Transcript
Q = Interviewer; A = HR professional
Q: Learn English Professionals is talking to John Woodrow, who works in the Human Resources department of a large UK-based company. John, tell us about your work...
A: I work on recruitment, especially – so I’m the person who reads the hundreds of CVs we get sent each year!
Q: Do you accept CVs as part of your recruitment process?
A: When we advertise for a particular post, we send out our own application form, which is tailored to our company, and we can use it to make sure we find exactly what we’re looking for...
Q: So a CV is useless?
A: No! Not at all – we’re happy to accept CVs from people even when we’re not recruiting. That way we can build up a database of possible candidates, and as our company is always changing – we’re very flexible in our needs right now (laughs) – it’s good to know what kind of people are out there. We do keep everything on file, and will get back to people who look promising.
(小編注：有的求職者會因爲投簡歷，屢投不中而灰心喪氣，其實大可不必。你這次可能沒有收到面試通知，不代表你沒有機會，有可能只是不適合目前這個招聘崗位而已。大多數情況下，招聘單位會把你的簡歷留在他們的人才庫裏，隨着公司的不斷變化發展，等到有合適的崗位了，沒準他們還會在你意料之外的情況下請你來面試呢。)
Q: So we should be sending you our CVs?
A: Yes, absolutely, yes!
Q: What advice can you give us on writing a CV?
A: Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it relevant. Anything longer than three pages will automatically go into the bin. Just tell us what we need to know. Make sure it’s clearly written – and that there are no spelling mistakes on it! And no fancy fonts... or photographs. We don’t need to know what people look like, just what they’ve done, and what they’re capable of...
（小編注：HR喜歡什麼樣的簡歷？這裏提供了三條基本原則：簡短、簡潔、相關。簡短的意思是，任何超過三頁的簡歷都會直接扔進垃圾箱；簡潔就是要刪除一切不必要的東西，比如你的各種生活照；相關的要求是說清楚你做過什麼，你擅長做什麼就可以了。另外，還要注意細節問題，比如，不要有拼寫錯誤，不要花哨的字體等等。）
Q: So we’re going to look at a couple of CVs now...
A: Yes – these are a couple that arrived just this morning, so let’s take a look...(sound of paper unfolding)... OK, I can see straight away that we have a good one and a bad one here...
Q: (laughs) How can you tell so soon?
A: Well, as I just said, this one here is... how many... one,two, three, four pages long, it’s written in tiny type, I can hardly read it... and, wait, yes, there’s a photograph attached to the front!
Q: Too much information?
A: Yes... just leafing through it, I can see he’s written about where he went to primary school – that’s just not relevant...
Q: What kind of educational background should be included?
A: Perhaps your high school, but it’s mostly further education we’re interested in, university or college, then any professional qualifications you may have, as well as work experience of course...
（小編注：寫簡歷一般是採用時間逆序的方式，就是先寫最近發生的，比如你從哪所大學畢業，一般寫到高中學歷就足夠了。重要的是你的工作經驗和社會實踐，你要在工作經驗中把你的能力展示出來。應屆生工作經驗不足的話，可以寫寫實習經歷和社會實踐活動，比如做志願者。）
Q: That’s important?
A: Oh yes – placements or internships all count!
Q: What about personal information?
A: A bit is necessary... but look, this guy has written he was a member of the stamp collecting society in secondary school...! Not interested...
Q: What about the other CV?
A: OK, again, I can see right away this looks more promising... only two and a half pages, lots of space on the page, easy to read, well-organised. Hmmm, a couple of impressive looking references, that’s good. And, yes, they’ve included language skills – very important...
（小編注：常規的簡歷寫作要求是：1.篇幅不超過三頁；2.字體、行距適中，清晰可見；3.簡歷語言簡練、有組織性和條理性；4.簡歷內容與應聘職位密切相關，無累贅信息；5.附上推薦人/證明人信息。當然，如果能提供一些特殊技能的話，就會更吸引HR的注意，比如，熟練使用多種語言的能力。）
Q: What languages are you looking for?
A: Well, English, obviously – as we’re a UK-based company and English is still the language of global business, and then, well, anything really – Spanish is useful, Russian, Mandarin Chinese too...
Q: OK, we’ll get studying! Thanks John!
