Test Assignments

1. Design a letter heading for a company, manufacturing washing machines, refrigerators and other household equipment. Include all the information about your company which is normally shown in a modern letter heading.

2. Rewrite the following request for payment in polite form.

Dear Sir,

Your have owed us £567.00 since February, which means you haven't paid us for three months.

We wrote to you twice and amazingly you didn't bother answering us, yet you've been a customer for years. Anyway, we're not going on like this, so if you don't tell us why you haven't paid, or send the money you owe us in ten days, we'll sue you. After all, we've got bills from our own suppliers, and besides we explained our rules for giving credit, i.e. payment on final dates long time ago.

Yours, etc, R. Lancaster

Unit 2 applying for a job

2.1. Cv and resume

These documents contain very much the same information which can be described as a short description of your history in work and at school. The only difference is that CV (curriculum vitae) is sometimes believed to be used mainly for academic purposes. Alongside with Personal Details and Professional Experience you include such sections as Dissertation (if any), Academic/Teaching Interests, Papers and Lectures, Publications. Do not forget to mention your grade (e.g. M.A. in Linguistics). As one of the writer’s guides states “Many white-collar jobs require a resume from any prospective employee. At times, your resume will be mailed to a prospective employer. What the resume reveals about you may determine whether or not you are actually interviewed for a job.” What has just been said shows the importance of this document and its role in your career.

Resume is not a fill-in blank but a paper which you produce yourself and it should be arranged properly and composed in an appropriate style. The first requirement is that it should be neatly typed. Needless to say that spelling and grammar mistakes are absolutely out of question. But you should not forget even such a “minor” detail that copies should be made on good quality paper because it demonstrates your accuracy, position to the would-be employer and the fact that you really care for this job.

A few words should be said about resume’s format. It is fairly standard. At the very top, give your name, address, and telephone number. People tend to include their age and marital status although it is not necessary to give this information. Thus, you must judge whether your age and marital status will assist you in your job search or work against you.

The next paragraph of the resume may be labelled “Objectives”. Here you indicate what job you are looking for and your major qualifications for such jobs. Or you may simply use this paragraph to state your basic strengths and the nature of your past work.

Next comes the record of your work experience. This is the main part of your resume. It is listed with your most recent job first. The job before that is listed next, and so on with your first job listed last:

1995 to present

1990 to 1995

1989 to 1990

As a rule you give your title for each job and the name of the company (and division when relevant).

After the record of your work experience, list your schooling, any degrees, hobbies, honours and affiliations that you consider worth including. Do list any awards or honours you have received whether or not they are job-related. Such honours indicate that you are esteemed by others.

If you are looking for your first full-time job, you must review your work history somewhat differently. If you have held some sort of part-time or summer job or worked at volunteer jobs, these should be indicated. If you have participated in school extracurricular activities, these are worth mentioning. Your school record is also an indication of your ability and seriousness of purpose.

In seeking the first job, you must state your field of knowledge, that you are reliable, and that you can work well with others.

Resumes may be organized in different ways. The following are some of the more common formats:

Reverse chronological resume

A reverse chronological resume enumerates a candidate's job experiences in reverse chronological order, generally covering the last 10 to 15 years. Positions are listed with start and end dates. Current active positions on a resume typically have the start date listed to present or the current year. Both are considered acceptable.

The reverse chronological resume format is most commonly used by those who are not professional resume writers. In using this format, the main body of the document becomes the Professional Experience section, starting from the most recent experience going chronologically backwards through a succession of previous experience. The reverse chronological resume works to build credibility through experience gained, while illustrating career growth over time and filling all gaps in a career trajectory. A chronological resume is not recommended in the event that the job seeker has gaps in his career summary. In the United Kingdom the chronological resume tends to extend only as far back as the subject's GCSE/Standard Grade qualifications.

Functional resume

A functional resume lists work experience and skills sorted by skill area or job function.

The functional resume is used to assert a focus to skills that are specific to the type of position being sought. This format directly emphasizes specific professional capabilities and utilizes experience summaries as its primary means of communicating professional competency. In contrast, the chronological resume format will briefly highlight these competencies prior to presenting a comprehensive timeline of career growth via reverse-chronological listing with most recent experience listed first. The functional resume works well for those making a career change, having a varied work history and with little work experience. A functional resume is also preferred for applications to jobs that require a very specific skill set or clearly defined personality traits. A functional resume is a good method for highlighting particular skills or experience, especially when those particular skills or experience may have derived from a role which was held some time ago. Rather than focus on the length of time that has passed, the functional resume allows the reader to identify those skills quickly.

Hybrid resume

The hybrid resume balances the functional and chronological approaches. A resume organized this way typically leads with a functional list of job skills, followed by a chronological list of employers. The hybrid resume has a tendency to repeat itself and is therefore less widely used than the other two.

Online resume

The Internet has brought about a new age for the resume. As the search for employment has become more electronic, resumes have followed suit. It is common for employers to only accept resumes electronically, either out of practicality or preference. This electronic boom has changed much about the way resumes are written, read, and handled.

Job seekers must choose a file format in which to maintain their resume. Many employers, especially recruitment agencies on their behalf, insist on receiving resumes as Microsoft Word documents. The old Word (.doc 1997–2003) version is the preferred version. Others will only accept resumes formatted in HTML, PDF, or plain ASCII text.

Many potential employers now find candidates' resumes through search engines, which makes it more important for candidates to use appropriate keywords when writing a resume

Many large employers use electronic resume processing systems to handle large volumes of resumes. Job ads may direct applicants to email a resume to their company or visit their website and submit a resume in electronic format.