Материал: Business Communication and Correspondence Деловая коммуникация и коммерческая корреспонденция. Меркулова Н.В
A covering letter sent with a CV/resume is also called a letter of application. Your letter of application is a sales letter. The product it is selling is your CV.
3.Content and Format of a Resume
The reader of your letter may be busy and unwilling to waste time on unnecessary details. You should therefore design your letter to be easy to read. It should be short, concise and relevant. It should not be too formal or complicated.
Your letter should:
1.confirm that you are applying for the position
2.say where you learned about the position
3.say why you want the position
4.say why you would be a benefit to the company
5.request an interview
The layout of a modern business letter in English is very simple. Your address
is at the top, on the right or in the middle. The rest of the letter can be in 'block' format, with each line starting on the left. Try to keep the whole letter on one single page, with plenty of white space.
Here is the typical format for your covering letter:
1 Your address telephone - fax - email
Put your address + your |
|
|
|||
telephone |
number, |
fax |
|
|
|
and/or email |
address at |
the |
|
Your address |
|
top in the centre OR on the |
|
telephone |
|||
right. |
|
|
|
fax |
|
|
|
|
|
||
Do NOT put your name |
|
|
|||
here. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
Do not write the date as numbers only, for two |
||
|
|
|
reasons: |
|
|
|
|
|
1. It can be considered too official and therefore |
||
2 Date |
|
|
impolite. |
|
|
|
|
|
2.All-number dates are written differently in British |
||
|
|
|
English (31/12/12) and American English |
||
|
|
|
(12/31/12). This can lead to confusion. |
||
|
|
|
|
||
3 Destination name |
and |
This is the name of the person to whom you are |
|||
writing, his/her job title, the |
company name and |
||||
address |
|
|
|||
|
|
address. This should be the same as on the envelope. |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
This is the reference number or code given by the |
||
4 Reference |
|
|
employer in their advertisement or previous letter. |
||
|
|
You write the employer's reference in the form: |
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
'Your ref: 01234'. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
71 |
|
|
|
If you wish to include your own reference, you write: |
|
|
'My ref: 56789'. |
|
|
|
|
|
A letter in English always begins with 'Dear...', even |
|
|
if you do not know the person. There are several |
|
|
possibilities: |
|
|
Dear Sir |
|
5 Salutation (Dear...) |
Dear Madam |
|
|
Dear Mr Smith |
|
|
Dear Mrs Smith |
|
|
Dear Miss Smith |
|
|
Dear Ms Smith |
|
|
|
|
6 Subject |
The subject of your letter, which for a job application |
|
is normally the Job Title. |
||
|
||
|
|
|
7 Body |
The letter itself, in 3 to 6 paragraphs. |
|
|
|
|
|
Yours sincerely |
|
8 Ending (Yours...) |
Yours faithfully |
|
|
Yours truly |
|
|
|
|
9 Your signature |
Sign in black or blue ink with a fountain pen. |
|
|
|
|
|
Your first name and surname, for example: |
|
10 Your name |
Mary Smith |
|
|
James Kennedy |
|
|
|
|
|
If you are using company headed paper, write your |
|
11 (Your title) |
Job Title here. If you are using personal paper, write |
|
|
nothing here. |
|
|
|
|
12 Enclosures |
Indicate that one or more documents are enclosed by |
|
writing 'Enc: 2' (for two documents, for example). |
||
|
||
|
|
Should your letter of application be hand-written? Probably not. In some cultures employers require candidates to send letters written by hand. But in the English-speaking world, an employer would usually prefer to receive a letter of application that is word-processed (that is, produced on a computer and printed).
A hand-written letter could be considered unprofessional. You must judge according to the country, culture and tradition.
Example:
26 rue Josef
75008 PARIS France
tel: +33 1 77 77 77 77 email: rachelking@eflnet.fr
72
The Principal Interplay Languages 77 bd Saint Germain 75006 PARIS
17 April 2014
Dear Madam Director of Studies,
I am interested in working as Director of Studies for your organisation. I am an EFL language instructor with nearly 10 years' experience to offer you. I enclose my resume as a first step in exploring the possibilities of employment with Interplay Languages.
My most recent experience was implementing English Through Drama workshops for use with corporate clients. I was responsible for the overall pedagogical content, including the student coursebook. In addition, I developed the first draft of the teacher's handbook.
As Director of Studies with your organisation, I would bring a focus on quality and effectiveness to your syllabus design. Furthermore, I work well with others, and I am experienced in course planning.
I would appreciate your keeping this enquiry confidential. I will call you in a few days to arrange an interview at a time convenient to you. Thank you for your consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Rachel King
4.How to Write a Resume
Writing a resume in English can be very different than in Russian. The most important step in how to write a resume is to take the time to prepare your materials thoroughly. Taking notes on your career, educational and other accomplishments and skills will ensure that you can shape your resume to a wide variety of professional opportunities.
Difficulty: Hard.
Time Required: 2 hours
Here's How:
1.First, take notes on your work experience - both paid and unpaid, full time and part time. Write down your responsibilities, job title and company information. Include everything!
2.Take notes on your education. Include degree or certificates, major or course emphasis, school names and courses relevant to career objectives.
3.Take notes on other accomplishments. Include membership in organizations, military service and any other special accomplishments.
73
4.From the notes, choose which skills are transferable (skills that are similar) to the job you are applying for - these are the most important points for your resume.
5.Begin resume by writing your full name, address, telephone number, fax and email at the top of the resume.
6.Write an objective. The objective is a short sentence describing what type of work you hope to obtain.
7.Begin work experience with your most recent job. Include the company specifics and your responsibilities - focus on the skills you have identified as transferable.
8.Continue to list all of your work experience job by job progressing backwards in time. Remember to focus on skills that are transferable.
9.Summarize your education, including important facts (degree type, specific courses studied) that are applicable to the job you are applying for.
10.Include other relevant information such as languages spoken, computer programming knowledge etc. under the heading: Additional Skills
11.Finish with the phrase: REFERENCES Available upon request
12.Your entire resume should ideally not be any longer than one page. If you have had a number of years of experience specific to the job you are applying for, two pages are also acceptable.
13.Spacing: ADDRESS (center of page in bold) OBJECTIVE double space EXPERIENCE double space EDUCATION double space ADDITIONAL SKILLS double space REFERENCES. Left align everything except name/address.
Tips: Use dynamic action verbs such as: accomplished, collaborated, encouraged, established, facilitated, founded, managed, etc.
Do NOT use the subject 'I', use tenses in the past. Except for your present job. Example: Conducted routine inspections of site equipment.
What You Need: Paper; Typewriter or Computer; Dictionary; Thesaurus; Past Employer Addresses.
QUESTIONS:
1.Speak about resumes and CVs in English.
2.What is the difference between a resume and a CV?
3.How to write a covering letter for your resume?
4.What can you say about the content and the format of a resume?
5.What are the main points in writing a resume?
LECTURE 8: Resumes and CVs in English (2)
1.Curriculum Vitae
2.Content and Format
3.Practical Recommendations
4.British and American English
74
1. Curriculum Vitae: a brief account of one's education, qualifications and previous occupations. Your CV must get you an interview.
CV stands for the Latin words Curriculum Vitae, which mean: the course of one's life. A CV is also called a résumé, resumé or resume (especially in American English). Your CV is a summary of your professional/academic life until now, and it usually concentrates on your personal details, education and work experience.
Your CV's job is very simple: to get you a job interview. To do this, your CV must be:
clear
well-organised
easy to read
concise
relevant to the job offered
2.Content and Format
Your CV is the summary of your professional life. You should include everything that is relevant to your employment or career and nothing that is irrelevant. Exactly what you include depends partly on your type of work. There are usually 5 general headings of information to include:
personal details - name, address, email and telephone number (and sometimes nationality, age/date of birth and marital status);
objective - a headline that summarises the job opportunity you are seeking;
work experience - your previous employment in reverse chronological order - with most detail for your present or most recent job;
education - details of secondary and university education - including the establishments and qualifications (but excluding any that are irrelevant to your career);
personal interests - demonstrating that you are a balanced, responsible member of society with an interesting life outside work.
Sometimes, you may need to give additional information for a particular job or because you have special qualifications.
Your CV should be word-processed, for several reasons. Firstly, in the Englishspeaking world a hand-written CV would be considered unprofessional. Secondly, many recruitment agencies and some employers like to electronically scan CVs (they cannot do this with hand-written CVs). Thirdly, as we shall see later, it will be much easier for you to update and modify your CV to target it to a specific employer.
Unless you are applying to be Secretary General of the United Nations, it is probably best to limit your CV to a maximum of 2 pages. Remember, your CV is a tool to get you an interview: it is not designed to get you the job. You can usually put everything you need to get an interview on 1 or 2 pages. If you put more than this, the employer has too much to read (and may throw your CV into the nearest bin). In addition, if you put everything in the CV, you will have nothing new to say at the interview. Be kind to employers! Leave them some questions to ask you.
75