Documents for Employees and Job Hunting

Part I

Unit 1

Documents for Employees and Job Hunting

Recruiting good people is a difficult task. It is time-consuming and costly. But a well-chosen labor force will be more productive than a poorly chosen one. People who work a territory for years build up good will for the company; they become well- acquainted with the customers’ needs and are able to give advice rooted in experience. Customers place a lot of confidence in such people. A poorly selected labor force means a high staff turnover. There are two main reasons for having to recruit: expansion and replacement. But in any case a recruiter needs to prepare a "man profile". Some of the points that might be included in the man profile are:

age range, experience, skills, education level, foreign languages,        qualifications, single or married, personal characteristics, physical abilities, appearance.

These should be listed in terms of what is acceptable and what is preferable, as in Table 1.

Table 1. Man profile for sales person

	General	Preferred
Age	26-45	Under 30
Experience	Minimum	1 to 2 years
Skills	-	Ability to read blueprints
Education	Minimum	High degree
Foreign languages	-	French, Italian
Qualification	Minimum	Member of Institute of Sales
Single/married	-	Married with children
Appearance	Neat/tidy	M: clean-shaven, clean nails, non-smoker, short hair; F: neat, good-hands, slim, non smoker, shortish hair;
Physical characteristics	-	Well-spoken, well-mannered, pleasant voice, articulate

 

Sometimes a list of characteristics and guidelines is created. The list may include the following points:

1. Appearance 11. Enthusiasm

2. Handshake 12. Numeracy

3. Courtesy    13. Flexibility

4. Friendliness 14. Health (smoker?)

5. Poise         15. Knowledge

6. Speech      16. 0riginality

7. Self-control 17. Persuasiveness

8. Handwriting 18. Mental alertness

9. Ambition  19.Interest in job

10. Curiosity 20.Self-starter

There are many sources of recruitment. The following are among them: educational establishments, employee agencies, trade associations, job centers, advertising.

Prepare a man profile for 2-3 different professions or trades. Add the list of characteristics including at least 7-10 points. Don't show the notes to your classmates. Let them guess what profession (trade) you are speaking about.

2. Answer the following questions:

1. Why is recruiting a difficult task?

2. Why do people who work a territory for years build up goodwill for the company?

3. What are the main reasons of recruiting?

4. What does a "man profile" include?

5. Do you now sources of recruitment? Name them.

Give the English equivalents to the following.

Выбор и наем служащего; требующий много времени и дорогой; престиж компании; высокая текучесть кадров; хорошо знакомый; расширение; в любом случае; приемлемый; предпочтительный; внешность; вежливость; образовательное учреждение; агентство по найму. 

If you decide to apply for a job in the western countries, you will probably need to form two documents: a letter of inquiry or a cover letter and a resume. This is the way how to do it. Read the information about how to write a resume and a letter of interest and try to write your own documents of the same kind.

 

Resume

An excellent resume may help you get the job of your dreams and a poor resume may mean a lost opportunity.

Since this is the first piece of information a company will receive about you, it is critically important that your resume is to be well-written.

It should be presented at the beginning of any interview that you have with a company. Ideally, resume should not be longer than one page.

Although resumes are personal documents there are some basic areas of information that most resumes include:

1. Personal information;

2. Job objective;

3. Education;

4. Experience;

5. Activities and/or professional affiliations;

6. Special interests and skills;

7. References.

The resume begins with PERSONAL INFORMATION, name, address, telephone number centered at the top page.

After your address, a statement of intent or JOB OBJECTIVE should be

written. This objective should be well thought out from the very beginning since it will influence the way you will write the rest of the resume. It should not be too general, e.g.: “To obtain a managerial position in a western company.”

Think about your job search and career goals carefully, write them down in a way that shows you have given them much thought.

For example: “Objective: To obtain a position in telecommunication that will allow me to use my knowledge of engineering and take advantage of my desire to work in sales”.

Never include your desire to have a well-paid job in this statement. A focus

on money in your resume’s first sentence will not make the best impression anywhere in the world, not just in Russia.

After the statement of intent, describe your EDUCATION.

List the universities, institutes and colleges you have attended in reverse chronological order.

Any studying you have done abroad should be included and courses that you have taken that are relevant.

If you graduated with honors, you should definitely include this. A “red

diploma” can be called “graduated with high honors” in English. Do not include your high school.

Your working EXPERIENCE is the next section. List you experiences starting with your most recent place of employment, your position, and the name of the company you worked for.

Provide information about your responsibilities, emphasizing important activities by listing the most relevant to your objective. Do not use complete sentences! List your responsibilities in short statements that do not include the words “my” or “I”.

Following experience, consider including COMMUNITY, COLLEGE and

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES being sure to indicate leadership positions held (i. e. committee chair person, vice president). You might briefly describe major projects undertaken, presentations given or special skills/knowledge you gained from your involvement.

SPECIAL INTERESTS/SKILLS include foreign languages and specific computer knowledge, your favourite leisure activities and travel experiences.

They can provide employer with a sense of your personality.

When describing your language abilities, it is best to be honest about assessing your level, “Fluent English,” “native Russian,” “intermediate German”, and “beginning French” are all ways to describe your language abilities.

The last section of you resume is the REFERENCE section. List at least two people, not related to you, who can describe your qualification for the job.

Their names, titles, places of work, and telephone numbers should be included. If you do not have space on your resume for this, write “Available upon request.” You will then be expected to give this information to a prospective employer if it is requested.

The style and format of a resume are extremely important. Your resume must be typed, preferably on a computer in order to format it most effectively. A neat and well-written resume with no spelling mistakes will give an employer the impression that you are accurate and take care of details.

A Cover Letter

Dear Sir or Madam,

I graduated from Tver State University in 2010. Now I am finishing my post-graduate studies to defend my candidate thesis this winter. My major is called the theory of literature, which includes the study of the history of Russian and foreign literature.

I am interested in working at the Russian department of your university as a teacher of the Russian language and Russian literature for the school year 2013-14. In higher school I gained experience teaching Russian to foreign students. At your department I could assist in the teaching of grammar, conduct a class in spoken Russian or give lectures on Russian literature.

If you are interested please contact me by the above address. I will look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

A. Ivanov

There are two essential steps in the job hunting process: research and planning. Research means examining your skills and personality traits and finding out where you can apply them. Planning means deciding how you will present your skills to a prospective employer. Analyze your interests, abilities and personality traits.

There are ten basic questions to think about:

1. What are my abilities?

2. What special talents do I have?

3. What are my special interests?

4. What are my physical abilities and limitations?

5. What are my attitudes and values?

6. How do I see myself, or what is my self-concept?

7. What is my previous experience?

8. What are my educational plans for the future?

9. Am I the kind of person who works well in a large group, or do I work better with only one or two people?

10. Am I willing to accept change? When speaking about your personality traits use:

1) I am very accurate

adaptable cooperative creative dependable flexible mature organized punctual responsible tactful

2) Accuracy is one of my strong points adaptability…

cooperation…

dependability… flexibility… maturity… organization… punctuality… responsibility… tact…

Part I

Unit 1

Documents for Employees and Job Hunting

Recruiting good people is a difficult task. It is time-consuming and costly. But a well-chosen labor force will be more productive than a poorly chosen one. People who work a territory for years build up good will for the company; they become well- acquainted with the customers’ needs and are able to give advice rooted in experience. Customers place a lot of confidence in such people. A poorly selected labor force means a high staff turnover. There are two main reasons for having to recruit: expansion and replacement. But in any case a recruiter needs to prepare a "man profile". Some of the points that might be included in the man profile are:

age range, experience, skills, education level, foreign languages,        qualifications, single or married, personal characteristics, physical abilities, appearance.

These should be listed in terms of what is acceptable and what is preferable, as in Table 1.