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]