When I decided to move to Canada from Nigeria, I thought my resume was solid. After all, I had successfully used it to land freelance gigs, build a marketing agency that served over 1,000 clients, and establish myself as a technical writer featured on multiple international publications. My credentials were real, my experience was extensive, and my confidence was high.
Then I sent out my first 20 applications in Canada. Twenty applications, and not a single interview request.
I remember sitting in my house, staring at my laptop screen, wondering what was going wrong. The rejections weren’t even personalized just automated “thank you for your interest” emails that felt colder than the January wind outside. It was humbling, frustrating, and confusing all at once.
What I didn’t know then was that my Nigerian-style resume was essentially invisible to Canadian employers. Not because my qualifications weren’t good enough, but because I was speaking a different language, literally and structurally.
Here are 6 critical aspects about your CV that you need to fix:
1. The ATS Problem Nobody Warns You About
Your resume often isn’t read by a human being first. Instead, it goes through something called an Applicant Tracking System or ATS for short. Think of it as a robot gatekeeper that scans your resume for specific keywords, formatting, and structure before a real person ever sees it.
My Nigerian resume was beautifully designed. I had used tables to organize information, added a subtle colour scheme to make it stand out, and even included a small headshot in the corner (because that’s what I thought looked professional). Every single one of those choices was killing my chances.
The ATS couldn’t read my tables. It flagged my creative formatting as errors. It completely ignored my carefully chosen colours. And that photo? Canadian employers don’t expect photos on resumes in fact, including one can raise concerns about bias and discrimination. Employers use ATS software to filter through hundreds of applications quickly. If your resume isn’t ATS-friendly, it doesn’t matter how qualified you are. You’re automatically eliminated before anyone even knows you exist.
2. Language and Verbiage
The differences between Nigerian and Canadian resumes go beyond just formatting. It’s about how you present yourself, what information you include, and even the words you choose.
- Length matters, but not the way you think. In Nigeria, I was used to writing detailed resumes that sometimes stretched to three or four pages. I wanted to include everything I’d done, every project I’d completed, every skill I’d acquired. In Canada, that approach backfires. Canadian employers expect concise, focused resumes typically one page for early-career professionals and two pages maximum for experienced candidates. Anything longer gets dismissed as unfocused or unable to prioritize.
- The spelling difference isn’t trivial. I had to retrain myself to write “colour” instead of “color,” “centre” instead of “center,” and “analyse” instead of “analyze.” These seem like small details, but Canadian employers notice. Using American spelling signals that you haven’t adapted to Canadian business culture yet. Worse, some ATS systems are programmed to recognize Canadian spelling, so using American spelling could cause you to miss keyword matches.
- Achievements trump responsibilities. In my Nigerian resume, I had listed my job responsibilities, things like “managed bids” or “wrote business plans for clients.” That’s what I thought employers wanted to know. But a friend explained that Canadian employers don’t just want to know what you did; they want to know what you achieved. They want numbers, metrics, and concrete results.
So instead of writing “Managed campaigns,” I learned to write “Increased client engagement by 47% through targeted bid management strategies, generating over $200,000 in revenue within six months.” See the difference? One tells them what you did. The other proves the value you brought.
3. The Contact Information Confusion
Something as simple as how you write your contact information can make or break your application. When I first arrived, I kept my Nigerian phone number on my resume (+234…) because that’s what I had. Big mistake.
Canadian employers see a foreign number and immediately wonder: Is this person actually in Canada? Will they be available for interviews? Do they even have work authorization?
I quickly got a Canadian phone number and made sure to list my location as “Ottawa, Ontario” rather than including my full street address. Canadian resumes typically don’t require full addresses anymore just your city and province is enough. This saves space and addresses privacy concerns while still showing you’re local.
I also learned to clean up my email address. The email I’d been using for years seemed fine to me. But I found out that Canadian employers prefer more professional email formats, ideally using your actual name.
4. Keywords Are Your Secret Weapon
Here’s something that took me weeks to figure out: Canadian job postings are basically roadmaps for what to include in your resume. When a job description says they’re looking for someone with “project management experience,” “budget oversight,” and “stakeholder engagement,” those exact phrases need to appear in your resume, if you actually have that experience, of course.
I used to paraphrase or use different terms, thinking it showed creativity. Instead, it just confused the ATS. If the job posting says “project management,” don’t write “project coordination” or “project oversight.” Use their exact language.
But here’s the important part: you can’t just stuff keywords into your resume randomly. The goal isn’t to trick the system, it’s to clearly demonstrate that you have the qualifications they’re looking for, using the terminology they’re familiar with.
5. The Summary Statement That Actually Works
In Nigeria, I never used a resume summary. I figured my experience spoke for itself. In Canada, that summary statement at the top of your resume is prime real estate and most newcomers waste it.
My first attempt at a summary was vague and generic: “Experienced professional seeking opportunities in digital proposal management, business analyis.” It said nothing meaningful about who I was or what I could offer.
After multiple revisions, I landed on something that actually worked: “Proposal and Bid Specialist with 8+ years of experience driving revenue growth for SMEs across Africa, Europe, and North America. Specialized in digital marketing, and business development, with proven track record of increasing client engagement by 40%+ and managing teams of 15+ professionals.”
The difference? Specificity. Numbers. Clear value proposition. It told Canadian employers exactly what I brought to the table in the first five seconds of reading.
6. The Format That Gets Past the Robots
Getting your formatting right is crucial, and it’s not about making your resume look “pretty.” It’s about making it readable for both the ATS and the human who reviews it after.
I switched to a simple, single-column layout using a standard font like Calibri or Arial in 11-point size. No more fancy tables or text boxes. No headers or footers that confuse ATS systems. Just clean, straightforward sections with clear headings: Professional Experience, Education, Skills.
I saved my resume as both a Word document (.docx) and a PDF, submitting whichever format the employer requested. Many ATS systems handle Word documents better than PDFs, but some employers specifically request PDFs. Reading the application instructions carefully became my new religion.
Concluding….
After rewriting my resume using these Canadian conventions, the difference was dramatic. Within two weeks, I went from zero responses to three interview requests. Within two months, I had landed my first job in the city. The difference wasn’t my qualifications those hadn’t changed. The difference was that Canadian employers could finally see what I had to offer.
Adapting to Canadian resume standards isn’t about abandoning your experience or diminishing your accomplishments. It’s about translating your value into a format that Canadian employers recognize and respect. The skills you developed in Nigeria; your hustle, your adaptability, your ability to deliver results in challenging circumstances are valuable in Canada. You just need to present them in a way that the Canadian job market understands.
If you’re struggling with this transition , don’t lose heart. Every Nigerian professional I know who succeeded in Canada had to go through this same learning curve. The good news? Once you understand the formula, it’s actually quite straightforward.
Your experience matters. Your qualifications are real. You just need to speak the language that Canadian employers are listening for. And sometimes, that means letting go of what worked back home and embracing what works here.
