Curriculum Vitae (cv)

Curriculum Vitae (CV) is a summary of a person’s life story showing details of education and qualification.

A CV contains in brief all information about you that is relevant for the job: personal information, education, work experience etc. The CV shows what qualifications and experiences you have that make you an ideal candidate for the position.

Structure and Content

Personal Information

name, address, phone number, email, nationality, date of birth

Summary of Qualifications (where appropriate)

Work Experiences (current experiences first)

period of time, company name and address, position, brief description of your responsibilities and achievements

Education and Training (current experiences first)

period of time, name of institution, qualifications

Further Information

other skills (e.g. foreign language skills), additional information that may support your objective and qualifications

Put work experiences before education/training. Employers often just skim CVs, so it's better to put important things first. For the same reasons you may even want to include a summary of qualifications at the beginning of your CV.

CV or Resume?

Sometimes the terms CV (Curriculum Vitae) and resume are synonymous, although people in the UK normally use the term CV, not resume. In the USA, a resume (1-2 pages) is not as long and detailed as a CV, which is usually required when applying for a position in an academic field.

Name Address Telephone Date of birth Education 1983-92 1993-6 Languages Computing skills Work experience Aprill 1996 to present time 1994-5 July 1992- May 1993 October 1990- June1992 Interests

Henry George Whitfield 22 Collier Lane Horsham Leeds LS3 6PT 01532 27963 18 February 1974 Southfield High School, Leeds Nottingham University BA English and Sociology Fluent French Microsoft Word Working with disablet chidren in Botton Village, a community care centre near Jork. Secretary of the university climbing club, led a team to the Pyrenees. Lived in Paris, Worked as a porter in a children’s hospital. Acquired excellent French language skills. Worked at weekends as an assistant in a chemist’s shop. Travel, cinema, working with children, climbing.

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences about him below with suitable verbs in the correct tense.

1. Henry _____________________ in 1974.

2. He __________________________ in the village of Horshat near Leeds.

3. He _______________________ English and Sociology at university.

4. He __________ French when he _____________ in Paris.

5. He __________ with disabled children since April 1996.

6. He __________ climbing and going to the cinema in his free time.

7. When he was at school he ___________ to work in a chemist’s at weekends.

The CV

Exercise 2. Archie Wong’s CV has got mixed up in the word processor. Rearrange the items in the right order by matching the headings ( 1 - 11 ) with the information ( a - k ).

1	Name		a)	English, French, Cantonese
2	Date of birth		b)	British
3	Nationality		c)	Theatre, military history, squash
4	Marital status		d)	Loopers and Kylebrand, Chartered Accountants, 1988-91 Gabstock and Thring, Chartered Accountants 1991-94
5	Education		e)	Assistant General Manager, Kazoulis Communications
6	Qualifications		f)	Archibald Wong
7	Experience		g)	8 September 1967
8	Current position		h)	MA in Politics and Economics 1988 Member, British Institute of Chartered Accountants 1991 MBA 1995
9	Responsibilities		i)	General management of the company Objective of 25% growth per year over the next four years
10	Languages spoken		j)	Single
11	Leisure interests		k)	Oundle School, UK, 1980-84 Keble College, Oxford, 1985-88 INSEAD, Fontainebleau, 1994-95

Exercise 3. Write your own CV.

Fax and e-mail.

A fax is a facsimile copy of a document transmitted by normal telephone lines to another fax machine. Fax is becoming very common in business: in Japan and the USA, there are more fax machines than telex machines. A fax is not normally a legally binding document.

Electronic mail, also known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients.