A. Resume
Make Your Resume a Tool for Getting a Job Interview
There is a lot of controversy and debate about whether a resume is necessary, or whether it is a sheer waste of time. Many employment consultants, particularly in this country, will tell you that employers are just likely to provide you with a standard application form where the necessary facts are to be included and all your efforts to create a resume will be wasted. It is true that for a variety of routine or low-paying jobs, resumes are not needed. Thus, if you are applying for a temporary waitressing position during the summertime, you will probably need no fancy resume, and the job will be yours with no extra formalities. But if you are a career-minded individual exploring various opportunities in the area of administration or teaching, a resume will undoubtedly improve your chances of getting the job you want. Most of the companies placing a job ad in the newspaper will never invite you for an interview before they have seen your resume. But even if a resume was not specifically requested, be sure you have one in your folder when going to a job interview, no
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matter what position you would like to get, and leave it with your potential employer no that he may consider you as a candidate later, even if a job was not offered to you mmediately.
Types of resumes. You have probably heard that the word "resume" is an American '.ariant for the British '"curriculum vitae" or "CV". However, Americans also use the name CV for resumes which are compiled by individuals in academic fields, as well .is in the professions of law, medicine and the sciences. Such a CV may feature the scholarly background of a professional, together with universities attended, degrees earned, professional positions and published works. If you apply for an academic position, your CV should also include the record of your academic achievements: all :he details about your educational qualifications, grades, and areas of research in which you specialized. Thus, it might be a good idea to mention the topic of your course and graduation project, together with the grade you earned for them.
By contrast the word "resume" is more often used internationally by people applying for managerial and executive positions. The most traditional resume is a chronological resume in which work experience and educational background highlights are listed either in chronological or reverse chronological order in a sequential fashion year-by-year. For a candidate with work experience in one line of work, with no big time-gaps between different jobs this type of resume is probably the most appropriate.
A functional resume gives emphasis to general work skills, without specifying the dates and all the places of work. This type is recommended for those people who have miscellaneous jobs and skills, have been self-employed for a long time, or enter the work market after a long time-gap. The choice of the type of resume depends on many things such as job objectives,and educational and professional background. All this proves that there is no such thing as a model resume to copy: you can learn the basic rules, but it's up to you to learn to sell yourself on paper.
The structure of a resume. As you may already know, a traditional resume most often includes such sections as professional background, education and personal background or details. Some employment consultants recommend including a line for "career objective" at the top of your resume; others argue that if you indicate your career objective, you might reduce your chances of being viewed for a different position in the same company. It makes sense to indicate your career objective when you send your resume to an employment agency, just to facilitate the search process for the recruiters, but it is not necessary to emphasize it when you send your resume with a letter of application in response to a specific help-wanted ad. Two other small sections that can be included are "hobbies" or "interests", which can show your personality in a better light, and "references" where you can just mention "references on hand" or "references available on request", indicating that you can provide them at a job interview.
Obviously it is not the number of sections, but their contents which causes a lot of difficulties even for an experienced resume writer. The question is: what is to be put in and what is to be left out? A conscientious resume writer will laboriously try to include even,' subject that was studied at school and every little job that he ever
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performed. However, we must never forget that personnel officers are inundated with resumes, and what they appreciate is brevity and conciseness. Even a top executive with a lot of work experience cannot be allowed more than a two page resume, to say nothing of a young graduate, whose limit is a page. If you have tried your hand at various jobs in different companies, don't just list previous jobs with lots of difficult company names (which are very often incomprehensible for your potential employer), but give the information about what you did in this company, together with the evidence that you were able to develop certain skills. For example, if you worked as a teacher of English, you should specify the aspect of the language you taught, the level of your audience, your familiarity with certain teaching aids, etc.:
— teacher of English to preschoolers, familiar with modern communicative methods of teaching.
If you worked as a PA, you can specify what you did and what skills you developed as in:
— PA to General Manager responsible for:
Business correspondence,
Customer service,
Arranging meetings and presentations.
The second criterion to be used in selecting relevant information for your resume is the requirements of your potential job. Experts will tell you that every effective resume is to be tailored to the needs of the job: you should stress that you have the skills they require, such as communication, organizing paperwork, course design and others.
Another area for conflicting opinions about the anatomy of a resume is the personal section. Especially in the U.S., with its strong movement against different kinds of discrimination, applicants are not recommended to include information about marital status and age. At the same time it is quite clear that most of the hiring decisions are not made on an age-blind basis: your age will show anyway from your year of graduation. It is very important to concentrate on the skills that you have, such as language skills and computer skills, which can be a very useful asset in your job search.
Presentation. You may be surprised at the number of mistakes people make in their resumes: you may come across a resume in which an applicant claims to have excellent typing skills, but makes a spelling mistake in her own name. Poor computer skills manifest themselves in badly laid-out resumes with no margins and a poor structure. A resume should be easy on the eye — use bold type for headings and bullet points for noteworthy achievements. The text should be arranged into thought groups or blocks under each heading so that your potential employer need not spend hours trying to decipher it. A good resume is easy to skim: unless you want yours to go into the wastepaper basket keep it short and neatly laid out!
Do not resort to any gimmicks to make your resume stand out of the crowd: plain white A4 paper with neat laser printing is best for your goal. Remember, there is no such thing as a standard resume; your creativity and common sense are your basic assets!
Inu
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E.Galkina demonstrated excellent abilities in English. She was a diligent, hardworking and creative student who always excelled in all the tasks and exercises. She combined her studies at the University with the career of a high-school teacher and managed to do it very successfully.
E.Galkina is a highly intelligent young professional, and a fast learner who is always ready to develop and grow. Her teaching abilities are also excellent as she can teach English to different age groups in different settings. She also has a pleasing personality which combines tact and modesty with strong motivation and perseverance.
In the future I can see E.Galkina in any people-oriented job which can give her an opportunity of self-fulfillment.
Professor (Name)
Moscow State Pedagogical University.
Home phone: ...
E-mail: ...
Section 3. How to Make the Most of a Job Interview
If you've done your paperwork right, managed to arouse an employer's interest and landed a job interview, your real work is just beginning. It's one thing to impress somebody on paper or over the telephone, but it's another thing to impress in the flesh. A job interview is a business appointment in which everything counts in conveying a good impression. Experts will tell you that advance preparation is the key to interview success.
Before the interview. Before you go to a job interview, find out all you can about the company. This used to be a very difficult job at the beginning of perestroika, but at present there is much more publicity about the operations of different companies. Most of them will have the company's profile on-line, and publish brochures and company reports. If you have gotten the interview through a recruitment agency or through your network, don't hesitate to ask for information about the company. If you cannot get as much information as you want, it makes sense to locate the company's premises beforehand, so go by and look at the way the office and the staff and customers look. Many young graduates, especially if they are applying for several jobs, use a one-size-fits-ali approach because they don't realize that companies are more different than they might think. If you apply for a job at an educational establishment, it may be even easier to do the research by going inside and talking to the students and staff.
Depending on the results of your research, you are supposed to prepare an interview outfit that will make you look your very best. In most places you are not expected to wear a Chanel suit, but even if you are fresh from school don't think that your favorite blue jeans, an oversized sweater and screen-printed T-shirt will be right for projecting a businesslike image. Things like that are out of sync in a business office. If you want to teach, dressing more conservatively will help you make the leap from a student to a teacher, and you will be taken more seriously as a prospective
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candidate for whatever position you apply. At any age, a well-fitted suit or coordinated skirt and blouse with matching accessories for females can make them look and feel more self-confident.
For some reason, Russian young people tend to favor black and wear it in any situation. Of course, nobody expects you to look like an open beach umbrella, but it is very hard to look memorable in monochrome, and black is not the most cheerful color for a business interview.
Russian women are notorious for wearing a lot of jewelry which is considered to be a status symbol. Even if you don't feel fully dressed without it, leave yards of golden chains, jumbo-sized rings and your collection of bracelets at home: less is best! Aggressive scent that you may wear for a job interview can become more aggressive in a closed space, and give your interviewer a headache. Exercise moderation in your choices!
It is much easier to change your clothes than to change your appearance altogether, and appearance does count: we all know that a good appearance engenders a feeling of self-confidence and well-being. There is one thing that we all can afford, and that is proper care in personal hygiene, which will give us a fresh, clean feeling. We can easily spoil the effect of an exemplary appearance if our dai!\ routine does not include a shower, a change of underwear and the use of deodorant and mouthwash. A woman's hands are regarded as a symbol of femininity. To look attractive, hands must be perfectly clean, fingernails well-manicured, but never of Dragon-lady length to interfere with efficient typing and other office routines. If you are a female endowed with a beautiful head of hair which you like to wear loose, you will do better if you put it up in a bun — at least for the interview. Don't go hard on the make-up: at a close range, heavily applied make-up looks hard. After all you don't want to look like a mannequin come to life!
Many personnel managers will confess that they often turn candidates down for poor appearance; however, your looks alone will not help you get a job unless you are mentally psyched and prepared for the interview. It makes perfect sense to go through your resume once again and make sure you know the dates of important events. Another thing you can do is go through your personal achievements to make up your mind what you might want to present to an interviewer as an impressive argument in your favor. Before the interview, give yourself a good rest, budget your time well. prepare everything you need in advance, so as not to panic and get lost at the las: minute!
During the interview. So you've finally made it: here you are at the door hopefulh on time and the fun is about to begin. There are a lot of books written by professions.. career counselors with numerous recommendations about what to say, and what no: to say and how to project a winning image. For all the value of these instructions, they are very subjective and often culture-biased. Thus a well-establishec multinational company may be truly interested in the career objectives of a potentia worker, while a small Russian firm struggling with cash flow problems thinks more about immediate survival than about what may happen in ten years from now Western advisers always emphasize the need to be positive and enthusiastic, aiv.
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recommend that you use your sense of humor whenever possible. You will possibly agree that when you are applying for a job as an instructor in a traditional Russian school or university with your interviewer being a highly respectable authority in education, ifyou start cracking jokes and smiling every other minute you may look familiar, shallow and even ill-mannered. Every organization has its own culture, tradition, folklore and signs of deference. But there are some things to consider that may help everyone.
Ifyou were a successful student and passed your examinations well, you probably used a time-honored rule: "To earn higher grades, study the teacher not just the subject." For an interview, you will not have time to study the interviewer in advance, but you can try to assess who's interviewing you and adjust your own style and level of formality accordingly. If your style matches the interviewer's, you can establish chemistry. It is only natural that employers want to hire people in their own image: if your interviewer speaks slowly, slow down your rate of speech, if he/she is an aggressive active person, boost your own energy, if he/she talks shop, show that you understand them. In other words, ifyou look and act as ifyou fit in, and know what you are talking about, you will be taken seriously.
It has been mentioned above that a broad smile will not always bring you credit in a Russian office. Nevertheless, in a more reserved manner, you need to project a reasonable degree of positivism and enthusiasm about the job you are trying to get. Surprising as it may seem, many young graduates who made top grades at the university assume that they are hot stuff and will be an adornment to any organization. Since they were treated kindly or even mothered by their professors, they tend to treat their potential employers as peers, but not as superiors, forgetting about the proper level of formality. That tells immediately in their body language and speech, which may be colloquial and casual. Just as you took pains to come to a job interview, you must now do your best to show your potential employer that you respect their company, want to be one of them and are ready to work hard to deserve it.
Another problem is closely connected with the preceding advice: especially when you are young, it is difficult not to be self-centered. Your own priorities may stand so high that you forget that the company wants somebody whom they need and your task accordingly is to prove that this somebody is you. Your interest in the company, and not in yourself alone, can be manifested in polite questions about the company's plans and policies, but most of all is reflected in how you present your abilities and qualifications. Ifyou manage to show that you can do what they want you to do, and that you like it, you will be miles ahead of other candidates.
You know that in many positions your lack of experience is a big disadvantage. However, everyone has experience of a kind: even your social activities at the university in case they are presented correctly, can prove your abilities and potential. You can also compensate for your lack of experience with your qualifications, enthusiasm, ability to learn quickly, and most of all your sense of responsibility. What most of the employers are afraid of when seeing a young person, is getting a spoiled kid who expects to be babied every step of the way, and then leaves the company with
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a bang at the most inappropriate moment, if the job does not give him/her instant gratification. It's natural therefore that if you really want to get this job you must show yourself as a mature individual who is not acting on impulse, but is quite serious about his/her choices. Fight for your place in life: change a negative into a positive: you are young, but you are strong and can learn fast!
Many young graduates are frustrated by questions about their strengths and weaknesses. After the personal evaluation that you had in this unit, you are probably better equipped to answer, but mind: never be tempted to lie! Surprising as it is. young people very often claim to possess qualities that they don't have and fail to see what is on the surface. An experienced interviewer, meanwhile, can figure out the kind of person you are fairly quickly. Another thing to be remembered is that when you score your strengths or weaknesses, you are not required to make a personal confession, but to concentrate on the qualities which are important for the kind of work you are applying for. Thus being self-contained and introverted is not a weakness if you are going to work in a research laboratory, but is a distinct minus for a receptionist position.
Russian job-seekers are always confused by money questions. The reaction to the question: '"How much do you expect to earn?" can be absolutely irrational. The reason for it is that we are not prepared for choices in this area. In western companies, just as in some Russian ones, salaries can be negotiated, especially if you are really a valuable employee. For a young graduate, sad as it may be, it is more likely that you will have to begin with a fixed entry-level salary for your position. In case you were not informed about it before the interview, it is all right to ask the interviewer at an appropriate time. If the amount quoted is absolutely unacceptable you don't have to accept. But even if you think it's too little, don't refuse immediately. Especially if you see that the interviewer likes you, ask if there is an opportunity to get a raise in the near future, and then ask for some time to think.
After the interview. Hopefully, the interviewer told you when the final choice of a candidate would be made. If there is no call from them and time passes by, it is absolutely all right to call and ask about their decision. Unfortunately, some companies just like to keep you hooked while banking on another candidate. The good news is that you don't have to sit waiting idly: in case they are playing for time, go on with your job search: a screening interview is not a life commitment! Even if you are rejected, don't take it as a personal tragedy: rejection is part of life and very often it is the beginning rather than the end!
Tasks
Read the text and make a list of "do's" and "don't's" at a job interview in writing. Preserve the wording of the text.
Study the list you have made and arrange the recommendations in order of their priority: place the most important ones at the top of the list and the least important at the bottom.
Find below some more "do's" and "don't's" for a job interview. Grade each of them as "very important", "culture-biased" or "unimportant."
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