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beck
Newbie
Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 1
Career Advice: +0/-0
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 Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 4:04 pm Post subject: help and advice on my cv |
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Rebecca D
Objective I completed the Trinity Certificate in TESOL in May 2007 and since then I have been working as an EFL teacher in England and in Spain. I am keen to build on the experience I have gained so far and further my career in English Language teaching.
Experience EFL Teacher
13/07/ – 14/08/: Globe English Centre,
• Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons to teenagers (14 - 19)
• Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
EFL Teacher
25/09/– 30/06/: Spain
Preparing, planning and teaching Business and General English lessons
Preparing and marking exams; writing reports
Teaching Young Learners and adults
Exam preparation classes – CAE, TOEFL
EFL Teacher
17/03/ – 25/08/: Globe English
Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons
Teaching Young Learners and teenagers
Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
Academic Support Worker
05/09/– 14/03/: Disability Resource Centre, University of
Note-taking for disabled students in lectures and seminars
Scribing exams for disabled students
Exam invigilator
EFL Teacher
23/07/– 15/09/ Globe English Centre,
Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons
Teaching Young Learners (11-14)
Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
Cleaner
January – March 200
Jobshop Recruitment,
• Cleaning holiday homes
Customer Service Assistant
October 20 – January 20
John Lewis Direct,
• Dealing with customer queries in an incoming call centre
• Tracking customers’ orders
• Providing excellent customer service wherever possible
Apple-picker
September 200 – October 200
Charlton Orchards,
• Picking and sorting apples
Kitchen Assistant
June 2006 – August 2006
Bristol Schools’ Camp,
• Preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for the school children
• Keeping the kitchen and serving areas clean and tidy
Fundraiser
March 2006 – July 2006
Bobby
• Fundraising by telephone for a local boy with cancer
October 2005 – March 2006:
During this period of time I lived in Amsterdam and helped my friend run her market stall.
October 2004 - October 2005:
During this time I lived in London and worked freelance, as a cook. I also set up a mobile kitchen with my friend which we took to festivals and community fairs.
January – April 2004:
Completed a course in carpentry and plumbing at Women’s Education in Building, Hammersmith, London.
During the course I learnt some basic carpentry skills.
I also gained work experience at a City Farm in Holloway, North London, where I worked on a straw bale building.
This course enabled me to become more self-sufficient and helped me to gain valuable practical skills.
May 2003 – October 2003:
During this time I travelled extensively in Europe, visiting Switzerland, France, Spain, and Eastern Europe.
I worked from September to October 2003 as a grape picker near Lausanne, in Switzerland.
October 2002 – May 2003:
Worked as a rickshaw driver in London’s West End.
During this time I also worked as a bar person at the Amersham Arms, New Cross, London.
July 2002 – October 2002:
I spent this time travelling in Europe, visiting France and Spain. I stayed with friends in Barcelona for 3 months, where I learnt Spanish.
January 2002 – June 2002:
Bar person at the Hobgoblin, Brixton, London
• Serving customers; handling cash
• Keeping the work area clean and tidy
August 2001 – December 2001
Went travelling to Nepal and India. I travelled alone and by public transport. During my time in Nepal I went trekking in the mountains. This experience taught me a great deal about other cultures and exposed me to other ways of living. Travelling alone developed my self-sufficiency and independence.
June 2001:
Graduated from
Education
IH Business English Training Course
Jan-March 2009
Sidmouth International School, May Cottage, Devon
April – May 2007
Trinity Cert TESOL
Goldsmiths College, University of London
September 1998 – June 2001
B.A. (Hons) in English and History – 2:1
Interests
I have a keen interest in languages and am currently learning Spanish. I also have an A-level in French.
References
Dawn
Chrissi |
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Pauloz
Expert
Joined: 02 Oct 2007
Posts: 1160
Career Advice: +3/-0
Location: Sydney
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| Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 3:30 am Post subject: Re: help and advice on my cv |
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beck
This needs a lot of work. Comments in italics, suggestions below:
| beck wrote: | Rebecca D
Objective
CV headings in bold, break up CV headings and subject heading lines
I completed the Trinity Certificate in TESOL in May 2007 and since then I have been working as an EFL teacher in England and in Spain. I am keen to build on the experience I have gained so far and further my career in English Language teaching.
Fine, but this is cover letter material more than CV. See suggestions below.
Try: Objective: Improved EFL teaching qualifications and experience.
No skills list? A skills list can really help when dealing with keyword based culls on electronic application forms.
Experience EFL Teacher
Experience:
EFL Teacher
13/07/ – 14/08/: Globe English Centre,
• Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons to teenagers (14 - 19)
• Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
Note: Repetition can be a problem. If you have to say the same thing twice, say it differently, or with qualifiers.
EFL Teacher Needs to explain type of institution, that matters to employers so they can do a quality analysis of your experience.
25/09/– 30/06/: Spain
Preparing, planning and teaching Business and General English lessons
This would translate as: Creating and implementing Business and General English lessons
Preparing and marking exams; writing reports
Teaching Young Learners and adults
This is a given: At what levels, under what circumstances are you teaching? Is this from scratch? You need to indicate if you're doing phonics, spoken English, conversational, etc.
Exam preparation classes – CAE, TOEFL
EFL Teacher
17/03/ – 25/08/: Globe English
Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons
Teaching Young Learners and teenagers
Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
Specify types of activities. These are highly relevant, if they involve language skills, because they represent a higher teaching standard.
Academic Support Worker
05/09/– 14/03/: Disability Resource Centre, University of
Note-taking for disabled students in lectures and seminars
Scribing exams for disabled students
Exam invigilator
"Invigilator" isn't a common usage term. Specify duties, omit word, so the people screening your applications don't have to go looking for dictionaries.
EFL Teacher
23/07/– 15/09/ Globe English Centre,
Preparing, planning and teaching General English lessons
Teaching Young Learners (11-14)
Supervising afternoon, evening and weekend activities
These jobs below aren't particularly relevant to teaching applications, and although it's interesting, (particularly the rickshaw driver in the West End, didn't know London traffic was quite that tolerant), it's extra material where you need space for your skills.
Cleaner
January – March 200
Jobshop Recruitment,
• Cleaning holiday homes
Customer Service Assistant
October 20 – January 20
John Lewis Direct,
• Dealing with customer queries in an incoming call centre
• Tracking customers’ orders
• Providing excellent customer service wherever possible
Apple-picker
September 200 – October 200
Charlton Orchards,
• Picking and sorting apples
Kitchen Assistant
June 2006 – August 2006
Bristol Schools’ Camp,
• Preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for the school children
• Keeping the kitchen and serving areas clean and tidy
Fundraiser
March 2006 – July 2006
Bobby
• Fundraising by telephone for a local boy with cancer
October 2005 – March 2006:
During this period of time I lived in Amsterdam and helped my friend run her market stall.
October 2004 - October 2005:
During this time I lived in London and worked freelance, as a cook. I also set up a mobile kitchen with my friend which we took to festivals and community fairs.
January – April 2004:
Completed a course in carpentry and plumbing at Women’s Education in Building, Hammersmith, London.
During the course I learnt some basic carpentry skills.
I also gained work experience at a City Farm in Holloway, North London, where I worked on a straw bale building.
This course enabled me to become more self-sufficient and helped me to gain valuable practical skills.
Also cover letter stuff, but only applicable in certain jobs, like teaching trades skills to NESB students.
May 2003 – October 2003:
During this time I travelled extensively in Europe, visiting Switzerland, France, Spain, and Eastern Europe.
I worked from September to October 2003 as a grape picker near Lausanne, in Switzerland.
October 2002 – May 2003:
Worked as a rickshaw driver in London’s West End.
During this time I also worked as a bar person at the Amersham Arms, New Cross, London.
July 2002 – October 2002:
I spent this time travelling in Europe, visiting France and Spain. I stayed with friends in Barcelona for 3 months, where I learnt Spanish.
January 2002 – June 2002:
Bar person at the Hobgoblin, Brixton, London
• Serving customers; handling cash
• Keeping the work area clean and tidy
August 2001 – December 2001
Went travelling to Nepal and India. I travelled alone and by public transport. During my time in Nepal I went trekking in the mountains. This experience taught me a great deal about other cultures and exposed me to other ways of living. Travelling alone developed my self-sufficiency and independence.
It's obvious you're self sufficient and independent, but it's not CV material. Can work in cover letters where you're expected to operate independently in context with your work.
June 2001:
Graduated from
Education
IH Business English Training Course
Jan-March 2009
Qualifications?
Sidmouth International School, May Cottage, Devon
April – May 2007
Trinity Cert TESOL
Not being pedantic: Spell out the qualification, then use the acronym. This also doesn't refer to specific language or other course, etc.
Goldsmiths College, University of London
September 1998 – June 2001
B.A. (Hons) in English and History – 2:1
Interests
I have a keen interest in languages and am currently learning Spanish. I also have an A-level in French.
Do you have language qualifications in French? Multilingual skills are big money skills all over the world at the moment, but you have to back it up with formal qualifications. Think about this, because you have some real options here, and you obviously have the life experience to make it work.
References
Dawn
Chrissi |
Suggestions:
Ruthlessly and systematically edit this into an "all business from start to finish" approach. This is absolutely essential. We see a lot of highly qualified people on this site who have put in literally hundreds of applications and never even had a phone call. The CV is the raw material for any chance of a job.
I can see you're a person with ability, but I know how to read these things. A screening person, particularly a novice working on a checklist basis for who gets and interview and who doesn't, won't. Try to get one page of solid rock content.
You have to target your basic CV to each job. Every application is a bit different, even if the genre is the same. No two jobs are the same. Each has its own quirks and organizational roles which can vary a lot.
You do have good basic material here. I'm quite sure you've left out a lot of stuff about your work, too, from the "weekend activities" entry. Cut it down to absolute basics, and start with the teaching work only. You can add "other interests", etc, later, if relevant. |
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your-resume
New User
Joined: 23 Sep 2009
Posts: 6
Career Advice: +0/-0
Location: Toronto
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| Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:17 pm Post subject: CV Critique |
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Hello,
I agree with Paul's comments below. Try using more action words like,
>> successfully completed 8 training seminars which entailed.....
>> taught 27 students, 80% graduated and advanced to college English....
>> Skillfully coordinated lesson plans to fulfill an 8-hour day including topics....
I would like to see you concentrate on your accomplishments, not just your day-to-day job responsibilities.
Try building a portfolio of your as well. Career portfolios are an excellent way to demonstrate your work. Keep things like thank you letters from students and or their families in it. Lesson plans. Employee reviews. Things that make you stand out from any other teacher.
Your resume just is not doing you justice.
www.your-resume.biz |
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