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    Canadian Resume Format and Template for Students

    Two free Canadian resume templates: one for a student applying to summer, part-time or entry-level roles, and one for a co-op student that shows which work terms you can take. Both follow the conventions described by the Government of Canada Job Bank and by Canadian university career centres: up to two pages, a short opening section (a profile on the student template, a Highlights of Qualifications section on the co-op template), your city and province in the contact line, and no photo or personal details. Download either one as Word, PDF or plain text.

    As of October 21, 2026, Intern Insider listed 3,281 internships in Canada, including openings at Bombardier, Shoppers Drug Mart, Loblaw Companies Limited, BASF and 643 other companies.

    Templates to download

    Canadian student resume

    University students in Canada applying for summer, part-time or entry-level roles

    Canadian co-op student resume

    Co-op students in Canada applying for a work term, with term availability shown at the top

    What goes in each section

    Contact information

    • Put your name, city and province, phone number and email at the top of the first page, and check that each one is current.[1][5]
    • Use a professional email address based on your name, without nicknames, numbers or special characters.[1]
    • Leave out a photo, your age, marital status, religion and similar personal details. Never include your SIN.[1]

    Profile

    • Open with a profile statement of two or three lines that sums up your background, your strengths and what you can offer the employer. Use it in place of an objective.[2][5]
    • Write it for the role, using the skills and terms the posting asks for.[2][1]

    Key skills or highlights of qualifications

    • Follow the profile with a short key skills section matched to the posting.[2]
    • For co-op applications, a Highlights of Qualifications section can replace the profile. Make its first line your program, year or co-op level, available term lengths and start date.[3]

    Education

    • List your degree, school, city and dates. Mention awards and academic projects under education instead of in separate sections.[2]
    • Relevant coursework and awards help when you have little work experience.[5][3]

    Work and co-op experience

    • List jobs in reverse chronological order with accurate titles and dates.[4]
    • Start each bullet with an action verb, keep it to two lines at most, and use no more than five or six bullets per position.[2][4]
    • Describe what you achieved, not only your duties, and add numbers where you can, such as customers served or people trained.[1][4]
    • Leave out personal pronouns and reasons for leaving a job.[1]

    Volunteer experience and activities

    • Unpaid work counts. Put it under work experience or in its own volunteer section.[1]
    • Include clubs, community involvement, design teams and sports teams. They show teamwork and leadership outside class.[2][4]
    • Leave hobbies out unless they relate to the job.[1]

    References

    • Do not list references on the resume. Prepare them on a separate page and share them when an employer asks.[1][2]

    How a Canadian resume differs from a US resume

    Length is the clearest difference. Job Bank and Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta (CPA Alberta) both accept up to two pages, while US career centres such as William & Mary ask internship applicants for one page.

    The top of the page differs too. CPA Alberta tells students to open with a profile statement and a key skills section rather than an objective. US guidance often leaves the summary out for undergraduates.

    Personal details stay off a Canadian resume. Job Bank says not to include a photo, your age, height, weight, marital status, religion or political views, and never to include your Social Insurance Number (SIN).

    Our Canadian templates also use Canadian spelling, such as centre, honours and modelled. Pick one spelling system and use it throughout.

    [1][2][6]

    Showing co-op term availability

    Co-op employers hire for a specific work term, so tell them early which terms you can take. The McMaster University engineering co-op sample opens with a Highlights of Qualifications section whose first line gives the student's program level, the term lengths they can accept (four, eight or twelve months) and the start date.

    After that, the order is the same as any Canadian student resume: education, then experience in reverse chronological order, with design teams, clubs and volunteer work after it. The University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre also recommends tailoring each version to the posting's keywords.

    [3][4]

    Where the sources disagree

    Sources differ on hobbies. Job Bank says to leave them out unless they relate to the job, while William & Mary in the US allows a short, specific interests section as a conversation starter. Our Canadian templates follow Job Bank and leave interests out.[1][6]

    Sources differ on the summary. CPA Alberta tells students to start with a profile statement, while William & Mary calls a summary unnecessary for most undergraduates. Both Canadian templates on this page include a profile or highlights section. Our US templates do not.[2][6]

    Worked example: Canadian student resume

    This is the Canadian student template filled in for Samira Valcourt, a fictional psychology student in Halifax applying for a summer program assistant role. The notes explain what each bullet is doing.

    Sample resume. The student, school and employers are fictional.

    Samira Valcourt

    Halifax, NS | (555) 555-0156 | samira.valcourt@example.com

    Profile

    Fourth-year psychology student with two years of part-time retail work and a volunteer role in a youth program. Comfortable leading group activities, keeping accurate records and explaining information clearly to children, parents and staff.

    Key Skills

    • Group facilitation: led weekly activity sessions for up to 15 children

      Why it works: The skill closest to a program assistant role comes first, with a group size attached.

    • Records and data: Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets and IBM SPSS Statistics for course research

      Why it works: Actual software names, so the line matches a posting that asks for Excel or data entry.

    • Languages: English (fluent) and French (intermediate, spoken and written)

      Why it works: French is rated at its real level. Job Bank advises against overstating skills, and an interviewer may test it.

    • Customer service during high-volume holiday periods

      Why it works: A setting instead of an adjective. High-volume holiday periods tells the reader more than strong people skills.

    Education

    Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Psychology, Cedar Ridge University, Halifax, NS

    September 2023 - April 2027 (expected)

    Awards: Dean's List, 2024-2025

    • Designed and ran a survey of 140 first-year students on study habits for a research methods course, then presented the results to the class

      Why it works: An academic project placed under education, as CPA Alberta suggests, with the sample size.

    Work Experience

    Sales Associate (part-time), Harbourfront Outfitters, Halifax, NS

    May 2024 - Present

    • Served about 60 customers a shift during the holiday season, including returns and exchanges at the till

      Why it works: Volume as an approximate figure with a time frame.

    • Counted weekly stock deliveries against packing slips and reported shortages to the store manager

      Why it works: Checking deliveries against packing slips is record-keeping, the same habit the target role needs.

    • Trained two new associates on the point-of-sale system

      Why it works: A small leadership result from a part-time job, stated plainly.

    Volunteer Experience

    Youth Program Volunteer, North End Community Centre, Halifax, NS

    September 2023 - Present

    • Planned and led weekly arts and games sessions for children aged 6 to 10

      Why it works: Volunteer work written the same way as paid work. Job Bank treats unpaid experience as experience.

    • Kept attendance and allergy records for each session and shared them with the program coordinator

      Why it works: Safety records for children, which is directly relevant to youth programs.

    Activities

    Events Volunteer, Cedar Ridge Psychology Society

    September 2024 - Present

    • Helped plan a peer mentoring evening attended by about 50 first-year students

      Why it works: Helped is the accurate verb for a shared task, and the attendance figure still gives the scale.

    Tips for Canadian student resumes

    • Job Bank notes that employers may skim a resume in about thirty seconds. Keep the profile and key skills short so they are read.[1]
    • If you are in a co-op program, put your available terms and start date on the first line of the page.[3]
    • Use plain formatting: a standard font, bold for headings, job titles and employer names, and no tables, borders or page-width lines.[2]
    • Rate language skills honestly, including French. Do not overstate any skill or result.[1]
    • Write a separate version for each posting, using the posting's own keywords.[4][1]
    • Proofread several times and ask someone else to read it before you apply.[1][4]

    Sources

    1. Government of Canada Job Bank, How to write a good resume. Checked October 19, 2026.
    2. CPA Alberta, Student Recruitment Tips for Success (PDF). Checked October 19, 2026.
    3. McMaster University Faculty of Engineering, BEng Computer Engineering co-op resume sample (PDF). Checked October 19, 2026.
    4. University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre, 6 Resume Tips to Land a Co-op Placement. Checked October 19, 2026.
    5. University of Manitoba Career Services, Marketing student chronological resume (PDF). Checked October 19, 2026.
    6. William & Mary Cohen Career Center, Accounting resume sample and Resume Checklist (PDF). Checked October 19, 2026.

    We take structure and conventions from these sources and write every template, sample person and bullet ourselves.

    Common questions

    A Canadian resume is usually reverse chronological, up to two pages, and opens with a short profile and key skills section. It leaves out photos and personal details such as age, marital status and the Social Insurance Number, and it ends without a references list.

    Related

    All resume templatesAccounting internship resume templateNursing student resume templateThree patterns in the supply of student jobs in CanadaUniversity internship resume guide

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