6. Resume

6.1. What’s a resume?

A resume is a short summary of candidate’s background and qualification. In Britain a resume is often referred to as a curriculum vitae.

6.2. What are the two basic resume designs and what’s the choice of your resume design based on?

To begin planning your resume, decide which type of resume you need. This decision is in part based on requirements that prospective employers may have, and in part based on what your background and employment needs are. There are two basic, commonly used plans or designs you can consider using.

Functional design

Thematic design

6.3. What’s the layout of the functional design? What is this design preferable for?

Functional design starts with a heading; then presents either education or work experience, whichever is stronger or more relevant; then presents the other of these two sections; then ends with a section on skills and certifications and one on personal information. Students who have not yet begun their careers often find this design the best for their purposes.

6.4. What are the differentiating features of the thematic approach?

Thematic design – another approach to resumes. It divides your experience and education into categories such as project management, budgetary planning, financial tracking, personnel management, customer sales, technical support, publications — whichever areas describe your experience. Often, these categories are based directly on employment advertisements. If the job advertisement says that Company ABC wants a person with experience in training, customer service, and sales, then it might be a smart move to design thematic headings around those three requirements. If you want to use the thematic approach in your resume, take a look at your employment and educational experience — what are the common threads? Project management, program development, troubleshooting, supervision, maintenance, inventory control? Take a look at the job announcement you're responding to — what are the three, four, or five key requirements it mentions? Use these themes to design the body section of your resume. These themes become the headings in the body of the resume. Under these headings you list the employment or educational experience that applies.

6.5. What are the section of a resume?

Sections in Resumes. Resumes can be divided into three sections: the heading, the body, and the conclusion. Each of these sections has fairly common contents.

6.6. What are the elements of the heading?

Heading. The top third of the resume is the heading. It contains your name, phone numbers, address, and other details such as your occupation, titles, and so on. Headings can also contain a goals and objectives subsection and a highlights subsection.

6.7. what is the best place in the letter according to the specialists where you should place the most important information?

Highlights (summary section) occurs just below the heading and just above the main experience and education sections. This is an increasingly popular section in resumes. Resume specialists believe that the eye makes first contact with a page somewhere one-fourth to one-third of the way down the page — not at the very top. If you believe that, then it makes sense to put your very "best stuff" at that point. Therefore, some people list their most important qualifications, their key skills, their key work experience in that space on the page. Actually, this section is useful more for people who have been in their careers for a while. It's a good way to create one common spot on the resume to list those key qualifications about yourself that may be spread throughout the resume. Otherwise, these key details about yourself are scattered across your various employment and educational experience — in fact, buried in them.

6.8. What information do you present in the body of the resume and how is it arranged?

Body. In a one-page resume, the body is the middle portion, taking up a half or more of the total space of the resume. In this section, you present the details of your work, education, and military experience. This information is arranged in reverse chronological order. In the body section, you also include your accomplishments, for example, publications, certifications, equipment you are familiar with, and so on.

6.9. What information should you provide under the “work experience” title?

Work EXPERIENCE is an integral part of any resume. List your experience starting with your most recent place of employment and work backwards. Write the exact days of employment, your position, and the name of the company you worked for. Provide information about your responsibilities, emphasizing important activities. List your responsibilities in short statements that do not include the words “my” or “I”.

6.10. What should you do if you can’t keep all the details about your experience and education to one page?

Some people have a lot of details that they want to convey about their qualifications but that don’t not fit well in any of the typical resume designs. To keep the main part of the resume from becoming unbalanced and less readable, they shift all of this detail to an amplifications page. On the first page of this resume, the writer divides the presentation into experience and education sections and takes a chronological approach to each. On the second page, he only provides company names, job titles, dates, and discussion of duties.

6.11. what follows the experience section?

Following experience, you should list your special SKILLS. These include your language skills, computer abilities, and any other talent that are relevant to your statement of intent. When describing your language abilities you should be honest about the level of your knowledge: “fluent English”, “native Russian”, “intermediate German” and “beginning French” are the ways to describe your language abilities.

6.12. What do you write in a conclusion?

Conclusion. In the final third or quarter of the resume, you can present other related information on your background. For example, you can list activities, professional associations, memberships, hobbies, and interests. At the bottom of the resume, people often put "REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST" and the date of preparation of the resume.

6.13. Why do we need letters of recommendation?

Sometimes a letter of recommendation can add that little extra appeal when applying for a new job. Especially if the letter of recommendation provides a good review on the qualifications that the new employer is looking for. Of course, a letter of recommendation talking up your good character is an asset, too.

6.14. What are the ways to present a letter of recommendation? Which way is better? Why?

There are two ways to present a letter of recommendation to a prospective employer: one way is to state at the bottom of your resume that your letters of recommendation and references are available upon request. In this scenario, you would take your letter of recommendation and reference sheet to the interview, and then present it during the interview (only if it is requested). The second way to present a letter of recommendation, and most commonly used, is to enclose it along with your resume during initial mailing. Please, send no more than two letters of recommendation. It is better not to overwhelm a potential employer with a lot of information to read (and of course, always send a copy of your letters, not the originals). A good word from your past employer can give you the added advantage you need, especially when your skills and the companies needs are the same.

Cover letter

6.15. What’s the role of a cover letter?

The role of the application letter is to draw a clear connection between the job you are seeking and your qualifications listed in the resume. To put it another way, the letter matches the requirements of the job with your qualifications, emphasising how you are right for that job.

6.16. if a cover letter isn’t a length summary of the resume, then what’s it?

The application letter is not a lengthy summary of the resume — not at all. Your letter, therefore, will have to be well written and designed to attract attention in a positive way in order to receive a favorable response.

Your cover letter should communicate something personal about you along with information that is specific for the division, organization or company to which the letter is being sent. This lets the reader know that you have spent some time researching the organization and writing a personal letter.

6.17. What are the principles for writing a successful cover letter?

Your resume and cover letter must be individually written and originally typed, single spaced on a good quality paper matching the paper used in your resume. The cover letter should be one page in length and addressed to a specific individual in charge of the department or unit in which you want to work or to human resources department. Different employers handle resumes differently and you might want to try writing to both.

6.18. What are the sections in a successful cover letter?

Common Sections in Application Letters

6.19. Characterize the introductory paragraph.

Introductory paragraph. This first paragraph of the application letter is the most important; it sets everything up — the tone, focus, as well as your most important qualification. A typical problem in the introductory paragraph involves diving directly into work and educational experience. Bad idea! A better idea is to do something like the following:

• State the purpose of the letter — to inquire about an employment opportunity.

• Indicate the source of your information about the job — newspaper advertisement, a personal contact, or another.

• State one eye-catching, attention-getting thing about yourself in relation to the job or to the employer that will cause the reader to want to continue.

And you try to do all things like these in the space of very short paragraph — no more than 4 to 5 lines of the standard business letter.

6.20. Characterize the body of the CV and the two approaches that can be used there.

Main body paragraphs. State why you are interested in the position, the company, its products or services, and, above all, indicate what you can do for the employer. In the main parts of the application letter, you present your work experience, education, training – whatever makes that connection between you and the job you are seeking. Remember that this is the most important job you have to do in this letter — to enable the reader see the match between your qualifications and the requirements for the job.

There are two common ways to present this information:

• Functional approach — This one presents education in one section, and work experience in the other. If there was military experience, that might go in another section. Whichever of these sections contains your "best stuff" should come first, after the introduction.

• Thematic approach — This one divides experience and education into groups such as "management," "technical," "financial," and so on and then discusses your work and education related to them in separate paragraphs.

6.21. Should info about your work experience and education cover all your background?

Of course, the letter is not exhaustive or complete about your background — it highlights just those aspects of your background that make the connection with the job you are seeking.

6.22. What paragraph in the body is worth considering for people just starting their career?

Another section worth considering for the main body of the application letter is one in which you discuss your goals, objectives — the focus of your career — what you are doing, or want to do professionally. A paragraph like this is particularly good for people just starting their careers, when there is not much to put in the letter. Of course, be careful about loading a paragraph like this with "sweet nothings." For example, "I am seeking a challenging, rewarding career with a dynamic upscale company where I will have ample room for professional and personal growth" — come on! Give us a break! You might as well say, "I want to be happy, well-paid, and well-fed."

6.23. What should you indicate in the closing paragraph?

Closing paragraph. In the last paragraph of the application letter, you can indicate how the prospective employer can get in touch with you and when the best times for an interview are. This is the place to urge that prospective employer to contact you to arrange an interview.

6.24. Why is it important to present you background details and what details should be presented?

One of the best ways to make an application letter great is to work in details, examples, specifics about related aspects of your educational and employment background. Yes, if the resume is attached, readers can see all that details there. However, a letter that is overly general and vague might generate so little interest that the reader might not even care to turn to the resume.

In the application letter, you work in selective detail that makes your letter stand out, makes it memorable, and substantiates the claims you make about your skills and experience.

6.25. What shouldn’t you say explaining why you left the previous position?

But you should never use explanations such as leaving for more money, better fringe benefits, advantages besides salary, e.g. better pension, health scheme, social facilities, car, or conditions. Whether it is justified or not, employers do not like to feel staff leave companies for these reasons. You should also not state you were bored with the work you were doing, after all, you accepted the job; and never criticize the firm you worked for, the products or services they offered, or staff you worked with. Explanation for leaving a company could include the following:

• I left (name of firm) in (date) as (new employer) offered me a chance to use my (skills or specialized knowledge, e.g. languages, knowledge of computers etc.)…

• In 19- I was offered a chance to join (name of company) where there was an opportunity for me to gain more experience in ………

• I was offered promotion (a chance to advance) by (name of company) in (date) and therefore left (company) as this meant I could (explanation)………

• I joined (name of company) in (date) as they offered an opportunity for advancement, being a much lager concern.

6.26. How to explain why you are applying for the position?

All companies will want to know why you applying for a particular position. This not only means explaining why you want the job but why you think your particular skills and experience would be valuable to the firm.

• I am particularly interested in the position you offer as I know my previous experience and academic background would be valuable in this area of (engineering, teaching, accountancy, etc.)

• I am sure I would be successful in this post as I have now gained the experience and skills that are required.

• As (title of post) I know my background in (area of work) would prove valuable to you, especially as I have been dealing with (explanation)………

• This position would require someone who has had extensive experience of (area of work) which I gained both academically and commercially at (college and companies).