Communication Skills for Professionals

LESSON THREE
CV Writing

At the end of the lesson the students will be able to:

● Recall important tips in writing CVs
● Design CVs appropriate for certain employment opportunities
● Develop personal statements
● Construct sentences using adjectives in order

Activity 1
Read the article given below on CVs and answer the following questions.

New Teachers: How to Make Your CV Stand Out

Your CV is probably the first thing a potential employer will see, so it
needs to be good. If you can make a great first impression from your CV,
then it’s going to give you more of a chance to get to the interview stage.
Let’s say you’ve found a great job in a reputed company, take some time
to look through these tips to make sure you send over a winning CV.

1. Refine your personal profile

Open with a strong profile that highlights the best of your abilities and show exactly what you
would bring to a role. The rest of your CV should back this up. Tailor your personal profile to the
job you are going for. Irrelevant information isn’t going to impress anyone.

2. Keep it concise
Don’t make your CV more than two pages of A4 sized paper. It needs to
be simple, easy to read and quick to glance over. After looking through
10 CVs, an employer will probably just discard yours if it goes on for
pages and pages.
If you need to elaborate on something, do it in your cover letter.

3. Target your CV

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Don’t send the same CV to every company with which you want to work. Tailor your CV to the
job with your most relevant skills and experience near the top. For example, if you’re applying
for a specific topic, open your personal profile with your degree in that area and weigh your
experience to reflect how good you’d be teaching that subject. If you’re going for a wider role,
keep your experience generic to show how good an all-rounder you are.

4. Be truthful
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t lie on your CV, but you also shouldn’t wildly
exaggerate either. If you did help to take a school from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘satisfactory’,
that is great. But don’t say you are the sole person responsible for that success.
Similarly, don’t say you regularly covered for the head teacher when, in reality, you only did it
twice.

5. Ask someone to look through it

Ask an honest, trustworthy friend to look through your CV and give you feedback. They’ll need
to look for typos, spelling mistakes and general layout problems that you’ll need to fix before
you send it out.

6. Consider an alternative CV
If you are going for a job where your art, design or video-making
skills are required, it might be worth doing an alternative CV.
Perhaps give your CV an edgy design or, if you’re going to teach
film or media studies, make a film showcasing your skills.
It’s often a good idea to have a website, too. This is something you can show to the people you
meet when you network. It’s less formal than a CV but will still showcase what you can do.
There are plenty of free services out there that will allow you to make your own site, but you
should get your own domain name as this make you look more professional.

Source: http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/12/new-teachers-make-cv-stand/

1. According to the 1st paragraph, what is the importance of a CV?

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2. What are the features of a “strong profile”?

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3. Mention two ways suggested by the writer to make the CV brief and to the point.
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4. What does the writer mean when s/he says that one should be “truthful” in his/her CV?
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5. Mention two areas that a person who proofreads a CV should look for.
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6. Does the writer say that personal websites are equally important as CVs? Give reasons for
your answer.
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Personal Statements

A personal statement is a few sentences that appear at the top of your CV. It is sometimes
referred to as a ‘career summary’ or a ‘personal mission statement’.

Activity 2
Listen to the video clip which focuses on writing personal statements. According to the speaker,
what do the employers want to see in a personal statement?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPrgaTPCYHI

Activity 3
Now read the following personal statements carefully. Underline words and expressions that the
writers of these statements have used to create a positive first impression and market themselves.

Grammar corner
In the previous activity, you identified expressions that were used to create a positive first
impression. Some of these expressions are adjectives and it is important to know how adjectives
are used especially when there are more than one adjective in a sentence.

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Order of adjectives

When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a particular
order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually come first, before
more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):

She was wearing an amazing red coat.

Not: … red amazing coat

If we do not want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of adjectives
is:

order relating to examples

1 opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful

2 size big, small, tall

3 physical quality thin, rough, untidy

4 shape round, square, rectangular

5 age young, old, youthful

6 colour blue, red, pink

7 origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish

8 material metal, wood, plastic

9 type general-purpose, four-sided, U-shaped

10 purpose cleaning, hammering, cooking

It was made of a 1strange, 6green, 8metallic material.

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It’s a 4long, 8narrow, 10plastic brush.

Panettone is a 4round, 7Italian, 9bread-like Christmas cake.

Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which included all
these types would be extremely rare.

She was a 1beautiful, 2tall, 3thin, 5young, 6black-haired, 7Scottish woman.

What an 1amazing, 2little, 5old, 7Chinese cup and saucer!

Adjectives joined by and

When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such as be (a linking verb), the second last
adjective is normally connected to the last adjective by and:

Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.

And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a warm,
welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more adjectives of the same
type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:

It was a blue and green cotton shirt.

Source:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/about-adjectives-and-adverbs/adjectiv
es-order

Activity 4

Indicate whether the following sentences are grammatically correct (C) or Incorrect (E). If
they are incorrect, rewrite the sentences correcting the mistake.

a. She was wearing beautiful red shoes. c

b. He is just an old silly man. c
c. She bought a new powerful computer. c
d. They have just moved into a big modern house. c
e. Last night I watched an interesting German film.c
f. I need an electronic new dictionary. New electronic
g. My cellar is full of big black spiders. c
h. She was carrying a beautiful new bag. c
i. I hate this wet awful weather. Awful wet

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 j. I like that coffee glass small table. Small glass coffee
k. There is a red horrible insect on your back. horrible red insect
l. I ate delicious hot soup for lunch. hot delicious soup
m. They live in an old wonderful wooden house. wonderful old wooden house
n. They are a metal heavy loud band. heavy loud metal band

Activity 5
Search for a job position related to your study area (or a position that you are interested in)
advertised in a newspaper/on the Internet and design a CV with a personal statement in
order to apply for that position.
You may develop your CV based on the template given below.

Your Name
[email protected]
0400 000 000
99 Example Street, Example Town, 2000

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your personal statement is perhaps the single most important part of you CV. Get it wrong and your
chances of being invited to interview are drastically reduced.
Its aim is to highlight your professional attributes and goals, summarising why someone should consider
your application.

Personal Skills:
▪ Include some of your main attributes that are vital to the role
▪ Flexibility, problem solving abilities, good communication and creativity are qualities that all
employers look out for
▪ If you are changing career these transferable skills will add weight to your application

CAREER & EDUCATION HISTORY

(This template allow you to include more than one job under the date range where you developed similar
skills that helped your career progress)
-----------------------------------------DATE RANGE------------------------------------------
Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au - Location

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Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au - Location

Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au - Location

Key Achievements:
● Provide a list of the key achievements you have made in your job
● Try to show evidence such as percentage increases or financial figures

Key Skills Gained:

▪ Show that you have the relevant knowledge required to succeed
▪ Include computer software you have used during this period

Professional Qualifications:
▪ Professional Body – Location – Course Title – Grade
▪ Add any professional associations of which you are a member

Education:
▪ University Name – Location – Course Title – Grade
▪ Explain how your course helped you develop your knowledge in the areas that are relevant to the
position you’re applying for.
▪ If you have switched direction from the topic you studied, you may want to briefly explain the
reasons behind this decision.

------------------------------------------DATE RANGE------------------------------------------
Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au - Location
Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au - Location

Key Achievements:
● Try to avoid cliché phrases that don’t differentiate you
● Always tailor your CV for each job application

Key Skills Gained:

● Avoid abbreviations that may not be known to your potential employers
● Always remember to get your CV checked by at least two people

Education:
▪ College Name – Location
Course Title – Grade
Course Title – Grade
Course Title – Grade

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------------------------------------------DATE RANGE------------------------------------------
Job Title - Company Name - www.examplelink.com.au – Location

Key Achievements:
● Consider contacting your old manager if you can’t remember what you accomplished in the role

Key Skills:
● If something isn’t relevant, don’t be scared to leave it out

Education:
▪ School Name – Location – Grades
▪ List a small selection of the courses you took that are relevant to your career path

PERSONAL INTERESTS
Outside interests enable a potential employer to gain an understanding to what motivates you, what
personal skills you may have and how you will integrate into the team.
Look at how job advertisements stipulate certain personality traits required for positions. Identify what
they are and show how your hobbies can relate to their requirements.

REFERENCES

References are available on request.

(Source:
http://career-advice.careerone.com.au/resume-cover-letter/sample-resume/cv-template-modern-combo/arti
cle.aspx)