Browse > Home / Archive by category 'Recent'

Help for Students: Resumes

May 1, 2009

Resume writing is hard. How do you sell yourself on a couple pages? Potential employers often look through a pile of resumes looking for one that stands out… often giving them each about 30 seconds. Your goal is to make an immediate positive impression! Create a resume that captures the essence of who you are and what you have to offer. Update your resume at the beginning of each semester. You’ll need it when applying for internships, co-ops, jobs and even graduate school.

Getting started.

1. You should make a work sheet. This is to gather your information – objective, address, phone number, courses, credits, certificates, schools, licenses, activities, awards, employers, previous jobs (all the info that goes with each job), volunteer activity, etc. Everything you need to include on your resume should be included in your work sheets. (Chronological worksheet) From there you can put it into order and decide what exactly needs to be said.

2. Use action verbs when resume writing to communicate your accomplishments in the experience section of your resume. Here’s a couple examples.

Without action verbs

Company Name, 123 Anystreet, Your Town, ON
Human Resources Intern, Summer 2008
- Duties included administrative tasks in an office setting.
- Responsible for distributing a survey to current employees.
- The needs of recent hires were collected, documented, etc.
- I was involved in a variety of other activities, as needed.

With action verbs

Company Name, 123 Anystreet, Your Town, ON
Human Resources Intern, Summer 2008
- Worked with a project team on the redesign of New Employee Orientation.
- Created a survey to use with current employees. Received an 80% response rate.
- Interviewed 15 recent hires to gain insight into the needs of new employees.
- Wrote report and presented results to project team.

3. Resume Do’s and Don’ts. Always be brief, clear and concise. Be honest… you con’t want to let on that you’re good at everything… we all have our downfalls.

4. Have your resume critiqued by someone who will tell you what needs to be changed or pumped up a little. (Highschool students could get a Guidance Counsellor to take a look.)

5. Write a cover letter that pertains to the job you are applying for.

There are many types of resumes. The internet has a wealth of tips and free templates that are available to download. These should help ease the pain of having to come up with a killer resume. Good luck with your job search!

Written by Deb · Filed Under Recent, Skills, The Area, Youth, theOwen 

Planning On Renovating This Year?

April 9, 2009

As you’ve probably heard by now, there is a new tax credit avaiable for Ontarians this year. It’s called the Home Renovations Tax Credit.

What is the Home Renovation Tax Credit (HRTC)?
The proposed HRTC is a non-refundable tax credit for work performed or goods acquired in respect of an eligible dwelling.

What is meant by eligible dwelling?
An eligible dwelling is a housing unit that is eligible to be an individual’s principal residence or that of one or more of their family members, at any time between January 27, 2009 and February 1, 2010. In general, a housing unit is considered eligible to be an individual’s principal residence where it is owned by the individual and ordinarily inhabited by the individual, the individual’s spouse or common-law partner, or their children. This means that any dwelling that you own and use personally could qualify, including your home or your cottage.

Who will be eligible for the credit?
Eligibility for the HRTC will be family based. A family will generally be considered to consist of an individual or an individual and his or her spouse or common-law partner, including children who will be under 18 years of age, at the end of 2009. A family will be allowed a single credit that may be shared within the family.

If two or more families share the ownership of an eligible dwelling, each family will be eligible for their own separate credit (i.e. each up to $1,350) that will be calculated on their respective eligible expenditures

Some examples of eligible and ineligible expenditures…

Eligible
* Renovating a kitchen, bathroom or basement
* New carpet or hardwood floors
* Building an addition, garage, deck, garden/storage shed, fence
* Re-shingling a roof
* A new furnace, woodstove, boiler, fireplace, water softener or water heater
* A new driveway or resurfacing a driveway
* Painting of interior or exterior of a house
* Window coverings directly attached to the window frame and whose removal would alter the nature of the dwelling
* Laying new sod
* Swimming Pools (Permanent – in ground and above ground)
* Fixtures – lights, fans, etc.
* Associated costs such as permits, professional services, equipment rentals and incidental expenses.

Ineligible
* Furniture, appliances, and audio and visual electronics
* Purchasing of tools
* Cleaning carpets
* House cleaning
* Maintenance contracts (e.g. furnace cleaning, snow removal, lawn care, and pool cleaning)
* Financing costs

This just touches briefly on the HRTC, see here for full details.

Written by adam · Filed Under Business, Participation, Recent 

‏