A Resume

A resume is a list of information about you. It shows your qualifications to prospective employers. Qualifications are skills or talents. A resume needs to be neat, clean, well-organized, and attractive. You need to organize your resume into categories (or groups) of information. Categories make a resume easy to read. Your resume also needs to be short. It is usually only one or two pages. Resumes might look simple, but you must work hard to create one that will help you to get your ideal job.

A resume always includes personal data (facts about you), your career objective (the kind of job you want), your work experience, any special skills or abilities, your education, and references.

Personal data – the first section of a resume – means your name, mailing address, and telephone number. Put this information in a prominent place, at the top of the resume. You do not have to include your sex, age, weight, height, marital status, or Social Security number.

Career objective comes next. In this section, describe your career objective, or the kind of job you want.

Work experience can include jobs you have had. List the most recent jobs first. Also, include the length of time you worked and your job title or the type of work that you did. If you do not have any job experience yet, do not worry. Just go the next section: education.

Education section starts with the highest level of education that you have completed. List your degree(s), your major (or the most important courses that you took), and the name of your school, college, or university. It can also include job-training courses.

In special skills section, list your special skills. For example, you might speak about a second language or languages. You might know certain computer programs (software or hardware). In additional information section you may note your personal interests (Do you play sports? Do you have hobbies? Do you do volunteer work?). These skills may be important in a particular job.

Adapted from the authors’ lectures by Sarah Lindeman, Novosibirsk State University

Exercise 3. Find the main idea of the passage about a resume. The main idea is a complete sentence that says something about the topic of a text. A topic is a word or phrase that states what a text is about. Discuss in pairs.

1. A resume always includes a description of your career objectives.

2. A resume might look simple, but it takes a lot of work to prepare a good one.

3. In a resume, you organise information into several different categories.

4. Personal data includes your phone number.

Exercise 4. Find a word in the reading passage for each definition below.

1. a list of information about you

2. skills or talents

3. facts about you (your name, mailing address, and telephone number)

4. groups

5. the kind of job you want

6. jobs you have had and job-training courses

7. a student's principal subject or course

8. a language other than the mother tongue that a person uses for public communication.

Exercise 5. Choose the correct word.

1. A resume shows your …………… to prospective employers.

1. talents

2. qualifications

3. beauty

4. intellect

2. You need to organize your resume into …………… of information.

1. points

2. facts

3. friends

4. categories

3. …………… – the first section of a resume – means your name, mailing address, and telephone number.

1. Physical changes

2. Physical data

3. Personal data

4. Individual characteristics

4. …………… describes the kind of job you want.

1. Career objective

2. The prizes of life

3. Desired effect

4. Waking dream

5. …………… can include jobs you have had.

1. Knowledge of life

2. Work experience

3. Critical experiment

4. Bitter experience

6. Education section can also include …………… courses.

1. interesting

2. no-effect

3. expensive

4. job-training

7. In …………… section, list your special skills.

1. job-training

2. special skills

3. personal data

4. prospective employers

8. In …………… section you may note your personal interests

1. sports

2. special skills

3. additional information

4. hobbies

Exercise 6. Find English equivalents to the following Russian phrases in the text.

1. квалификация по диплому

2. будущие работодатели

3. хорошо структурированный

4. личные данные

5. номер социального страхования

6. цель

7. последнее место работы

8. курсы производственного обучения

9. дополнительные навыки

10. профилирующая дисциплина (в колледже); дисциплина, выбранная в качестве специализации

Exercise 7. Read about the difference between a resume and a CV. Translate the text into Russian.

What's the difference between a resume and a CV?

The primary differences are the length, the content and the purpose. A resume is a one or two page summary of your skills, experience and education. A goal of resume writing is to be brief and concise since, at best, the resume reader will spend a minute or so reviewing your qualifications. A Curriculum Vitae, commonly referred to as CV, is a longer (two or more pages), more detailed synopsis. It includes a summary of your educational and academic backgrounds as well as teaching and research experience, publications, presentations, awards, honors, affiliations and other details.

Exercise 8. Read the text about the difference between a resume and a CV. Render it in Russian.

Если Вы хотите поработать в Европе, то CV Вам просто необходимо. В нем находится информация о Ваших личных и профессиональных достижениях. Оно отличается от классического американского резюме объемом – обычно CV занимает более одной страницы. Содержание CV насчитывает около 18 категорий. Среди них название дипломной работы; грамоты, награды, гранты и стипендии; опыт научной деятельности; публикации или презентации; знание иностранных языков; общественная работа; рекомендации и др.

Writing

Exercise 1. A good resume has information in categories. The following chart shows some of them. Work with a partner and complete the chart. Write a definition or an example for each category from the text about a resume.

Resume Categories

Personal Data	Career Objective	Work Experience	Education and Trainings	Special Skills	Additional Information
facts about you (name, mailing address, telephone number)

Exercise 2. Write your own resume for your ideal job. Use the form from the Reading section. When you finish, exchange resumes with a partner. Answer these questions:

1. What is in the personal data section?

2. What is your partner’s career objective?

3. Does your partner have work experience?

4. Is the education section easy to read?

5. What is in the special skills section? Is this useful information?

Exercise 3. Use information from your Personal Data section and fill in the Postgraduate Open Day Registration form given below.

Title
Full Name	First name *		Last name *
Date of Birth *	Day	Month		Year
Contact telephone number
Mobile telephone number
Email *
Verify email *
Address line 1 *
Address line 2
Town/City *
Country
Postcode *
Please indicate whether you are a US/EU student or an international student *	 International
	 US/EU

Listening and speaking

Exercise 1. Before you listen to an extract from an interview, differentiate the following questions for a Railroad position into the categories. Try to answer them in pairs. Finally, think of three questions to ask the interviewer about the job.