Users will be unable to save results from activities, and some of the downloadable content (e.g., PDFs) may no longer be available.
- Home
- Apply/Interview
- Résumés
- Effective résumés
- Building a great resume with little to no work experience
Apply/Interview
Building a great resume with little to no work experience
Building a great résumé with little to no work experience
Analyse
The first step in building a great résumé is to analyse how your skills, experiences, and personal attributes fit the job requirements. In order to do this, you must first understand what the employer is looking for. The purpose of a job advertisement is to provide you with this information. Job advertisements provide potential candidates with information on what they need to be successful on the job through outlining any required experience, education, knowledge, technical and transferable skills, and personal attributes. Be sure to read the job advertisement thoroughly in order to uncover all of the requirements the employer is looking for in a successful candidate. Next, you may want to list these requirements in a chart within a column entitled ”What the employer wants.” The final stage of the analyse step is to identify evidence of how you meet the job requirements. This evidence can come from a variety of experiences such as: volunteer work, part-time jobs, extracurricular activities, personal projects, and online courses. You may want to list this evidence in a second column of the chart entitled ”Evidence I have it.“
Jessica (Xiao) Wang
Jessica is in her 2B term of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. She is interested in finding an entry-level quality assurance (QA) testing job. She has a strong academic record (83.87%) and has gained knowledge and skills relevant for such positions through her coursework and projects. Prior to her time at university, Jessica was Vice President of her high school student counsel. Relevant skills she developed through this volunteer position include: leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, communication, and organization. This position also allowed Jessica to demonstrate personal attributes that are relevant to many employers such as: a positive-attitude, self-motivation, and enthusiasm. Beyond her academic and volunteer experience, Jessica was part of a team that was awarded first prize in the Social Enterprise-Business category at a national competition. Participating in this competition may prove useful for Jessica when applying for QA positions because it required good analytical and problem solving skills. Jessica has decided to apply for the below position at XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc.
Job Advertisement
Employer: XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc.
Job Title: Quality Assurance Intern
Location: Burlington, ON
We are looking for a self-motivated, passionate individual to join the XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc. Quality Assurance (QA) Team. This highly regarded QA team is responsible for the testing of the products of GVP and Web RTC. The GVP and Web RTC Products consist of the world's leading Open Standards based VoiceXML and CCXML Platforms which runs on multiple Operating Systems. The GVP QA team is involved in all development stages which is a test driven, iterative development methodology. Nightly Build and Test Automation is also a key focus of this methodology.
Responsibilities
In this role, the primary responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):
- Manual testing
- Developing test plans for product releases
- Automating test cases reliably
- Writing and executing test cases for functional, performance and conformance testing for our products
- Working closely with the Development team to review requirements, audit the development process and identify, reproduce and track defects
- Enforce our guiding principles of testing/QA:
- Product performance must be at least as good as the previous release
- Each test result can be repeated, reliably on a different hardware instance
- The test results can be traced to approved test plan(s) and requirements doc(s)
- The documentation matches the product tested
- Tester's role is to find bugs, not pass the test cases
- QA is an integral part of the development activity at the end of the development process
Mandatory Qualification
- Working towards a degree in Computer Science/Engineering with a strong academic record
- Knowledge of industry best development and test practices
- Working knowledge on Linux and W2K
- Experience in hardware, OSs and software installation on various platforms
- Self-motivated, pro-active, dynamic team player with a positive attitude
- Excellent analytical, problem solving and judgment skills
- Experience with DBMS and other high level programming languages: C/C++, Java, JSP, Perl is preferred
Desirable Skills
- Relevant technologies: VoiceXML, ASR, TTS, VoIP, SIP, CCXML, MRCP, Linux, RTP, RTSP, H.323, video codecs
- Experience in developing and executing functional load test plans and test cases
- Knowledge or work experience with telephony systems and/or VoiceXML programming
Jessica has begun to fill out her chart as follows:
Mandatory Qualifications
What the employer wants:
- Working towards a degree in Computer Science/Engineering with a strong academic record
Evidence I have it:
- Honours Computer Science
- 83.87% average
What the employer wants:
- Knowledge of industry best development and test practices
Evidence I have it
- Growing understanding through coursework and projects
What the employer wants:
- Working knowledge on Linux and W2K
Evidence I have it
- Object-Oriented Software Development course (Linux)
What the employer wants:
- Experience in hardware, OSs and software installation on various platforms
What the employer wants:
- Self-motivated, pro-active, and a dynamic team player with a positive attitude
Evidence I have it
- High academic average
- Vice President, High School Student Counsel
What the employer wants:
- Excellent analytical, problem solving and judgment skills
Evidence I have it
- Puzzle solver project; developed strategy and algorithm to solve the puzzle
- Social Enterprise Business, National Competition; conducted needs assessment, survey and research
- Vice President, High School Student Counsel; managed uncertainties in the planning and execution of events
- High academic average
What the employer wants:
- Experience with DBMS and other high level programming languages: C/C++, Java, JSP, Perl is preferred
Evidence I have it
- Object-Oriented Software Development course (C++)
- Puzzle solver project (Python)
- Search algorithm project (Python)
Desirable Skills
What the employer wants:
- Relevant technologies: VoiceXML, ASR, TTS, VoIP, SIP, CCXML, MRCP, RTP, RTSP, H.323, video codecs
What the employer wants:
- Experience in developing and executing functional load test plans and test cases
Evidence I have it
- Automate testing project; created a formal test suite
- Object-Oriented Software Development course; created test suites for unit testing
What the employer wants:
- Knowledge or work experience with telephony systems and/or VoiceXML programming
Design & Create
The next step is creating a great résumé document that demonstrates how your past experiences qualify you to do the job to which you’re applying through a combination of your skills, characteristics and attitude. When you are creating your résumé, the central organizing principle is relevance—it’s how you decide what goes on the résumé and where it goes. Basic information processing in English runs from top to bottom, left to right, with readers processing the information at the top of the page as most important. Knowing this, you want to organize your document accordingly, arranging your sections in order of relevance to the job. You know what’s most relevant based on the analysis you’ve done of the job posting. The other thing you want to do at this stage is articulate the experiences you’ve identified as evidence for the skills the employer is seeking in an action- and outcome-oriented way. Looking at the chart you developed in the Analyse phase, you will need to describe your experiences thinking through three components of information: WHAT you did + HOW you did it + WHY you did it. This is because simply stating what you did is often not enough in making the argument why a particular achievement or task is relevant to your argument for why you’re qualified for a particular role.
Mandatory Qualifications
What the employer wants:
- Working towards a degree in Computer Science/Engineering with a strong academic record
Evidence I have it
- Honours Computer Science
- 83.87% average
Bullet point:
- Candidate for Honours Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON; September 2014 – Present Average: 83.87/100
What the employer wants:
- Knowledge of industry best development and test practices
Evidence I have it
- Growing understanding through coursework and projects
Bullet point:
- 2 years of computer programming experience including software testing
What the employer wants:
- Working knowledge on Linux and W2K
Evidence I have it
- Object-Oriented Software Development course (Linux)
Bullet point:
- Completed assignments in shell environment using Unix tools including complier, debugger (GDB, Valgrind), code management (make)
What the employer wants:
- Experience in hardware, OSs and software installation on various platforms
What the employer wants:
- Self-motivated, pro-active, and a dynamic team player with a positive attitude
Evidence I have it
- High academic average
- Vice President, High School Student Counsel
Bullet point:
- Coordinated 5 sporting events for 1000 students by developing budget plans and speculated practicability of the planning solution upon detailed analysis on cost, site, weather and human capital constraints
- Communicated with stakeholders and teams, maintained strong relationships with sponsors
What the employer wants:
- Excellent analytical, problem solving and judgment skills
Evidence I have it
- Puzzle solver project; developed strategy and algorithm to solve thepuzzle
- Social Enterprise Business, National Competition; conducted needs assessment, survey and research
- Vice President, High School Student Counsel; managed uncertainties in the planning and execution of events
- High academic average
Bullet point:
- Developed strategy and algorithm to solve the puzzle with minimum steps required
- Co-created business models based on needs assessment, survey and research
- Acquired solid problemsolving skills through meetinguncertainties in the planning and execution of events
What the employer wants:
An employee who is/has...
- Experience with DBMS and other high level programming languages: C/C++, Java, JSP, Perl is preferred
Evidence I have it:
- Object-Oriented Software Development course (C++)
- Puzzle solver project (Python)
- Search algorithm project (Python)
Bullet point:
- Used testsuites for unit testing, white andblack box testing
- Learned UML, Git, subsetof STL,inheritance and design pattern (observer, singleton and template)
- Developed strategy and algorithm to solve thepuzzle with minimum steps required
- Designed a script using ternary and linearsearch for printingout the searching steps performed at runtime
Desireable Skills
What the employer wants:
- Relevant technologies: VoiceXML, ASR, TTS, VoIP, SIP, CCXML, MRCP, RTP, RTSP, H.323, video codecs
What the employer wants:
- Experience in developing and executing functional load test plans and test cases
Evidence I have it
- Automate testing project; created a formaltest suite
- Object-Oriented Software Development course; created test suites for unit testing
Bullet point:
- Created a formal test suite andimplemented a bash script to automate testing to ensure the expected outcome
- Used testsuites for unit testing, white andblack box testing
What the employer wants:
- Knowledge or work experience with telephony systems and/or VoiceXML programming
Jessica (Xiao) Wong
2B ComputerScience | ID: 12345670 | Email: myemail@uwaterloo.ca
123 Main Street, City, Province, Postal Code | Mobile: (519) -123-4567
Summary of Qualifications
- Computer programming experience including software testing
- Strong programming skills including C, Python, Scheme and ongoing learning C++
- Great understanding of Linux and test automation gained from academics
- Proven troubleshooting and problemsolving skills in programming, strong attention to details
- Quick learner, adaptive to high intensity of work pressure easily and ability to manage time appropriately
Education
Candidate for Honours Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON |
September 2014 – Present |
|
|
Volunteer Experience
|
Student Council, Vice Presidet, City, Province, Country |
September 2014 – Present |
|
|
Courses & Projects
Object-Oriented Software Development – Linux and C++ Programming (Learning)
- Testsuites for unit testing, white and black box testing
- UML, Git, subsetof STL, inheritance and design pattern (observer, singleton and template)
- Shell environment and Unix tools including complier, debugger (GDB, Valgrind), code management (make)
Elementary Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction – C Programming
- Familiar with binary search and sorting algorithm (insertion, selection, merge sort, quicksort)
- Application of array, linkedlist, trees, and implementations of ADTs
Automate Testing – Bash Script, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Created a formal test suite and implemented a bash script to automate testing to ensure the expected outcome
Puzzle: The Tower of Hanoi – Python, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Developed strategy and algorithm to solve the puzzle with minimum steps required
- Designed a script and tests for printing out the steps taken to finish the puzzle
Search Algorithm: Ternary and Linear Combined – Python, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Designed a script using ternary and linear search for printing out the searching steps performed at runtime
SAGE National Competition in Social Enterprise Business Category FirstPrize, Toronto, ON
- Planned, designed and marketed threesocial entrepreneurship ventures to raise the attentions to aboriginal, victims of child abuse and the hunger
- Co-created business models based on needs assessment, survey and research
Test & Refine
Once you have developed a clear and logical structure for your document, as well as crafted bullets that convey the relevance of a particular achievement or task in a convincing way, the third step in building a great résumé is to test and refine your résumé accordingly. This requires doing a more detailed analysis of the elements of your document that are most relevant and most solid evidence for a particular skill set you’re making a claim about. This might mean that you reorder bullets under certain role or project headings to ensure the most relevant bullet or most impressive achievement is listed first, for example. When you’re completely satisfied with the structure and organization of your document, you will need to make sure that it’s formatted so that it adds to your argument. Take a look at this helpful checklist to verify your document is as effective as possible.
Résumé Checklist (PDF)
Good Résumé
Jessica (Xiao) Wong
2B ComputerScience | ID: 12345670 | Email: myemail@uwaterloo.ca
123 Main Street, City, Province, Postal Code | Mobile: (519) -123-4567
Summary of Qualifications
- Computer programming experience including software testing
- Strong programming skills including C, Python, Scheme and ongoing learning C++
- Great understanding of Linux and test automation gained from academics
- Proven troubleshooting and problemsolving skills in programming, strong attention to details
- Quick learner, adaptive to high intensity of work pressure easily and ability to manage time appropriately
Education
Candidate for Honours Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON |
September 2014 – Present |
| |
Volunteer Experience
|
Student Council, Vice Presidet, City, Province, Country |
September 2014 – Present |
|
|
Courses & Projects
Object-Oriented Software Development – Linux and C++ Programming (Learning)
- Testsuites for unit testing, white and black box testing
- UML, Git, subsetof STL, inheritance and design pattern (observer, singleton and template)
- Shell environment and Unix tools including complier, debugger (GDB, Valgrind), code management (make)
Elementary Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction – C Programming
- Familiar with binary search and sorting algorithm (insertion, selection, merge sort, quicksort)
- Application of array, linkedlist, trees, and implementations of ADTs
Automate Testing – Bash Script, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Created a formal test suite and implemented a bash script to automate testing to ensure the expected outcome
Puzzle: The Tower of Hanoi – Python, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Developed strategy and algorithm to solve the puzzle with minimum steps required
- Designed a script and tests for printing out the steps taken to finish the puzzle
Search Algorithm: Ternary and Linear Combined – Python, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
- Designed a script using ternary and linear search for printing out the searching steps performed at runtime
SAGE National Competition in Social Enterprise Business Category FirstPrize, Toronto, ON
- Planned, designed and marketed threesocial entrepreneurship ventures to raise the attentions to aboriginal, victims of child abuse and the hunger
- Co-created business models based on needs assessment, survey and research
Great Résumé
Jessica (Xiao) Wong
2B ComputerScience | ID: 12345670 | Email: myemail@uwaterloo.ca
123 Main Street, City, Province, Postal Code | Mobile: (519) -123-4567
Summary of Qualifications
- 2 years of computer programming experience including software testing
- Strong programming skills including C, Python, Scheme and ongoing learning C++
- Great understanding of Linux and test automation developed though 2 university courses
- Proven troubleshooting and problemsolving skills in programming, strong attention to details
- Quick learner, adaptive to high intensity of work pressure easily and ability to manage time appropriately
- Great analytical, leadership and critical thinking skills refined by working at Student Council as vice president
Education
Candidate for Honours Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON |
September 2014 – Present |
Relevant Courses
Object-Oriented Software Development – Linux and C++ Programming (Learning) |
January – April 2015 |
|
|
Elementary Algorithm Design and Data Abstraction – C Programming |
|
|
|
Selected Projects
Automate Testing – Bash Script, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON |
May 2016 |
|
|
Puzzle: The Tower of Hanoi – Python, University ofWaterloo, Waterloo, ON |
July 2015 |
|
|
Search Algorithm: Ternary and Linear Combined – Python, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON |
July 2015 |
|
|
SAGE National Competition in Social Enterprise Business Category FirstPrize, Toronto, ON |
May 2014 |
|
|
Volunteer Experience
|
Vice President, Student Council, City, Province, Country |
September 2011 – June 2012 |
|
|
How did Jessica test and refine her résumé to take it from good to great?
Order
Good Résumé:
Jessica chose to order the sections of her résumé as follows:
- “Summary of Qualifications”
- “Education”
- “Volunteer Experience”
- “Courses & Projects”
Jessica combined her courses and projects into one section which she called “Courses & Projects”.
Great Résumé:
Jessica chose to order the sections of her résumé as follows:
- “Summary of Qualifications”
- “Education”
- “Relevant Courses”
- “Selected Projects”
- “Volunteer Experience”
Jessica divided her courses and projects into two sub-sections which she called “Relevant Courses”and “Selected Projects” and included both within her “Education” section.
Rationale
Jessica chose to move her “Volunteer Experience” section beneath her “Education” section because she thought her courses and projects were most relevant to the job at XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc. and she wanted to highlight them at the beginning of her résumé.
This change has allowed the reader to be able to quickly identify the most relevant experience Jessica has in relation to the job she is applying to.
By separating her courses and projects into two sections, Jessica has made it more clear for the reader to identify which is a course and which is a project.
Jessica also chose to change the names of the sections to “Relevant Courses” and “Selected Projects” because she thought these headings would be more impactful.
The new headings are more effective in drawing the attention of the reader to the importance of the content within the section and that the headings were purposefully chosen.
Summary of qualifications: first bullet point
Good Résumé:
Jessica wrote the first point of her “Summary of Qualifications” as follows:
- Computer programming experience including software testing
Great Résumé:
Jessica chose to add the amount of experience she has with computer programming (i.e. 2 years) to the beginning of the first point of her “Summary of Qualifications” section
The point now reads as follows:
- 2 years of computer programming experience including software testing
Rationale
By choosing to quantify her computer programming experience, Jessica has allowed the reader to be able to quickly identify and assess a key qualification that she possesses in relation to the job she is applying to at XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc. Placing this point at the beginning of her “Summary of Qualifications” section will allow Jessica to stand out amongst other candidates for the job.
Summary of qualifications: third bullet point
Good Résumé:
Jessica wrote the third point of her “Summary of Qualifications” as follows:
- Great understanding of Linux and test automation gained from academics
Great Résumé:
Jessica chose to refine the wording of the third point of her “Summary of Qualifications” and changed “gained from academics” to “developed though 2 university courses”
The point now reads as follows:
- Great understanding of Linux and test automation developed though 2 university courses
Rationale
By adding that her understanding of Linux and test automation were developed through two university courses, Jessica provides the reader with specific evidence of how and when her understanding was developed.
By listing this point in her “Summary of Qualifications”, Jessica has allowed for the reader to be able to quickly identify and assess these key skills that she possesses in relation to the job she is applying to.
Summary of Qualifications: five points
Good Résumé:
Jessica chose to include five points within her “Summary of Qualifications” section
Great Résumé:
Jessica added a sixth point to her “Summary of Qualifications” that reads as follows:
Great analytical, leadership and critical thinking skills refined by working at Student Council as vice president
Rationale
By adding this point to her “Summary of Qualifications” section, Jessica has both indicated relevant skills that she possesses and allowed the reader to be able to quickly locate further evidence of these skills on her résumé.
The skills and personal attributes Jessica developed and demonstrated through her leadership role as Vice President will allow her to stand out amongst other candidates for the job.
Dates
Good Résumé:
Jessica did not attach dates to her experiences within her “Courses & Projects” section
Great Résumé:
Jessica attached dates to her experiences within her “Relevant Courses”and “Selected Projects” section
Rationale
By attaching dates to her courses and projects, Jessica provides more context for these experiences for the reader. Without dates, it is difficult for the reader to gauge when and where the experience took place.
Student Council
Good Résumé:
Jessica worded the first bullet point in her Student Council experience as follows:
- Coordinated sporting events for students by developing budget plans and speculated practicability of the planning solution upon detailed analysis on cost, site, weather and human capital constraints
Great Résumé:
Jessica chose to add numerical data to the first bullet point in her Student Council experience, it now reads as follows:
- Coordinated 5 sporting events for 1000 students by developing budget plans and speculated practicability of the planning solution upon detailed analysis on cost, site, weather and human capital constraints
Rationale
By quantifying her work at the Student Council, Jessica has allowed for the reader to gain a deeper understanding of her accomplishments.
By indicating the scale of the events she coordinated (five sporting events for one-thousand students) Jessica has better emphasized her skills and is more effective in convincing the reader of her coordination abilities.
Volunteer Experience
Good Résumé:
Jessica chose to order her “Volunteer Experience” sub-heading as follows:
- Student Council, Vice President, High School, City, Province, Country
Great Résumé:
Jessica switched the order of her “Volunteer Experience” sub-heading, it now reads as follows:
- Vice President, Student Council, High School, City, Province, Country
Rationale
Jessica has chosen to start the heading of her Student Council experience with her title (Vice President) instead of the organization name (Student Council) because she thought it would be more impactful.
Although it is a subtle change, when paired with the bolding of the words Vice President, the heading is more effective in drawing the reader’s attention to a significant leadership experience that allowed Jessica to develop and demonstrate key skills and personal attributes related to the job she is applying to at XYZ Laboratories Canada Inc.
Action Verbs
Good Résumé:
Jessica refined the bullet points with her courses by adding action verbs, and increasing the consistency and clarity of her points
Example:
- Shell environment and Unix tools including compiler, debugger (GDB, Valgrind), code management (make)
Great Résumé:
- Completed assignments in shell environment using Unix tools including compiler, debugger (GDB, Valgrind), code management (make)
Rationale
By consistently starting her bullet points with active action verbs, Jessica clearly indicates what she actually did and the skill she used to complete the task she is referring to.
Previous page