CHAPTER 1

PART ONE

CURRICULUM VITAEOR RÉSUMÉ

The curriculum vitae or résumé is a brief report of the careerand qualifications of a candidate for a vacancy. A curriculumis divided into five parts: personal information, educationalbackground, full-time working experience, knowledge, skillsand experiences relevant to the industry in which you work,temporary experiences, and finally, recognitions and prizes. Theseare the necessary and sufficient requirements for submittingan application for a job. To Include data, and documents notexpressly requested can be counterproductive. For example,for a beauty contest, and the like, a photo may be requested,but in other cases might be inappropriate. If called for the firstinterview, you probably will be invited to bring with you onlyevidence of what is stated in the curriculum.

The curriculum vitae begins with critical personal data thatare limited to educational background, age, place of birth,marital status, nationality, residence permit, a declarationof good health and any criminal history or lack thereof canbe useful. Personal information can include miscellaneousinformation related to the job that is not covered in other sections.

1.1 EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

This is important to those professions directly dependent from theknowledge gained in the classroom (teachers, lawyers, etc.).An excellent final grade on the diploma or degree might havedecisive weight in hiring the candidate. But for some professionsgrades produce no results.

True or false? An old proverb says, "The first in the school,the last in life." To defy the centuries, there must be some truthin this proverb. The person who has achieved the highest gradeand has nothing more to offer than five years of educationalgrind, will not enjoy learning this proverb. This person might findgreat disappointment to learn that the company in which s/heaspires to work was created by a talented man who gives littleimportance to academic merits. His ideal candidate must lovewhat his company produces, be diligent to know the industryand its problems, dangers, challenges, and factors that mighthave been only partially objects of "formal" education.

There is no doubt that a curriculum that begins with a"maxima cum laude" appeals to the superficial reader due tothe alleged glories such as honor roll, dean's list, the favorite ofthe President, etc. Often, a candidate believes these featuresensure a successful career. The reality is quite different. Thecandidate should remember that a most coarse judgment wasmade by a professor of physics who prophesied his student,Albert Einstein, would have a mediocre future at best. Merits anddistinctions obtained during school should be mentioned only if itis required.

For the scoring purposes, if a high school diploma is required,the candidate will be given a number of points corresponding tothe final grade. If a university degree is required, the candidatewill have a vote equal to the final grade, plus 10 points more ifs/he worked full-time (40 hours per week) and 5 points if s/heworked part-time (20 hours of work per week), for 75% of thefrequency to university. This apparent discrimination doesn'tpunish the "rich" student nor rewards the poor student, but isa value to the energies and the efforts made to complete thestudies of those who are less fortunate. One could argue that tothe entrepreneur, it does not matter if the candidate is rich orpoor; the value of the candidate's knowledge is what interestshim/her. It may be said that by hiring a person, the company getsbenefits according to his/her value and that includes the urgeto excel. Additionally, the wealthy student, having an enormousamount of time, might have accumulated so many points withskill and knowledge by using his/her extra time in a responsibleway that s/he might break the "advantage" obtained by thepoorer student. Of course, time and effort must be documented.

1.2 PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Professional training is time-limited work experience in the area ofstudy that the student has intention to work once he has finishedthe studies or before he applies for a permanent job. This mayalso be theoretical courses or training programs.

The score, usually not more than a third of what was givento academic preparation, is determined case-by-case byexaminers. The first example was reported by a candidate fora position as a researcher in a company that works in the fieldof medical technology. His résumé had these experiences onit: "Course of research on silver nanoparticles for seniors in purechemistry (internship for undergraduate in chemistry) with the useof ICPMS coupled plasmon-induced mass-spectrometer and theuse of the TEM-transmission electron microscope 10-9. This was acompetition won by only three students. Duration: three monthsfor forty hours a week, with a salary of $ 350.00 per week paid bythe state.' This experience was assigned five points.

Our second example was reported by a candidate for a jobin the managerial career of a company that produces tires forvehicles. "Nine weeks of experience with a company producingrubber in Indonesia, controlling and doing all kinds of work. Thebest worker was promoted each week to a different departmentin order to learn the "whole operation" of the company—fromagricultural production to exports. Sixty hours of work per week,with a salary of $100.00 per week, accommodation in theworkers' dormitory, meals in the cafeteria, and a company car,the winning candidate will be moved. Airline tickets were paid atworker's expense." This experience was assigned six points.

Training programs for professional careers are quite rare andoften are mixed with summer jobs. The most common are thoseoffered by law firms, which in reality are temporary jobs executedunder the direction of a lawyer. Due to excessive specialization,these internship programs are practiced by law firms as well asother service businesses (surveyors, engineers, accountants, etc.).These interns end up missing the diversity of their profession andare reduced to repetition of the same activities day after day.In this case, a detailed list of tasks performed would be requiredof the candidate. For example, if a case came up that the maintask of an internship was to be a...