How to write a perfect CV rsum in English Business English Course Lesson 1
hello and welcome to the official
English with Lucy business English
course firstly let me introduce myself
my name is Lucy Bella
and I am a native qualified English
teacher I’m also a graduate of
Westminster Business School where I
achieved a first-class degree in
marketing communications in January 2016
I started the English with Lucy YouTube
channel where I’ve helped tens of
millions of students improve their
English skills whether you like it or
not English is the global language of
business and many multinational
companies use English as the common
corporate language this means that if
you want to work in a top company it’s
likely that you will need to be able to
speak an appropriate level of English in
this 10-part course I’m not only going
to teach you business English I’m also
going to teach you how you can use it to
get a job keep a job and progress in
your career I will be speaking clear
English but please remember to switch on
the subtitles if you’re struggling to
follow you can also reduce the speed of
the video to slow me down
additionally I have placed a glossary of
key vocabulary used in each video in the
description box right let’s get started
with the first lesson in the course in
this lesson I’m going to be talking to
you about how you can write a perfect CV
also called a resume in American English
writing a CV in your own language can
seem like a big task but writing one in
English can seem impossible with my help
you will leave today’s class with the
skills you need to write a CV that will
stand out and get you the employment
that you deserve number one let’s start
by asking ourselves what does a
recruiter want from a CV a CV does not
get you a job what a CV actually gets
you is a job interview and it’s so
important that you remember this when
you write one applicants often feel
pressure to fit absolutely everything
they have ever done or achieved into
their CV when it’s often considered
better to prioritize and highlight just
a few things it’s claimed that employers
look at a CV for around 7 seconds so
when you’re writing one you should keep
this in mind some of the first things
that will jump out at them are any
mistakes I’ve taken in many Seavey’s in
my career so far and as soon as I see a
spelling mistake my mind was made up
there is absolutely no excuse for a
mistake on a CV you need to check it
over until you know it word for word off
by heart if you struggle with the
language or spelling in general then you
absolutely must get it proof read and
checked over by somebody else if you
don’t know anyone who can do this for
you find a proofreader online and pay
them for their time it’s an investment
into your future the next thing that
recruiters look for our skills and
experience the relevant skills and
experience with the key word here being
relevant need to stand out it’s likely
that they will be scanning or skim
reading your CV rather than reading
everything on it later on in the class
we will talk about tailoring your CV to
make it relevant finally
recruiters will try to find out a bit
more about your personality and your
character you can’t show so much but you
need to show enough to get you through
to the interview stage where they’ll try
and find out a lot more we will also
talk about showing a bit of character
later on in the lesson now we should ask
ourselves which type of CV we should
write there are two main types of CB the
chronological CV and the skills based CV
there are some other types and we will
discuss those in this segment also it’s
important for you to choose the right
type of CV for the job that you’re
applying for and for your own
circumstances let’s talk about the
chronological CV as the name suggests
this type lists your experience in
achievements chronologically starting
with the most recent take a look at this
example of what you might find on a
chronological CV
you can use this CV type if you really
want to show how well or how quickly you
have progressed in your career or
studies it’s also a good way to show off
that you’ve had continuous employment
with no gaps which we will discuss in a
later segment now let’s talk about the
skills based CV which is also known as a
functional CV this type shows off your
skills and personal qualities as opposed
to the history of your employment and
education underneath the headline of
each skill you can write the roles in
which you achieve them and develop them
take a look at this example this is what
a skills based CV might look like
you can use this type to mask gaps in
your employment or if you’ve had lots of
short-term roles like internships and
volunteer work the best part about this
type of CV is that you have much more
opportunity to make it relevant to the
job that you’re applying for another
option is to use a combination or hybrid
of both CVS where you stick to the
conventional chronological order but you
emphasize the skills developed within
each role another sort of CV which is
becoming more popular is the creative CV
this CV is all about presentation and
can help you show off your design skills
and stand out from the crowd
using infographics is a great way to
display a lot of information in a simple
and engaging way you could also consider
a video CV which can be a good idea for
customer facing roles or an add-on to a
traditional CV academic series for those
applying for research posts in academia
they are usually much longer than other
CVS and recruiters are more likely to
spend longer reading them these should
emphasize your education research
publications and experience finally we
have the technical CV which is much more
directed towards IT roles alongside all
of the traditional information found on
a CV you’ll need to highlight your
technical skills such as programming
languages systems and platforms
so which CV is right for you comment
down below with which one you would
choose and give reasons
now let’s discuss tailoring the CV the
biggest piece of advice that I can give
you is tailor your CV to each job
application work on creating a CV
template and then create a separate CV
file for each individual company if 100
people apply for a role which is not
unrealistic and only ten people get
chosen for an interview is a
one-size-fits-all CV really going to be
in the top 10 percent of all of the
applicants you want the recruiter to see
your CV and think wow this person could
be a perfect fit for our company by
tailoring your CV you’re showing that
you’re proactive and motivated it takes
time and effort it also shows that
you’re not just applying to 50 roles in
the hope of getting one back now let’s
address gaps in your CV recruiters don’t
want to see
long periods of unemployment but
sometimes circumstances can’t be helped
gaps are a red flag they can suggest
that you were fired or that you quit and
employers want you to work hard and
stick around for a long time you really
need to minimize their impacts here are
some things that you can do use your
summary statement at the top of the CV
to briefly and positively explain why
you decided to change roles for example
after spending five years in the finance
industry in 2017 I decided to change
career paths another thing you can do is
use a skills based CV as we discussed
before if you’ve got loads of gaps and
you can’t explain them all you really
should consider ditching the
chronological employment timeline lastly
you just need to prepare to talk about
it during an interview even if you don’t
list the gaps on your CV you might be
asked about inconsistencies in your work
history and they need valid explanations
we’ll talk about this in the lesson on
interview questions if you’re in a CV
gap at the moment start doing something
immediately get some relevant freelance
work start a blog take a course you can
refer to this if gaps come up in
interviews now lots of people ask if
they should ever be creative with the
truth and I think that you should
absolutely not you need to sell yourself
but you don’t want to lie bear in mind
that they will probably call your
references and if they find out that
you’ve been exaggerating or lying you’ll
be at the bottom of the pile another
thing you want to do is keep it short as
a rule two sides of a four maximum but
if it’s feasible
I’d recommend keeping it to one side of
a four technical and academic applicants
may need more if it’s longer than two
sides they just aren’t going to read it
all and they might miss out on important
information they could even get a bad
vibe from you you could also consider
including URLs to portfolios especially
for applicants in the creative industry
you can use a link shortener to create a
memorable link that is easily copied or
typed into a web browser don’t depend on
it as they might not look at it and make
sure the link works on all platforms you
also need to make your CV look smart
always submit it as a PDF file it will
work with all operate
systems and the format will stay
consistent you could consider making
your CV fancy and adding a layer of
design my last tip is to make sure that
you use the right language in another
lesson I’m going to show you the weak
words you should avoid using and the
strong words you should use instead
right that’s it for today’s lesson I
hope you enjoyed it and I hope you
learnt something don’t forget to connect
with me on all of my social media I’ve
got my facebook my Instagram and my
Twitter and I’ll see you soon for
another lesson
[Music]