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18 | Eight Easy Steps To Great Teaching Job In Vietnam Step four: ‘one pager’ | 19

STEP FOUR: CV

‘ONE PAGER’

rom my own experience as someone who employs teachers, a single
job vacancy can attract 50+ Curriculum Vitaes (also known as a
F‘CV’ or ‘Résumé’), sometimes even more. Anecdotally, large English
language schools in Vietnam receive 100+ random CVs a day from folks
looking to secure a job teaching English abroad. Numbers like those tell
us that your CV needs to stand out in the crowd. ‘Curriculum Vitae’ is a
Latin term; the English translation is ‘course of one’s life’. In layman’s terms,
a CV is a written summary of a person’s background, qualifications, and
employment history.

The significance of a quality CV that’s responsive to local expectations
cannot be overemphasised. Arguably, your CV is the single most important
document that you’ll submit to a potential employer. Given the number of
CVs and related documents that a single employer processes daily (note
my comments above), your CV needs to be ‘noticed’ by the decision-
maker in less than two seconds. It must include relevant information in a
compartmentalised format and an engaging (professional) photo. Your CV
should be no more than one page and easy to visually scan. Check out the
sample CV opposite. Let’s look at the sample CV in more detail, starting
from the left-handside of the document.

Photo: Your photo needs to show that you’re a professional person with
an engaging disposition. It should strike a balance between formal and
informal. If you’re not very photogenic, here are some tips: choose the
background carefully, don’t look at the camera, find your good side, place
the camera slightly above eye level, avoid a double chin, make sure your
eyes are wide open and get the lighting right. You’ll find plenty more photo
tips on the internet.