Curriculum Vitae (CV) - MS in Canada
Curriculum Vitae (CV) is a synopsis of your academic and professional accomplishments, all enlisted in a standard, streamlined format. The Curriculum Vitae/Resume will be listed as one of the main documents to apply for admission to all Canadian universities. In this guide, we will help you with information on how to prepare a Curriculum Vitae from the very first step. Even if you have a pretty good CV, we recommend you to go through this guide, update it, and tailor it accordingly.
Table of contents
Typical time required: 2-3 days
Before You Start
- Get every academic certification, achievements, medals, etc. all at one place before you begin with the documentation; this way, you won't forget to mention anything important.
- Do a little background check, analyse what kind of candidate your university is looking for. You can go look at information like the program details, research fields, professor profiles, etc.
For example, if you are applying for Mechanical Engineering Master’s programme at McGill University, you might want to mention the summer internship you did at the Mercedes in your Curriculum Vitae.
A golden rule of any Master’s CV is to focus mainly on your achievements in academics over the professional ones. Professional experiences are also important, but throw more light on your academic ones.
Reference Documents
- All the essential academic and extra-curricular achievement certificates have to be mentioned in your Curriculum Vitae.
- Your publications, experience certificates, language certificates, training certificates, etc. if any.
- Do not forget add your Bachelors' Thesis/Capstone Project summary in your CV.
Step by step Guide
- Many online tools may be used to build your Curriculum Vitae.
- Check whether you want to begin with your CV from scratch, or simply update the existing one. Decide if you want an online readymade Curriculum Vitae template or have it custom made on the PC.
- Include all your personal information. Include/exclude some sections to suit your academic and job profile. Match the details to your target institutions’ profile.
- Limit your Curriculum Vitae to two pages.
- Once all the editing is done, go through it entirely and check whether you have entered the correct details. Save the document in the original version and as a PDF as well.
Useful Tips
- In general, your Curriculum Vitae should be confined in two (A4) pages.
- The Admission officer might spend no more than 2 - 3 minutes scanning your Curriculum Vitae, so make sure it is well organized, coherent and easy to read.
- Do not forget to mention the timeline for all different events in the recent chronological order.