PREPARING A VIDEO RESUME
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 664.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that will help you improve your English even faster and keep your hands from getting dirty.
This episode is about a resume, which is a description of your experiences, that you give to someone you want to work for when you are looking for a job.
Let's get started.
Okay, I'm ready to hear all of your advice about what to put in a video resume.
All right.
The first thing to remember is that your video resume doesn't take the place of your traditional resume.
It supplements it.
Okay, I got it.
I was thinking of talking about some of my outside interests and activities to show that I'm a well-rounded person.
I'd forget about that if I were you.
The point of the video resume is to make a good business impression.
It's not about showing your outside skills or interests.
You're marketing yourself as a business professional, so you should wear business attire, something you would wear to an interview.
Oh, so this outfit is out, I guess.
I wanted to show them my personality.
I think that outfit would definitely knock you out of contention for any job.
You have to get it out of your head that you're going to get hired for your personality or charm.
What counts are your qualifications, your skills and how you handle yourself in a business setting.
Oh, I was afraid you were going to say that.
Stop selling yourself short.
Your qualifications and skills are as good as the next guy's.
You just have to believe in yourself.
Right.
I have to believe in myself.
I have to believe in myself.
Hey, I think I can do it.
Really?
You think you can produce a video resume that's professional and polished?
Sure.
It should be no problem.
I know just the right person to hire as a stand-in.
Our dialogue begins with Katrina saying to Raj Okay, I'm ready to hear all of your advice about what to put into a video resume.
Katrina wants to hear what Raj thinks about what she should put into or what she should have on her video resume.
A resume is a list, typically on a piece of paper, of your qualifications, your experiences, your educational background.
All of these things you put on a piece of paper and you give to a company that who is looking for someone.
You of course hope that they will look at your resume and hire you, give you a job.
Sometimes, in some settings, a resume is called a CV.
That stands for Curriculum Vitae.
In the university and the academic world.
We often talk about CVs, the letter C and the letter V More commonly.
More generally, they're called resumes.
A video resume, then, is when you record a short video and tell people what your qualifications are.
So it's a video about you.
Raj says, all right.
The first thing to remember is that your video resume doesn't take the place of your traditional resume.
To take the place of something or someone means to replace, to be used instead of something else.
Raj is saying that you can have a video resume, but you also need a traditional resume.
That is, a resume on a piece of paper, or nowadays, I guess, a file that you would email someone.
To take the place of means then to replace someone.
No one can take your place, you may hear.
Well, that's probably not true.
Everyone can probably be replaced.
Raj says that the video resume supplements the traditional resume to supplement S-U-P-P-L-E-M-E-N.
T means to add to something else, to make something else better.
Your doctor may tell you to supplement your diet what you eat by taking vitamin pills.
That is also a noun.
That is, supplement can be used as a noun to refer to those things you take to make your health better in addition to any sort of medicine.
So vitamin C, for example, would be a supplement.
It would help you improve your health.
It would add to what you are doing otherwise with your diet, with your eating.
Katrina says, okay, I got it, meaning I understand.
I was thinking of talking about some of my outside interests and activities and To show that I'm a well-rounded person.
Your outside interests are things that you do in addition to your work.
That might include skiing, going to the bar and drinking beer and watching television.
It might be dancing.
All of these things you do when you're not working.
Well, not all of them, but some of them you probably do, especially the one about the beer, I guess.
Anyway...
Katrina has outside interests, things that are not directly related to her business, life and experience.
She thinks she should talk about those.
Outside, by the way, has some other meanings in English, and those can be found in our learning guide for this episode.
She says she wants to show, she wants to demonstrate... that she is a well-rounded person.
A well-rounded person is someone who has many different interests and skills, someone who is involved in many different kinds of or types of activities.
Maybe you like to dance.
But you also volunteer your time to help teach children how to read.
Or you also like to travel and you like to read modern poetry.
All of these things could make you a well-rounded person or they could make you crazy.
Both are possible.
Raj says, I'd forget about that if I were you.
He's telling Katrina, no, don't talk about your outside interests.
The point or the reason, the main goal of the video resume is to make a good business impression.
An impression is how someone reacts to you, what they think of you.
It's not about showing your outside interests and skills, Raj says.
You are marketing yourself as a business professional.
To market yourself means to present yourself in a particular way, so that it seems as though you are qualified.
You could market yourself as a clothes designer and you would show that you know how to design clothes.
So you can market or sell yourself as a different kind of person, depending on the job you are applying for.
Raj says that you want to market yourself Katrina, as a business professional.
Therefore, you should wear professional attire.
Attire A-T-T-I-R-E refers to the clothing that you wear.
So business attire would be business clothing, clothing you would wear to work.
Raj says something you would wear to an interview.
Katrina says, oh, so this outfit is out, I guess.
Here the word outfit refers to the clothing that you are wearing.
When Katrina says this outfit is out, she means that it is not appropriate.
She can't use it for the video resume.
She says I wanted to show them my personality.
Raj says.
I think that outfit, those clothing, your attire, would definitely knock you out of contention for any job.
To knock K-N-O-C-K someone out of contention means to prevent you from getting the job or getting the opportunity to make you lose, basically.
If you have someone who knocks you out of contention, that means that you are going to lose.
That person is better than you or that person will be selected before you.
So Raj tells Katrina that her outfit, her clothing, would definitely knock her out of contention.
I'm not sure what Katrina was wearing, maybe a bikini.
I don't know.
She says she wanted to show them her personality.
Raj says you have to get it out of your head, meaning you have to stop thinking that you are going to get hired for your personality work or charm.
Charm is the way that you are nice to other people.
It's a quality that makes people like you.
Raj says.
What counts meaning what is important are your qualifications, your skills and how you handle yourself in a business setting.
To handle yourself means how you act, how you behave.
In particular, how you are able to control your actions and reactions in a difficult situation.
In this case in a business setting.
A setting here just means an environment, the place where you work.
Katrina says, oh, I was afraid you were going to say that.
Raj says, stop selling yourself short.
To sell yourself short means to doubt or question your ability to do something, to think that you're not very good at something when you really are.
It doesn't mean anything related to being physically short or tall.
It has to do with your opinion of yourself and your abilities.
That's why Raj then says, your qualifications and skills are as good as the next guys.
When we say something is as something as the next guys, as smart as the next guys, or as big as the next guys, or whatever, we mean that you have this quality as much as anyone else or in the same way as anyone else.
The word guys in plural can refer to both men and women when used informally.
It can also just refer to men.
It depends on the context.
Here, Raj is referring to men and women.
He says, you just have to believe in yourself.
To believe in yourself means to believe that you can do something well, to be what we would say self-confident.
This is a very popular phrase, or at least has become one in the last 30, 40 years.
Everyone believes in themselves, maybe a little too much sometimes.
Katrina says, right.
I have to believe in myself.
I have to believe in myself.
She repeats it.
Hey, I think I can do it.
Raj says, really?
You think you can produce or make a video resume that's professional and polished?
Polished means...
Very well done.
Finished perfectly.
Katrina says, sure, it should be no problem.
I know just the right person to hire as a stand-in.
A stand-in is a noun that refers to a person who does another person's job for a short period of time, especially when we are talking about an actor in a play or some other performance.
The stand-in is someone who is just there temporarily because the regular actor is sick or can't be there, or is in prison or is rehabilitating from being an alcoholic.
You get the idea.
Here, Katrina says, I know just the right person to hire as a stand-in.
She means I'm going to find someone else who's going to pretend they are me and they will make the video resume.
Of course, that's not what you should do and not what Raj was suggesting.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, I'm ready to hear all of your advice about what to put into a video resume.
All right.
The first thing to remember is that your video resume doesn't take the place of your traditional resume.
It supplements it.
Okay, I got it.
I was thinking about talking about some of my outside interests and activities to show that I'm a well-rounded person.
I'd forget about that if I were you.
The point of the video resume is to make a good business impression.
It's not about showing your outside skills or interests.
You're marketing yourself as a business professional, so you should wear business attire, something you would wear to an interview.
Oh, so this outfit is out I guess.
I wanted to show them my personality.
I think that outfit would definitely knock you out of contention for any job.
You have to get it out of your head that you're going to get hired for your personality or charm.
What counts are your qualifications, your skills, and how you handle yourself in a business setting.
Oh, I was afraid you were going to say that.
Stop selling yourself short.
Your qualifications and skills are as good as the next guy's.
You just have to believe in yourself.
Right.
I have to believe in myself.
I have to believe in myself.
Hey, I think I can do it.
Really?
You think you can produce a video resume that's professional and polished?
Sure.
It should be no problem.
I know just the right person to hire as a stand-in.
No one can take the place of the scriptwriter here at ESL Podcast, and that is the one, the only Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
