Session Three

CVs and Reflective Practice

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

• Your CV and your portfolio

• What you have discovered about CVs

since last session

• Some typical CV advice

• CV reviews and feedback

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

Basic content and formatting

 Two sides
 Bullet-point format
 11 point minimum font size
 Personal details are easily seen (and correct!)
 Full contact details
 Work experience: reverse chronological order
 Qualifications: reverse chronological
 Interests: bullet point spare time activities
 Driving licence: indicate time held and points
 References: not needed on a CV

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

Other tips / advice

• Aim for clear layout and high-value content

• Make careful use of space eg address can go across one line

• Limited value in a personal introduction with superlatives

• Remember you can use an additional sheet which emphasises

experience relevant to the advertisement or job requirements

• Do not write in the first person, use ‘for example:’

• If you are open to relocation, it is IMPORTANT to say so

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

Work Experience

 Summarise career in reverse chronological order

 Start and finish dates for all positions, including months
 Explain gaps
 Employer Summaries: Business sector, number of employees,
ownership, turnover, core businesses, locations, customers,
markets etc – this is important.
 For each position summarise:
o Key responsibilities
o Achievements
 Repeat for all positions with increasing brevity

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

Common Mistakes

 Poor spelling, grammar and punctuation! 30% of CV’s have basic

mistakes of this kind
 Poor layout and use of space (crammed first page empty second)
 Difficult to see career progression
 Lack of company info (in large companies, define the purpose of
your department or business unit)
 No dates with durations (are they hiding a gap?)
 Responsibilities/achievements have no scale and scope
 Not attractive to the eye – needs be clear and professional
 Poor or ‘mailshot’ type accompanying letter

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 An extra note on Linkedin

A ‘core currency’ for HR and Recruitment Professionals

a) A mini-CV ... and all the previous rules above apply

b) Aligned with CV – dates, job titles, strengths, abilities, successes and core
competencies
c) Make sure it is up to date!
d) Don’t give the impression that you are still at a company that you finished with 10
months ago
e) If you are between jobs, and available for an immediate start, that can be very
attractive to employers
f) Business-like professional photo – this is not Facebook or Tinder
g) Check for fine detail, spelling and accuracy. Check again!

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 Curriculum Vitae
The course of my life

CV reviews and feedback

• Pairs – exchange CVs

• One thing you can learn from

• One suggested improvement

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 Reflection

• ‘A form of mental processing’ (Moon 2001)

• Mulling over the days events on the way

home

• Talking about events with friends / colleagues

• Dreaming?

• A natural part of how humans are able to learn

from experience

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 Expressing our Reflections

Expressing
Our Reflections
Our Reflections

Drawing
Verbal expression
Film
Writing
Acting
etc

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 Learning from Reflective Writing
Information
Ideas
Perspectives
Memories
Theories
Feelings
• Career Choice
Advice
• Leadership Skills
Clarity • Decision Making
• Problem Solving
Learning • Working in a
Reflective Team
Writing
Understanding

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 Reflective Practice
A practice which believes …

‘experience is certain,
learning is not’
Paul Schoemaker

‘Experience is not what happens to

you; it is what you do with what
happens to you’
Aldous Huxley

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 Description v Reflective Writing
Description Interpretation Evaluation Action
Facts – for example: Your interpretation of the Your evaluation of What you will do /
• What you see facts – for example: events – for example: change / try – in order to
• What you hear • What you think is • Where your improve your practice
• What you feel happening contribution has been
• How others might be positive or negative
• What you know
feeling • Whether what is
• How others might be happening is ‘good’
motivated or ‘bad’
• What impact you think • Assessment of
you might have had relationships
between different
factors and players

Descriptive Writing Reflective Writing

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 Levels of Reflective Writing

Descriptive Writing Reflective Writing

Handout Examples
Review & Discuss

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 Activity (1)

1. Identify an incident / event / period of time as the focus for your

reflections – when you worked in a team or when you made an
important decision

2. Compose a short description of your chosen focus – write in full

text, produce a mind map, and / or draw a picture if helpful

• Try to include – words, actions, behaviours, emotions – you own

and those of other people

• Be as thorough as you can

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 Activity (2)

Working in pairs

1. Review each others descriptions

2. Prompt and question each other to try and add greater depth and

clarity to the description

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 Activity (3)

Review and analyse your description – for example:

1. What did you do that was helpful / less helpful / unhelpful?

2. What did other people do that was helpful / less helpful / unhelpful?

3. What the important influences (on you and others)?

4. What else could have been done?

5. What ideas or theories might be relevant to the incident?

(see Moon’s questions for further ideas if needed)

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 Activity (4)

A ‘Traffic Lights’ Review

Working in pairs:

Share and compare review points and help each other to identify action
points in terms of:

1. Unhelpful factors to stop or reduce – eg things you were saying,

doing, or thinking which it would be helpful to reduce or stop

2. New things to try – eg actions which you think would be helpful in

future but you have not tried yet

3. Helpful actions to keep or increase – eg things you were saying,

doing, or thinking which were helpful and you would like to increase

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 Structures to aid Reflective Practice

• What?

• What happened – facts / feelings?

• So What?

• What can I learn from what happened?

• Now What?

• How might I apply my learning?

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001)

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 Structures to aid Reflective Practice
Gibbs Reflective Cycle
6 Action Plan
1 Description
If it arose again what
What Happened?
would you do?

2 Feelings
5 Conclusion
What were you
What else could
thinking &
you have done?
feeling?

4 Analysis 3 Evaluation
What sense can What was good and
you make of the bad about the Gibbs (1998)
situation? situation?

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 Structures to aid Reflective Practice
Evidence of competence in teamwork
1. The best example.
2. The purpose of the team, the nature of the team activities and membership.
3. Context: brief details of the circumstance, event or activity when I showed good
team working skills.
4. Level of responsibility in this team. The scale and scope of the work or events
5. Personal contribution: what I did; the role(s) I played in the team.
6. Example of leadership (e.g. planning, negotiating, persuading).
7. Example of ability to work with others (e.g. accepting others’ views, following
directions, working out a compromise etc.).
8. What worked well on this occasion?
9. What lesson did I learn from this?
10. How might I do things differently on another occasion?
11. How could this competence be applied to other situations?
Adapted from Cottrell, S. (2010)
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 For Next Week

Complete and review ‘Type Indicator’ diagnostic

profile

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