CHARLIE SMITH
Address:1 Coronation s[s1]treetHome Tel:0114 222 0900
New TownMobile:08000 000000
S. Yorks[s2]Email: [s3]
S1 1AADate of Birth: 04/04/1985
EDUCATION
Sept 1997 – June 2004:[s4]Old High School, New Town
A Levels: History (A), English (B), French (B), General Studies (B)
10 GCSEs including English (A) and Maths (B)
Sept 2004 – June 2007:University of Sheffield, BSc (HONS) History (2:1 expected)[s5]
Studying History has allowed me to develop a broad range of skills including teamworking, data management and communication skills through group project work, research assinements[s6] and aural[s7] presentations. Successful completion of my dissertation “Europe in the 20th Century” displays my written communication and project management skills, along with the ability to meet strict deadlines. Also acted as a Mentor for 2[s8]new students during my second year, providing a ‘friendly face’ to help new arrivals deal with a range of practical issues.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Public Relations Experience
June - Sept 06: / Receptionist/Public Relations Admin. [s9]AssistantBrowns Tool Factory, New Town
Providing cover for the switchboard, greeting visitors, and attending meetings across two factory sites, requiring adaptability and flexibility. Responsibilities included:
- Public Relations administration: maintaining contact records, lists of actual and potential sponsorships, and details of enquiries. Designed Welcome Packs for new employees and guides for visitors to the factory.
- Part of a team responsible for organizing[s10] Browns’ annual Open Day. This involved a variety of design tasks such as creating posters, displays, tickets and voucher booklets. Created a handout for a tour of the factory, which is now used for school visits. Helped with smooth running of events on the day, which attracted over 200 visitors.
- Organising a variety of fundraising activities, for example encouraging employees to complete[s11]in a local ‘It’s a Knockout’ competition to raise money for Oxfam and co-ordinating the entries received. Acted as site contact for Comic Relief activities, including supervising fun activities such as a sponsored head shave and organising a 5-a-side football competition. Each event ultimately raised over £1500.
- Guiding groups of employees through H&S[s12]training. This involved delivering presentations to employees and responding to questions. Initiated and developed a Health and Safety database to record staff training and renewal dates.
- Assisting Product Development department with data entry, which involved daily reporting of samples to ensure consistency in production.
Additional Experience
Sept 05 - June 06: / Temporary Part-time Office Work, SheffieldTemping during term-time, which meant adjusting to new practises[s13] quickly and effectively, provided me with an understanding of different environments and management stiles.[s14]
Sept 04 - June 05: / Telemarketer – Ant Marketing, Sheffield
Using my persuasion and negotiation skills to sell insurance policies over the telephone to members of the public. Won monthly prize for consistently exceding[s15] sales targets in May 2005.
June - Aug 04: / Barista – Costa Coffee, New Town
Responsibilities included: dealing with customers, taking orders accurately, making drinks, and handling cash in a busy environment. This further developed my communication and interpersonal skills.
INTERESTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
University ‘Intro Week’ Coordinator[s16]
Member of a small team responsible for co-ordinating the 2005 Intro Week to welcome new students to the University. Liaised with University departments to obtain materials to publicise their services, and set up and worked on information points throughout the campus. Organised a series of successful evening activities for new students including movie, bowling and quiz nights.
New Town Hockey Club
Active member of New Town hockey club for the last seven years, recently launching New Town Tigers league hockey team. This has involved:
- R[s17]ecruiting 4[s18]new players
- organising fundraising events such as a Race Night, children’s Play Day and various competitions
- coaching and captaining the current players
- chairing team meetings and attending league meetings
- writing weekly match report for local newspapers
Sheffield university photography society[s19]
Resurrected the Society in January 2005, working with the five existing members to promote the society and recruit 50 new members within the first month. Created posters, flyers and web-based materials to publicise the Society, promoting it at student fairs and by talking to students outside the Union Building.
Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award[s20]
Lead[s21] a team expedition in the Lake District, responsible for planning our hiking route, organising accommodation and other logistics and motivating our team to complete this challenging weekend.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
IT Skills:Competent in the use of Microsoft Word, Outlook, Access, Excel, SPSS, PowerPoint, Document Tracking, Fuelworx, Windows 98, and Windows XP, as well as being a regular user of the internet. Typing speed of 55wpm average.
Language Skills:French (fluent), Spanish (intermediate)
Other:Full clean driving licence, held for four years. Car owner.
REFERENCES:References available on request.
[s1]Be accurate and use capital letters where they are appropriate. For example here, street should have a capital ‘S’.
[s2]Write out your address in full (e.g. South Yorkshire), to make sure that the employer will be able to get in touch with you via post if they wish to.
[s3]Don’t provide a silly email address like this one for the employer to contact you on. Use your name to create a professional impression.
[s4]You should use reverse chronological order - put your most recent education or work experience at the top of the list.
[s5]Find out exactly what your degree title is before stating it on your CV. In this case, History is a BA not a BSc.
[s6]Check your spellings! Use a spell checker and get a friend or family member to proof read your CV before you send it out.
[s7]Again proof read your document to check that you are saying what you mean. Here the appropriate word is oral.
[s8]In this context it is better to write numbers below eleven as words; so use ‘two’ rather than ‘2’.
[s9]Write out your previous job titles in full and avoid using abbreviations. It would be better to write administrative.
[s10]Watch out for Americanised spellings, particularly if you are using auto-correct or a spell checker. UK employers would expect to see ‘organising’ here, although an exception might be made if you are actually from the USA!
[s11]Another minor error that careful proof reading could have picked up on. Obviously this should read as ‘compete’ not ‘complete’.
[s12]Be careful when using abbreviations. It is better to write it out in full, at least in the first instance, to avoid any confusion about what you are referring to.
[s13]The English language can be a tricky thing and you need to be careful of the differences in spellings for nouns and verbs. In this instance the noun ‘practice’ should be used, rather than the verb ‘practise’.
[s14]Again, make sure that you proof read your work to avoid using the incorrect spelling of a word. This should be ‘styles’ not ‘stiles’.
[s15]This is a common spelling mistake, but it ought to be ‘exceeding’.
[s16]Check your punctuation. In this case a hyphen is appropriate; it should be ‘co-ordinator’.
[s17]Be consistent – a capital letter isn’t needed here. In a bulleted list following a colon, none of the points should begin with a capital letter.
[s18]As stated before it is better to write numbers as words; so use ‘four’ rather than ‘4’.
[s19]The name of a society should be written with capital initial letters.
[s20]Include a date for any awards or certificates achieved. Also, in this case, it would be better phrased as ‘Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award’.
[s21]Another simple mistake, but using the incorrect version of a word suggests to the employer that you do not pay attention to detail. Here it should read ‘led’ rather than ‘lead’ (the metal!).