Job Discussion Forums

[JN]

Using a recommendation from another teacher, I have decided to use the Europass website to help my students write a CV and cover letter in English.
One statement from the website I have wondered about is to not include work experience or training that is not relevant to the job they would apply for.

If I did that I'd have huge work history gaps in my CV. The Europass website also recommends explaining any breaks in studies or career. This would to me mean the gaps from the work experience I left out. So if I have to explain these gaps, I might as well leave the experience in my CV.

Does anyone have an opinion on what to do? It's not so important for me, but I'd like to know what I should tell my students, should that question come up.

Has anyone taught students how to write a CV and/or cover letter? Are there any interesting ways of presenting how to do this? I am just planning on going through and showing them examples and helping with wording, grammar, etc.

[nomad soul]

Try an Internet search with business english lesson cover letter cv.

[spiral78]

We usually recommend that people list 'relevant education' and 'relevant work experience' as headings. That gives a strong signal that 'all education and work experience' does not appear. An employer who wants more information can ask, or this can be addressed in a line or two in a different document. Something along the lines of 'In between my experience as an elementary school teacher and taking up EFL as a career, I spent eight years in a corporate environment' generally does the trick.

If there is a lot of this, you might still list 'relevant' work experience early in the CV, and add 'other work experience' towards the end. I've served on hiring committees in Europe and have worked with professionals on CV writing for over a decade, and I am certain that prospective employers do NOT want to wade through non-related stuff; it's simply distracting in a competitive environment. You need your work experience to demonstrate directly and concisely what relevant stuff you would bring to the position, without distractions.

You might consider starting off a job/career skills course by having the students look at example CVs, maybe related to their own field. The internet is rife with these. Which ones do they think look most professional/why/why not, etc.....

[rtm]

[JN]

Thanks for the ideas. I did do quite a bit more research on writing a cover letter and found some ideas, which are probably what I would do anyway, i.e. giving examples of phrases and then a gap fill (which I hadn't thought of).

That's a great idea to use relevant. My own CV is set up into different sections with my teaching experience placed first.

I think the students have had some job and skills training already. I am only teaching 3 different days in this course. I was told that I should do a CV and cover letter with them. I did use some examples of a CV and gave out examples of a cover letter for the next lesson. They weren't sure on the cover letter, so I will give out phrases and a gap fill.

Thanks again for the replies.