Here are some tips to keep in mind when putting together your résumé.

The Australian résumé

In Australia, a résumé (also sometimes called a CV) is meant to give an employer an idea of your professional qualifications as well as how you would fit in with their team and work culture. That means that you should generally do more than just provide a list of the jobs and the experience you’ve had.

• Include your contact details such as your address, phone number or email.
• Include your education and qualifications.
• DON’T include a photograph or information on your physical attributes (i.e. your height or weight) unless it’s specifically requested and relevant to the job you’re applying for, such as in entertainment.
• The standard résumé in Australia is around 2-4 pages depending on the amount of experience you’ve had. This might be a bit longer than in some other countries such as the US.
• Include a list of the relevant skills and qualifications for the job you are applying for – don’t include experience that would be confusing for your employer.
• It might be a good idea to include a list of 1 or 2 references that the employer can contact. Be sure these references are relevant to your professional experience (your mother or flatmate won’t cut it).
• Most professional job applications will require a cover letter. Your cover letter should be short (250-300 words) and highlight why are you applying for the role and why you think you will be a suitable employee to the organisation. Don’t just re-hash what’s on your resume.
• Providing clear examples is a great way to demonstrate your achievements.

And of course, be sure to check your English – accurate spelling and grammar are important, even if it’s not essential for the role. It’ll be worth getting someone to review your résumé before you submit it to check for any errors and to get some additional pointers – your Greenwich College teacher will be happy to help.

Read more about finding a job in Sydney.

What tips do you have for a good resume? How did you find a job in Australia?

Last week, our English for Business teacher, Nadia, arranged for her students to meet with an airline executive to discuss the billion dollar aviation industry. In this post, Nadia explains what happened.

A Billion Dollar Morning

I was delighted when Ali Karimi happily and excitedly agreed to talk to my English for Business class about his job in the billion dollar aircraft industry. From stories of bowling allies on planes, to one family in the Middle East having part of the aircraft floor made of glass, so they could view the Alps whilst flying overhead! What Ali doesn’t know about the aircraft industry is not worth knowing!

Ali works in the field of leasing aircraft and has worked all over the world. He sat down with my class for 3 hours and taught us about his job and exactly how the airline industry operates – it was absolutely fascinating!

One of the great things about this talk was that it was very interactive and the content came from my students who had the task of asking him questions. It was also my students’ responsibility to ask him to clarify when they didn’t understand something. They also needed to paraphrase important points that they had just learnt to check their understanding. 

My students and I loved the talk. It was a fantastic exercise in ‘real’ Business English and helped to deepen my class’ knowledge and understanding of a billion dollar business.

On their last day, some of our graduating trainees from the Certificate IV (TESOL) program reflect on their experiences on the course….

Certificate IV (TESOL) graduates Rachel, Paula & Rita enjoy their last day with classmates.

Paula:

Being a TESOL student was one of the best experiences of my life. I really enjoyed it and the participation gave me a sense of happiness. Every single skill made me more confident. Now I know how to prepare good lessons, design materials or make students happy. Knowing the methodology of teaching English, I am able to assess other teachers (by the way, I really love that). While learning, I realised how useful all knowledge can be outside the classroom. TESOL is not only about teaching techniques, but also about self-development, confidence and enjoyment.

Even if I am conscious of what my weaknesses are, I believe that I am now a good English teacher. Small mistakes do not mean that I am not able to teach. They are just an effect of my lack of experience. Thanks to the TESOL course I know that they are just mistakes, not errors. My trainer Ian made me more confident and enthusiastic. He gave me his motivation and now I am sure that being in love with challenges like teaching is a great way to achieve fulfilment.

In the near future I am going to keep teaching. My plan is to show my students that being a good teacher means being well-prepared, showing enthusiasm and respect. I strongly believe that hard work is the key to success.

Teaching English is like a disease. When I started the TESOL course at Greenwich College 8 weeks ago just one person in the room was ill…my trainer, Ian. Now after 8 weeks the ‘virus’ has spread and all of my classmates have caught it. And I am happy to be very ‘ill’ as well.

Paula Korczynska, Cert IV (TESOL) – Poland

Rita:

I cannot believe I’m graduating today. I still remember my first week in TESOL. The first and second weeks were the hardest for me. I told one of my senior trainees how worried I was at the time and he told me to relax and have fun. I had very good seniors in my class who encouraged me, and also my trainer, who kept giving positive reinforcement. I changed my mind and told myself, “You’re not that bad…you can do it…just focus on what the trainer says, and study hard”. Thanks to my classmates, my trainer, and myself, I can now graduate. I’m so proud of myself!!

I really enjoyed teaching my lessons in English Club and now I want to teach more. I like the feeling when I stand in front of the class. My English skills have improved and I feel more confident when I talk to people.

Now I know what I have to do. I have a good teaching persona, I’ve learned many teaching techniques and now I believe I can be a good teacher… I AM a good teacher!

I will keep learning and studying after this TESOL course and continue to develop my teaching skills. One quote that I really like is, ”By learning you will teach; by teaching you will understand”. I will use this as my motto.

Now, with the experience I have, I know how to teach English, and I will try to be a better teacher in my future.

Ritayanti, Cert IV (TESOL) – Indonesia

Rachel:

Taking the TESOL course at Greenwich College was the best of all the decisions that I’ve made in Australia. I have a couple of reasons why I choose it as the best.

First of all, TESOL is more than just improving teaching skills. It also changes your personality. When I came here I was surprised when the TESOL trainer always encouraged us to behave more actively and wanted us to be confident. It was really hard for me to be confident speaking in front of many people and even teaching. However, as the course went on, I felt more relaxed and had confidence in myself. Before the TESOL course I could hesitate to talk about something in English. However, TESOL has encouraged me to speak as much as I can. Through the trainer’s encouragement, I could be confident as a speaker and as a teacher. TESOL made me realise how important it is to allow students to talk in the classroom. Before taking the course I used to teach without giving students opportunities to talk. Now I understand that if students do pairwork or groupwork they get the chance to express what they are thinking and use the language.

Secondly, in the TESOL course I could pick up many English expressions and grammar rules. Honestly, it was difficult for me to teach and explain English grammar. It was my biggest weakness, but through this course I am beginning to understand grammar more and I will keep learning and do my best. Imagine how much I can improve in the future!

TESOL is a busy course but lots of fun. It has helped me to be a more confident person in my life. If someone asked me about this course at Greenwich College, I would definitely recommend it, as well as the trainers who are the best in terms of teaching and making us realise how important being confident is.

Park YeLee, [Rachel], Cert IV (TESOL) – Korea

The conclusion of week five was the halfway point of our Certificate IV in TESOL course at Greenwich College. It was a relatively busy week for me at Greenwich, I was there on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Two tenses were covered in our Tuesday Lecture – the present perfect and the past simple. After the lecture, Carla gave us a summary on how she thought her recent lesson had been received. I have been enjoying listening to my classmates’ views on each of their lessons. As experienced teachers in Chile, the girls are definitely a lot tougher on themselves than I am. They’re perpetually striving to improve in the minutest ways.

I didn’t have time on Tuesday, so I did my weekly observation class on the Wednesday. After some organising by Ian, I was allocated to Justin’s Upper Intermediate class. I was eagerly anticipating one of Justin’s lessons – Sasha’s sister, Laura, who did the Cert IV in TESOL a few years ago, is a big fan of Justin’s teaching skills and she told me that I must watch him in action. I enjoyed the ‘Spelling Game’ warmer that he started with, the students really engaged in the task which set a solid platform for the remainder of the class. Ian starts our TESOL classes with a warmer at the beginning of each class too – I love them! We are all ready to put our ‘study caps’ on after the warmer, and I like the transition from fun to serious. Overall, Wednesday was a great observation day  – Alejandra, who was teaching that afternoon, was kind (and confident!) enough to allow me to observe her second Greenwich lesson. This was an unexpected bonus for me.

On Thursday I had my first individual lesson. Despite only having four students, which initially made me nervous, the class went as smoothly as I could have expected. It was an Elementary class and the aim of the lesson was to teach students irregular verbs in the past simple tense while describing what they did on the weekend just past. The students were great in helping me with the flow of the class, after all it is a collaboration between teacher and student that contributes to a good lesson. I imagine the low numbers would have been difficult for them as well, as it means they have to contribute to the class a lot more. Gemma supervised my lesson, she offered some useful feedback on what I need to concentrate on for my future lessons. As had occurred the week before, the TTT-STT (Teacher Talking Time and Student Talking Time) ratio was lopsided. Apart from my overly high TTT, I was satisfied with how I did.  

Vici took our Thursday lecture, the class was on Prepositions (in, on & at). In groups we played a board game with the purpose of practicing using prepositions. I’m relishing the lecture part of the course; it allows TESOL students who would otherwise not engage with one another to work together in a very friendly, energetic environment. After the lecture, we had our second quiz. Admittedly, we were a little nervous about it. Thankfully, it wasn’t as difficult as we had expected (having no curveball questions helps). As Ian was unwell on Thursday, Patricia was our “special guest” teacher for the evening.  Once we finished the protracted warmer (Marietta and I had difficulty getting the clues) we had a discussion on each of our individual lessons.

Our Saturday class began with Ian returning our exams. We had a quick look at them before we had to hand them back to him. Saturday was also the due date for our second assessment. The task was to devise a 90-minute lesson. I found the task both challenging and satisfying, it required me to use my uncreative mind and find ideas for activities from textbooks. We all received a C for competent which was great! Toward the end of the lesson, Ian wrote a somewhat provocative statement on the board: ‘women are much more honest than men”. No debate ensued, neither Ian nor I were willing to argue the contrary given that we were outnumbered! We also took an ‘honesty test’. I received the lowest score out of the four students. Obviously the testing system is entirely flawed!

 Rod

Statistics show that Australians are getting fatter. To prevent this national health problem from getting worse, the Australian government should put a tax on fatty fast foods to fund our health care system.

To what extent to do you agree?

Obesity causes several diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and stroke, that represent a serious economical burden for the society. Some people believe that taxing fatty fast foods will provide money that can be destinated to the health system. This solution, however, is to bring more disadvantages than benefits.

To start with, just putting a tax on unhealthy food does not eradicate the issue of obesity. On the contrary, it will lead to a disperception of this problem. In fact, people will keep on following a potentially dangerous lifestyle feeling not only free of doing such a thing, but also justified because of the tax they are paying. This carefree point of view will possibly be seen as an easy and responsibility-free solution by countless people and the money gathered with the tax on fatty food will probably not be enough to cover all the consequences.

On the other hand, people are well aware that eating too much sugar and fat is bad for their health and can predispose them to obesity. In this point of view, a person with unhealthy alimentation is forced to pre-pay the consequences in a financial way. So when these people are suffering from obesity-related pathologies, they will have already paid for their health care costs.

Nevertheless, a fat-rich diet does not guarantee obesity. If people eat unhealthy food in moderation and they associate it with regular physical exercise, most of them will not be affected by overweight issues. Thus, it is ethically unfair to make them pay in advance for something that is only a potential future problem.

For the above-mentioned reasons, I would not agree with a tax on fast foods to ensure money for the health care system. Indeed, I do believe that it is an easy, responsibility-free and punishing way to solve the complex and severe issue of obesity and its financial and economical consequences.

 By Giulia Rinaldi

Here are some tips to help you achieve the best score possible in the IELTS Writing exam.

Learn the required structures. IELTS writing question styles are very predictable. Be prepared! 

Read the question carefully! Some question topics have small but significant differences.

Plan your answer before you start writing! This is very important. Don’t just start writing! The first few minutes must be spent planning. A good plan will mean that your writing is logically structured and easy to read.

Practise topics you are unfamiliar with. You can’t choose your writing topics in the exam, so you need to be ready to answer any IELTS topic.

Be careful with your timing! You only have one hour. Most candidates prefer to start with Task 2 (it should take 40 minutes), leave 20 minutes for Task 1.

Rod teaches English Club (wearing his nametag on his forehead!)

It was an important week for Ian’s Certificate IV in TESOL students as it marked the start of our teaching experience at Greenwich College.

 I began week four by attending Lucy’s Pre-Intermediate class. It was once again an invaluable experience observing different teachers conducting different class levels. The opportunity to watch a Pre-Intermediate class was also useful for me personally, as I too, would be teaching the same level, two days later. For Tuesday’s lecture, Patricia did a lesson on Articles (not the ones found in newspapers or magazines). After the lecture, Ian debriefed Marietta and Carla on their first English Club lesson that they taught. It was handy to hear Ian’s feedback and Marietta and Carla’s views on how their lesson went. Later in the class we were treated to a surprise, we were given three textbooks (Grammar Workout, Grammar Workout 2 and Profiles) written by “a legend of ESL”, Dr Ruth Wajnryb.  These books will help us start our personal TESOL libraries.

Thursday was an exciting day! Alejandra and I had our first English Club lesson. It was Alejandra’s first lesson at Greenwich, but, for me, it was my first ever lesson. Alejandra had a quirky idea for the lesson: students and teachers were encouraged to place nametags on their forehead. The idea was well received by the students, it lightened the mood of the class right from the outset. Alejandra’s seniority and experience shone through, I got some useful tips when observing her during the class. While I found it a bit challenging to share the teaching role, it was a good learning experience (not just for the students!). Following the lesson we had a meeting with Patricia, who observed us, she had constructive advice for me, which I plan to implement for my next lesson.

Vici’s Thursday lecture was dedicated to phonetics. It was a really interesting class, one that surpassed expectation. The study behind the different sounds of English was fascinating as was the schwa exercise, the class had fun with it. After the lecture, Alejandra and I spoke briefly to Ian about our lesson. Ian then gave a class on Idioms. Unlike my friends, I’ve never been a frequent user of idioms, I suspect it’s because Portuguese has always been my primary language at home so idioms were never used and it just never stuck with me. Nevertheless, Ian presented us with some really interesting ways to teach the meanings of different idioms. For the remainder of the class we turned our attention to week 5 lesson planning. We will be teaching individually this week. For any Greenwich students contemplating attending English Club, I highly recommend you attend. The benefits are two-pronged: it helps students improve their English skills and enables us to further improve our teaching skills. Hope to see you there!

 Rod

So what are the best ways to find a job in Sydney and how long does it take? Well, it depends on several different factors and it’s a different experience for each and every student. It might take a few days or even a couple of months – to increase the chances of finding a job in Sydney, try the following tips:

Resume: Make sure you have an updated resume in English. Highlight your previous work experience, your current visa type, as well as your English language level. If you need help, ask your teacher to review it for you to correct any grammar mistakes. Remember that if you want to work in hospitality in Sydney you might need to have certain certificates by law (such as the RSA or RCG).

Networking: It is extremely important to talk to all your friends, neighbours, classmates and everyone you know. Tell them that you are looking for a job, what kind of job you are looking for and your availability. As soon as they hear of a job offer they’ll think of you and will let you know about it!

The Internet: There are several websites that offer job vacancies online and some of these jobs are suitable for students or working holiday visa holders. There are hundreds of websites – www.seek.com.au is one of the best ones.

Newspapers: Local community newspapers often advertise jobs available at restaurants, cafes or shops in your suburb or surrounding towns – wouldn’t it be great to have a job around the corner from your apartment? These newspapers are usually posted to your own house for free – so check your letterbox!

Agencies: You can leave your details with a job agency and as soon as your skills and experience fit into one of their job descriptions, you might be one of the first ones they contact.

Your college: Check the notice board at your school on a regular basis. Have a chat with your Student Advisor (Jonny – in the Student Services Room) to discuss the latest opportunities on the market.

Do you have any other suggestions? Leave a comment below!

Rod and Alejandra (with name tags on their faces!) teach English Club

Our Certificate IV in TESOL student blogger, Rod, writes about week 3 of his course.

Certificate IV in TESOL has definitely increased several notches. The class handed in its first assessment and began finalising preparations for our first lesson at Greenwich College. The schedule for the week was disrupted a little with the public holiday on Thursday, leaving Tuesday and Saturday to work on our lesson plan.

Tuesday’s lecture began with an impromptu photo shoot for this blog and was then followed by a lesson on ‘Countable and Uncountable Nouns’. A topic which was previously completely foreign to me. For so long I found myself querying how to order my daily coffee: is it “two sugars” or “two sugar” – neither sounded right. I started ordering my cups of coffee by saying “with two”, however, that was occasionally misconstrued to mean two shots of coffee. Since the lecture, I now know that some nouns are countable (individual objects, people, places, which can be counted) and some aren’t (materials, concepts, information, which are not individual objects and can not be counted). Vici provided us with worksheets and exercises for us to practice in pairs.

Class resumed on Saturday morning with our attention firmly fixed on finishing our lesson plans for the upcoming week. This was especially important for Marietta and Carla as they are teaching English Club on Tuesday, with Alejandra and I having an extra two days to be ready. Naturally, Ian directed most of his time and energy toward Marietta and Carla. Alejandra and I worked on our lesson plan together on the computer. Alejandra, an experienced English teacher in her native country of Chile was a great help in creating our lesson plan. Our first class is Pre-Intermediate, the lesson is shaping up to be very exciting, hope we have a healthy attendance on Thursday! Aside from planning our lesson, class on Saturday was also important as it was the due date for our first class assessment.

Ian marked our assignments, commented on them and then returned them briefly to us so that we could read his comments and note his points of improvement. Overall, it was another enjoyable and enlightening week in the Certificate IV in TESOL course, I’m very much looking forward to my first lesson on Thursday.

Rod

We asked our Greenwich College Facebook fans to have a go for the chance to win a double pass for the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb – here’s what some of them had to say!

What’s your favourite place to hang out in Sydney?

North Sydney Pool – postcard perfect

The North Sydney pool near the Harbour Bridge. It’s a great pool with a history which links it to the history of Sydney itself. Swimming in the 50 m salt water outdoor pool is like swimming in a postcard.
Millena B., France

Botanical Gardens – escape to nature

The Botanical Gardens because it’s not too far away from the busy places but makes you feel like you’re way out in the nature.
Rene K., Germany

Bronte Beach – good times with good mates

The best spot to hang out is Bronte Beach!!! For the rest of my life, I’ll never forget Christmas time at Bronte Beach spent with my great mates of Greenwich College!!
Shigeki S., Japan

Darling Harbour – add a touch of romance

My favourite place to hang out in Sydney is at Darling Harbour and Opera house because it is very romantic and has very nice view of the bridge and water.
Pedro F., Portugal

Watsons Bay – fish n chips with a view

Watson’s Bay on a weekday. This is because you can go to Doyle’s and have some of their lovely fish and chips and then go walk through the harbour park.
James C., UK

Bondi Junction – home away from home

The Cock n Bull in Bondi Junction. I love that it’s like a piece of home away from home. It reminds me of all the good times I’ve had with friends and family back in Ireland.
Claire R., Ireland

And our winning entry from the competition:

The Coathanger – and some classic Sydney sayings

Snags on the barbie, roo with dogs eye and dead horse. Tinnies, stubbies and tallies. Brekkie under the Coathanger? I love it!
Paula K., Poland

There’s so much to see and do in Sydney and so many treasures to uncover, we’d love to hear what you’ve found.

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.
Silvia Gašparovičová, Slovakia

Over to you – what are your favourite places in Sydney?