What is CV?
A CV or
Curriculum Vitae is:
·
Your Life History
·
Your Job History
·
Your Achievements
·
Your Skills
Why should I have a CV ?
A CV or curriculum vitae is a marketing
tool. With your CV you will be able to promote yourself. Imagine the CV as
being a brochure that will list the benefits of a particular service. The
service being your time and skills! When writing a CV look at it from your
employers point of view. Would you stand out against the competition (the other
candidates) and would the manager want to talk to you for a possible job? You
have to ask yourself these questions when writing your CV or curriculum vitae.
Networking and interviewing are
essential for your job hunt and your CV is just the first step in the job
search. However, a CV will be your first contact with potential employers and
will open the door. If you are invited for an interview, you would then be in a
position to explain and expand on what is in your CV.
A CV is an essential tool in your job search. When applying for a vacancy, you generally first
have to send your CV to present yourself to the prospective employer.
How to Write a CV
In the CV heading you can write your general information:
·
Name
·
Surname
·
Local address
·
E-mail address
·
Phone number
(If applying for an overseas job, please remember to include your
international dialling code.) Include your mobile/cell phone number if you are
going to relocate soon.
CV Skills Summary
The Skills Summary section of your CV includes your main skills. You should
only include keywords in his section, do not go into lengthy descriptions of
your skills. The skill summary is also called personal profile.
CV Objective
The CV Objective, sometimes also referred to as CV Personal Profile
states "What is the next step in my career?" This should be a short,
concise statement that informs the employer what kind of position you are
looking for. The type of position, the role (managerial, supervisor,
contractor) should be included as well.
If you are job hunting it is a good idea to have several CV's with
different profiles or objectives. For example, you can have a CV for a sales
supervisor and the other for a shop floor manager. Your 'sales supervisor' CV
can highlight achievements in this area, and the CV would be tuned to that
particular in terms of job descriptions and achievements.
Education on your CV
List all of your qualifications in this section. Include all of your
education including certifications from non-academic institutions, especially
those that are related to the job vacancy. If you have more work experience
than qualifications, put your work experience before your qualifications.
A CV is your first point of contact with an employer. From the
employer's perspective, it's the only available information with which to
assess your skills and suitability for a job.
So your CV has to be tailored for that
employer. All jobs are different, and so are all employers. It's important that
your CV speaks directly to the job, addresses criteria, and above all else is
relevant to the position.
The CV needs to be interesting, as well
as clear and concise. It should make a good first impression. You can fit a lot
of information into a paragraph.
There are standard CV formats, most of which cover basic information
requirements, but to stand out, a CV needs to distinguish the applicant. The
idea is to create an identity for the employer to see.
One of the best ways of doing this is to
show what you've accomplished in your work. This is very similar to listing
skills, which is a common format in many CVs, but here it means showing what
you've done with those skills.
Everyone has a storehouse of what
they've done, things they've achieved on the job. What's important is to be
able to quantify those things as a work value measurement. The employer needs
to see results which relate to the job.
Remembering that this CV is being
targeted to a specific job, you need to show a potential employer that your
previous work has been both productive and impressive.
Think about your previous work, and how
it relates to your CV.
Say you were on a production line, and
you managed to come up with a way of speeding up production by eliminating some
wasteful or unnecessary part of the process. Or, if you were in a government
job, if you found a quicker way of processing applications.
Note that this all equates to a clearly
defined situation. It took 20 minutes on the production line, now it takes 15. Applications
used to take three days, now they take one.
If you're in a money-making job, prove
you know how to make money, when listing what you've done. If you can say 'My
section took in million in revenue in the course of our project' you're saying
something that means a lot to your employer. If you can say 'My register takes
in ,000 plus per day,' it's a quantification of your level of responsibility
and your experience.
The whole idea here is that your CV is a
very interesting document to anyone reading it. There are clear indications of
what you've done, how you did it, and these are tangible proof of your skills.
Compare this to a colorless, drab,
statement like 'Worked on production line' or 'Processed applications' and
there's a bit of a difference.
Note that without these identifying
characteristics, your application can get lost in the crowd quite easily, and
quite understandably. What's to distinguish one process worker from another?
Because that's exactly what the employer
has to do. Somehow, with only the CVs to guide them, employers have to try to
find the best people for the job.
Every word on a CV is valuable.
You have to produce an advertisement for
yourself and your skills. Like any advertisement, presentation matters. How you
describe your experience and skills is crucial.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Do not ever falsify information, or give
any misleading information to an employer under any circumstances whatever.
It's illegal, it's self destructive, and
it's just plain stupid.
Don't even think about it.
You can say goodbye to any job like
that. It's certain death.
Don't put yourself in a position where
your statements can't be trusted. Only give verifiable information, and do not
exaggerate.
In some cases you may be going for a
promotion or a position which is above your previous levels of experience. In
these cases, your prior work record, and your hard facts, are far more
important.
Remember that you're competing with
other people. Quality of information is what really matters on any CV. Keep it
real, at all times.
See my international CV as an example:
Maria Mironova
99 Gorkogo St., – apt. 99
Blagoveschensk, Russia, 675011
Cell phone: 8924-6999999 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 8924-6999999 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
mironova_mariya@inbox.ru
PERSONAL DETAILS
Full name: Mironova Maria
Vladimirovna, Mrs.
Nationality: Russian (born in Komsomolsk-on-Amur,
Russian Federation)
DOB: 03/23/1984
PROFILE
My area of profession is teaching English as a Foreign Language
(EFL). On the one hand, it is a mind-boggling experience that gives me a
perfect opportunity to reveal my managerial skills. While teaching I can show
my creativity and satisfy my students’ curiosity. On the other hand, it is a
difficult work which requires a considerable amount of patience. My job is a
real challenge so it makes me energetic and ready to make quick decisions. For
more than four years of teaching I changed courses from linguistic disciplines
like interpreting and translating, to EFL for journalists, social workers and
engineers. My current courses include EFL for undergraduate and M.A. students
of the School of Economics, as well as Business English
for undergraduate students of management specialization. I try to use different
teaching techniques including brainstorming, round tables and role plays.
SKILLS BASE
·
Familiarity with both the research field and the teaching work
·
Proven leadership and human management skills
·
Time-efficient, systematic working methodology
·
Rapid adaptability to new problem-solving and new locations
·
Languages: Russian, English, German, and Chinese
·
IT: Word, Excel, Windows, Photoshop, Movie Maker, Power Point, etc.
EDUCATION
Post-graduate, German languages, Amur
State University,
2010
Concentrations: Cognitive
Linguistics, Psycholinguistics
Dissertation: Cultural
specificity of color names in idioms (on the material of modern American
literature)
M.A., English-German
Interpreting, Amur State University, 2006
Concentrations: Linguistics,
Theory of Translation
Thesis: National
specificity of color names in English and Chinese
SPECIAL COURSES
Innovative approaches in
teaching ESL, FEELTA, 2010
Techniques of University
teaching and improving teaching skills, Amur State University, 2008
IDL 103 – Security, Civil
Liberties and Terrorism, The Stanford Institute for International Studies, 2004
Chinese language, School of Eastern Languages, 2004
EXPERIENCE
Amur State
University
Assistant professor
2006 – present time
Reporter
2009-2010
Reporter
2009
Public opinion
investigation agency “Monitoring”
Interviewer
2003-2004
Freelance journalist
2001 – 2003
PRESENTATIONS
Mironova,
Maria (2010). Color metaphorization in cognitive science. Paper presented at
the VIII International FEELTA Conference: From Broadcasting to Narrowcasting:
Global Englishes, Local Contexts.
SHORT LIST OF RELEVANT
PUBLICATIONS
type of publication
|
title
|
publisher
|
publication
year
|
book
|
“Colorful
English” course book for ESL learners
|
Amur State University
|
2010
|
conference working paper
|
“Color
metaphorization in cognitive science”
|
Far
Eastern English Teachers Association (FEELTA)
|
2010
|
online
article
|
“Realization of color names "white" and
"black" in modern American literature (cultural approach)”
http://conference.kemsu.ru/GetDocsFile?id=19911&table=papers_file&type=0&conn=confDB
|
Kemerovo State University
|
2010
|
journal article
|
“Polysemantics
of adjectives “white” and “black” in
English and Chinese”
original article “Полисемантичность
прилагательных «белый» и «черный» (на
примере фразеологических единиц английского и китайского языков)”
|
Blagoveschesk State Pedagogical
University
|
2010
|
journal article
|
“Color
names in cultural world perception of modern Americans”
original article “Цветообозначения в
культурной картине мира современных американцев”
|
Amur State University
|
2009
|
journal article
|
“The
aspect of development of general typology of idioms in cognitive aspect of
phraseology”
original article “Разработка сводной
типологии фразеологических единиц”
|
Far Eastern State University
|
2009
|
journal article
|
“Classification
of color adjectives in English and Russian”
original article “Классификация
прилагательных цвета (на примере цветообозначений русского и английского
языков)”
|
Amur State University
|
2009
|
journal article
|
“Metaphorization
of color idioms in fiction literature”
original article “Метафоризация
фразеологизмов с компонентом «цвет» в художест-венной картине мира”
|
Rostov-on-Don State University
|
2009
|
journal article
|
“Ethnical
peculiarity of color terms in the context of English and Chinese cultures”
original article “Этноспецифичность
цветообозначений в контексте английской и китайской культур”
|
Amur State University
|
2008
|
journal article
|
“Cultural
peculiarity of color terms in cognitive aspect (on the material of English
and Chinese idioms)”
original article “Культурная специфика
цветообозначений в когнитивном аспекте (на материале фразеологизмов
английского и китайского языков)”
|
Amur State University
|
2008
|
REFERENCES
References available upon request.
