skills align with the job.
• Include a call to action (e.g., “I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how I can contribute to your team.”).
• You can learn more about writing the perfect cover letter in our guide. 

Now that you’ve tailored your resume to the Canadian market, it’s time to start applying! Be sure to customize your resume and cover letter for each job, and don’t forget to network and follow up after submitting applications. With persistence and the right approach, you’ll soon be on your way to securing your ideal role in Canada.

For more tips and resources, create a free Moving2Canada account and get personalized career advice today!

Other Employment Resources in Canada

For vacancies, visit our Moving2Canada Jobs Board. Now that you’ve mastered the resume format in Canada, here are some more resources to help you win interviews and find a job in Canada.

• Practical advice for finding jobs in Canada
• 57 interview questions you could be asked
• How to master networking in Canada
• How to create a targeted job application

Remember also not all recruitment is done through formal interview processes. Find out how to use an informational interview as a tool to develop your network.

Get planning for Canada! Did you know that Canada offers free pre-arrival services for approved immigrants who plan to arrive in the country within the next 12 months? You can get free employment mentorship and more through government-funded pre-arrival services. Find out about pre-arrival services provided by Canada InfoNet here:

Register for a Moving2Canada account to receive Canadian resume and cover letter templates. You’ll also receive our free Getting Started Guide, which gives exclusive access to our proven techniques for accelerating your job search in Canada.

Happy job hunting!