Hello, thanks for listening to the Learning English for Work podcast. We're working on new episodes to help you improve your business English and we have a new series starting in the autumn.
For now, please enjoy our series on job applications from 2024, which guides you through each step of getting a job in English, from writing a CV right up to your first day.
From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English for Work and welcome to our special series all about job applications.
I'm Pippa. And I'm Phil.
In this series, we're going to take you through the process of getting a job from search to interview to your first day with helpful vocabulary and tips along the way.
Today, we'll be talking about the first thing an employer will read about you, your CV or resume.
Find a transcript for this episode to read along on our website bbclearningenglish .com.
So, Phil, can you explain what is a CV?
It's a document that has a list of your qualifications and experience that you use to try and get a job.
Right, and in American English we call a CV a resume.
So CV, resume, they're all that same list of qualifications and experience.
Now, it's the first thing that an employer usually reads about you.
So you need to make sure that you include all your key information so that they want to find out more.
Yeah. And you hear lots of statistics about how long an employer will look at your CV for, but it's not really that long.
So you need to make sure that you stand out and that the the information is clear try and keep it concise so two pages or two sides of a4 and make sure you have sort of all your relevant career experience on there this is amy evans amy works in recruitment for the bbc world service and so she's dealing with the process of hiring new people all the time throughout this series amy's going to help us understand each stage of getting a new job and give us some top tips too so amy said that you need to keep your cv concise that means short and focused and she also says that thinking about the layout
can help too make sure it's in an easy to read font with headers so that you can add distinction between the job titles and dates I would say put your most recent or most relevant experience at the top.
So if you're changing careers, it's always good to highlight any transferable skills or any sort of projects that you've worked on right at the top of your CV.
Should a CV be written in paragraphs and full sentences or just as bullet points?
For me personally, I think I would use bullet points points because it makes it very clear and easy to read right at the top of the CV.
So for example if they're looking for certain types of software that they need or if they want someone that's got a certain language, if it's right at the top and it's in a bullet point it's very easy to read and you can get all that information quickly.
Remember people look at a lot of CVs so the most important thing is it needs to be easy to read.
This can mean no big paragraphs or long sentences but it also means to make sure that your grammar is accurate and your information is clear.
Now is there anything that we should leave out of a CV?
You don't need any pictures on there, you don't need to put your date of birth or any personal details really such as gender or or if you're married or family just keep it sort of professional relevant to sort of your work and what you're applying for.
So remember that here Amy is talking about applying for jobs in the UK in some countries it may be normal to put pictures on a CV so it does depend on the country and the sector that you're working in.
Yeah so think of a CV like a short summary of the most important important things about you.
So that's why it's important not to put lots of personal details, your whole life story.
This is just the key facts.
There'll be lots of opportunities to talk more about yourself in an application and then later in an interview, but you don't need to put it all on that document.
Now, here's a top tip.
It's a good idea to make a different version of your CV for every job you apply for.
Then you can move the most important skills to to the top.
So if a particular job asks for a specific skill and you can do that, make sure it's really clear on your CV.
Maybe move it towards the top of it.
Yeah, and nowadays some companies will ask you to put your qualifications and experience into a form so they don't want to see your CV that you've lovingly formatted for them.
But it's useful to have it ready because then you've got all of the information to hand and making a CV helps you think about your strengths, what you're good at.
That's it for this episode.
We have lots more programmes to help you with your English at work on our website, like Office English, a series all about the everyday situations we face at work.
Visit bbclearningenglish .com to listen.
Next time we'll be looking at job descriptions and how to know whether to apply for a role.
See you then. Goodbye.
Bye.
