Presentation write effective CVs

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TOP TIPS WITH THE INTERVIEW GUYS
WORKSHOP: CVs & JOB INTERVIEWS – SESSION 1
Keep the design simple
Include important keywords
Use ‘Power Words’
Tailored CV to the job you want
Professional help

HEADINGS FOR THE SECTIONS OF YOUR CV
 CONTACT DETAILS
 PROFILE
 KEY SKILLS
 MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS
 CAREER TO DATE
 EDUCATION
 PUBLICATIONS
 HOBBIES
 REFERENCES
EDUCATION & TRAINING
RESEARCH INTERESTS CORE COMPETENCIES
RELEVANT CAREER DETAILS WORK EXPERIENCE
OVERVIEW NOTABLE SKILLS KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND REFEREES
QUALIFICATIONS PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
PRESENTATIONS INTERESTS
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
CONTACT & PERSONAL DETAILS
SUPPORTING REFERENCES
EDUCATION & ACCREDITATIONS

CONTACT DETAILS
YOUR NAME Write your name in a larger font than the rest of your CV to make it stand out.
MARITAL STATUS Not obligatory, but do it if it’s to your advantage.
DATE OF BIRTH You may include it although again it’s not necessary.
NATIONALITY It’s not necessary but it could be positive. Eg. a native teacher applying for a post.
CONTACT DETAILS Include your personal email address but make sure it’s a serious one; telephone
number where you can be contacted; city & address if it’s to your advantage.
OTHER INFO If the job requires you to drive state you have a clean driving license; if you are
applying for a web design position then including a webpage you have designed
would be a good idea.
PHOTOGRAPH It’s advisable to include a photograph, just make sure you look your best.

PROFILE
“I am a confident, highly driven graduate with practical
hands-on customer service and travel experience.
Resourceful and proactive, I combine effective
communication skills with detailed product knowledge
to identify commercial opportunities and deliver a
satisfactory outcome for both customer and company
whilst working alone and as part of a larger team. I am
currently looking for an opportunity to further my career
within the travel and tourism industry.”
The profile is a brief summary of yourself where you state your strengths and your career.
The use of positive language and power words is very important here.
A good profile might make the employer have a closer look to the rest of the CV.
Note: make sure the rest of your CV is as good as your profile description.
You should mention the kind of job you are looking for.
“I am an award-winning Senior Sales
Executive with over eight years managerial
and client handling experience. An effective
communicator, I have a proven track-record
of combining a strong product knowledge
with excellent negotiation skills to identify
and maximise sales opportunities and deliver
results in high-pressured target-based
environments.”

KEY SKILLS
Communication: writes clearly and concisely, speaks effectively, openly expresses ideas, negotiates/resolves
differences, leads group discussions, provides well-thought out solutions, gathers appropriate information,
confidently speaks in public.
Interpersonal Skills: works well with others, motivates others, shares credit, counsels, delegates effectively,
represents others, understands feelings, self-confident, accepts responsibility.
Research & Planning: forecasts/predicts, creates ideas, meets goals, identifies resources, solves problems,
defines needs, analyzes issues, assesses situations.
Organizational Skills: handles details, punctual, manages projects effectively, sets goals, keeps control over
budget, plans and arranges activities, .
Management Skills: teaches/trains/instructs, counsels/coaches, delegates responsibility, makes decisions,
directs others, enforces policies, takes charge.

KEY SKILLS
Exercise 1: Match the skills below under the correct heading.
Communication | Interpersonal Skills | Research & Planning | Organizational Skills | Management Skills
provides feedback develops strategies
sensitive supportive meets deadlines multi-tasks
persuades others leads groups identifies problems listens attentively
gathers information manages conflict cooperates
implements decisions coordinates tasks

KEY SKILLS
Exercise 1: Match the different skills under the correct heading.
Communication | Interpersonal Skills | Research & Planning | Organizational Skills | Management Skills
provides feedback
persuades others
listens attentively
sensitive
supportive
cooperates
identifies problems
gathers information
develops strategies
meets deadlines
multi-tasks
coordinates tasks
manages conflict
implements decisions
leads groups
Exercise 2: Which of the key skills we have seen would you use to describe yourself?

WORK EXPERIENCE
When talking about our work experience we should do it in reverse chronological order starting with our
latest job. In this section we may include:
Period of work: e.g. 2010 – present.
Name of the company: e. g. Tower Bridge Language Services, London.
Position in the company: e.g. language instructor.
Responsibilities: e.g. teaching all kinds of levels, assessing students, preparing exams, filling out forms…
Brief description of the company: e.g. Language school based in London with over 1500 students.
Key achievements: e.g. very high percentage of success in First Certificate examinations, number of
students has increased in 600 during my time there, the school has been recognised by the
Chamber of Commerce to provide business lessons…

EDUCATION
When describing our education in CVs we should start with the most relevant to the job we are applying
for which it usually is our latest. In this section we may include:
BSc. Government and Economics 10/2011 – 06/2014
London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
 Grade: First Class (Honours)
 Dissertation researched the changes to economic public
policy and the extent to which the changes were
affected by outside influences/institutions from a political
science perspective
Degree
Overall
grade
Relevant
module
Period of time
Name of institution

PUBLICATIONS
This is only necessary when we are applying for an academic position, e.g. a university lecturer, where
conferences and reserach are considered very important.
If this is our case we should start listing either the most relevant for the job we want to apply to, or in
chronological order starting with the most recent.
Try to keep them in no more than two pages because a potential employer is not very likely to go through
all of them if there are too many pages.

ACHIEVEMENTS, SKILLS & INTERESTS
In this three sections we can talk about other aspects of ourselves; we should think carefully about what
we say here because sometimes there is hidden information in what we say, e.g. interests that denote
we like spending too much time alone.
Achievements: we can talk about awards we have won during our time in high school or university, or
scholarships we have received for being successful students.
Skills: we can talk about our abilities with computers and languages. Not a good idea to lie in this section.
Interests: when discussing your hobbies & interests make sure they give a good impression of you

REFERENCES
Unless you are asked to provide references there is no need to state referees at this stage. Something like
this may be included in this section: “References available on request”. If you do this, make sure you
have contacted a couple of referees just in case.
Who should I choose: typically one referee should be a course tutor if you have just graduated and the
other referee should be an employer. If you have been working for several years then having two
previous employers as referees is the usual thing.
How should I write them: something like this below is normal.
Dr Mike Smith (lecturer in microbiology)
Department of Biosciences
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NJ
email m.smith9999@kent.ac.uk

LAYOUT & DESIGN
How long should a CV be? no longer than two sides of A4. The exception is an academic CV, whith
extra pages about publications and conferences.
Skills based or chronological? Usually chronological, with standard sections for work experience and
education. Skills based is recommended when changing your career.
Should I use a CV template? Not recommended; a CV is something personal.
Should I use different colours? Again, not recommended; black ink on white paper is standard.
What font should I use? Arial & Times New Roman are the most common; size 10 or 12. Avoid
unusual fonts, use something that is readable.
Bullet points or text? What is easiest to read, usually a combination of both.
Work experience or Education? What goes first? Depends. Someone with lots of experience would
mention it first; a recent graduate with hardly any experience wouldn’t.
A Word document or a PDF? Both are accepted but depending on the versión of Word your CV might
look different on another computer whereas a PDF will look the same.

COMMON MISTAKES
Not scannable. An employer might not spend more that 90 seconds reviewing your CV
so make sure the most important information stands out.
Sections split across pages. It doesn’t make your CV look clean, plus some info could go unread.
Chronological order structure. Reverse chronological order is the norm, which means you shoul start
with the latest information.
‘Curriculum Vitae’ as heading. People can recognise a CV when they see one so there’s no need to
say it; your heading should be just your name.
Overusing bold and italics With too much info in bold and italics nothing stands out; avoid using
them and nothing will stand out; a balance is recommended.

POWER WORDS
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT RESEARCH TECHNICAL CREATIVE FINANCIAL SALES TEACHING
Address Assign Collect Assemble Design Administer Convert Clarify
Mediate Coordinate Define Calculate Fashion Allocate Close Coach
Motivate Delegate Diagnose Engineer Illustrate Analyse Deal Encourage
Negotiate Organise Evaluate Fabricate Integrate Audit Negotiate Explain
Persuade Recommend Interpret Maintain Invent Balance Persuade Facilitate
Publicise Strengthen Investigate Operate Perform Budget Satisfy Guide
Speak Supervise Summarise Repair Revitalise Develop Sign Instruct
write Train Survey Solve Shape Forecast Win over Stimulate
List of Power Words categorised by skill:

LISTENING
1 Part of John Woodrow's job is deciding which new people his company will employ.
2 Woodrow reads hundreds of CVs every month.
3 His company does not accept CVs.
4 Woodrow's company keeps lists of potential employees on a computer.
5 Woodrow will ignore a CV which is too long.
6 He thinks the first CV he looks at is too short.
7 One problem with the first CV is that it includes irrelevant information.
8 Woodrow suggests that placements are not important when describing your experience.
9 The second CV has too much space on it.
10 The second CV includes information about the languages the person can speak.
11 Woodrow names two languages from Asia as being useful.
T
F
F
T
T
F
T
F
F
T
F
Listen and say whether the following statements are true or false.

SAMPLE CV
Curiculum Viti
Address John Hopkins
23 Black Dragon Lane
Canterbury
Kent boozybooz@gmail.com
CT1 2DE
Nationality: British
Personnel profile: I have good teamworking and communication
skills. I would like job in business.
EDUCATION
St. Mungos School, Bedford
GCSEs 2002
I have 8 GCSE passes including English grade A and Maths grade B
A Levels 2004
History A, Geography B, Psychology B
2004 – 2007 University of Kent
BA (Hons) Business Studies 2:1
Work Experience
June 2006-Sept 2006 Iceland Frozen Foods
Page 1
21 Station Road, Margate, Kent
Store assistant
Involved stocking shelves and operating the tills
2003 – 2004 Bar person, The Plough Inn
Interests
I enjoy all types of fitness, and do martial arts, and skiing I have
a high level of fitness. I also enjoy train spotting, reading and
playing computer games.
SKILLS
- COMMUTING
• LANGUAGES. I SPEAK FRENCH
• SWIMMING. I HAVE A BRONZE CERTIFICATE
References available on request.
Page 2

SAMPLE CV
Curiculum Viti
Address John Hopkins
23 Black Dragon Lane
Canterbury
Kent boozybooz@gmail.com
CT1 2DE
Nationality: British
Personnel profile: I have good teamworking and communication
skills. I would like job in business.
EDUCATION
St. Mungos School, Bedford
GCSEs 2002
I have 8 GCSE passes including English grade A and Maths grade B
A Levels 2004
History A, Geography B, Psychology B
2004 – 2007 University of Kent
BA (Hons) Business Studies 2:1
Work Experience
June 2006-Sept 2006 Iceland Frozen Foods
Page 1
You don’t the words Curriculum Vitae but
at least spell it correctly. Name should be
in a bigger Font.
No need an ‘address’
heading unless it’s a
temporary address.
Make sure you include your
email address but try something
more serious.
No need to include
nationality in this case.
Check for gramar mistakes: ‘personnel’;
try to use more powerful words rather
than ‘teamworking’ or ‘communication’.
Reverse chronological
order is better.
No mention of relevant modules related
to the career you are interested in:
finance, marketing, administration.
Comic Sans Font is too
informal for a CV.
Job is split on two pages cutting
the information. Makes the CV
look disorganised.

SAMPLE CV
21 Station Road, Margate, Kent
Store assistant
Involved stocking shelves and operating the tills
2003 – 2004 Bar person, The Plough Inn
Interests
I enjoy all types of fitness, and do martial arts, and skiing I have
a high level of fitness. I also enjoy train spotting, reading and
playing computer games.
SKILLS
- COMMUTING
• LANGUAGES. I SPEAK FRENCH
• SWIMMING. I HAVE A BRONZE CERTIFICATE
References available on request.
Page 2
No need to give full address, just the
town; rather than talking about duties,
focus on the people skills: ‘providing
quality service to customers’.
Very few details are
given for the second
job.
Person comes across as a loner with little
contact with people.
This kind of sections is easier to read with
bullet points.
Section is misaligned.
The font has changed
which makes it look
messy.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.englishclub.com/business-english/resumes-vocab.htm
https://www.tcd.ie/alumni/assets/pdf/news-events/career-network/careernetwork2013/rowan-manahan-cv-
vocabulary.pdf
http://www.blairenglish.com/exercises/cv_interviews/exercises/powerverbs1/powerverbs1.html
http://www.career-pioneers.com/cv-personal-profile-examples/
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm#CV
http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/CareersAndVacancies/careersService/CVCoverApps/CVCoverLetterGuide.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYaXN8j7rL8

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