In this third of three online exercises on vocabulary in CVs, resumes and job interviews, you will learn and remember more professional English words/phrases that you can use to improve your CV/resume and job interview performances.

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Exercise: More examples of CV/resume and job interview words

Below are a number of verbs and phrases that are commonly used in business English to make sentences sound more professional.

From the context, try to guess what the meaning of the words/phrases in bold are. Then do the quiz at the end to check if you are right.

1. In my last job I was responsible for doing the recruitment of all new staff to the department. I had to organise all the job advertisements, candidate selection and perform the interviews.


2. Although I started in the company as an administrative assistant, due to my hard work and ability I was promoted three times in 6 years. When I left the company, I was a department manager.


3. In my role as a manager, I conducted regular reviews of my team's performance. It is important to find out what your team is doing badly and change it as quickly as possible.


4. I was in charge of a team of 12 staff. I was their manager.


5. In addition to organising the corporate events, I also assisted the events manager on running/managing the actual events. Providing the events manager with any help she needed.


6. I participated in the company's customer service review meetings. Contributing many ideas on how to improve the company's customer service.


7. I chaired the company's customer service review meetings. It was my responsibility to manage the meetings and make sure that they were successful.


8. I trained all new staff on how to use the company's customer service computer application.


9. I monitored the company's computer systems. I looked at them to make sure that there were no problems with the system's performance.


10. It was my responsibility to ensure that all our customers' deliveries reached them within 24 hours of being ordered.


11. I ordered all the company's office supplies (like pens, paper etc...). I had to find out what office supplies were needed and buy them at the best price from suppliers.


12. I constantly liaised with our business customers to ensure that we were providing the best service to them. Happy customers means you continue to have their business.



Quiz:

Below is a definition/description of each of the words/phrases in bold from the above text (which you can also find in the grey box below). Answer each question with one of these words/phrases in bold. Only use one word/phrase once and write it as it is in the text. Click on the "Check" button at the bottom of the quiz to check your answers.

When the answer is correct, two icons will appear next to the answer. The icon contains extra information on the word/phrase. In the icon, you can listen to the pronunciation of the word/phrase.

Words/phrases to use in the quiz

1. To cooperate/work with somebody to resolve/fix or do something, is

         

Liaised:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to liaise'. In this context, it is a more professional way to say 'to work with' or 'to cooperate with'. It is normally used when a person has to 'work with' a customer, different department or different company to do something. For example, 'to make sure that the problem didn't happen again, we liaised with our customers and introduced a new way of invoicing all of our sales'. It is normally followed with the preposition 'with', e.g. 'he liaised with marketing on the project'. If 'liaise' is followed by the preposition 'between', it has a different meaning. It means you try to help two groups/parties resolve a problem that they have between each other, e.g. 'Tony Blair is currently liaising between the Palestinians and the Israelis to find a solution to the occupied territories'. In Spanish: "trabajar en colaboracíon con".

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2. To teach somebody how to do something, is

         

Trained:
(verb) This basically means to 'instruct' or 'teach' a person or people how to do a job or some type of skill/ability (e.g. 'how to use a software application', 'how to speak to customers politely' etc...). The verb 'train' has a very similar to 'teach', but 'to train' is normally used when you 'instruct' a skill or ability which is connected to work or a job. So, a teacher/professor in a school, college or university doesn't 'train' his/her students, but 'teaches' them. For example, 'today I'm going to train you how to use the new company application'. The noun for this verb is 'training', e.g. 'teacher training will start 20 minutes after the students have left the school'. The name of person who does the 'training' is 'trainer'. In Spanish: "capacitar".

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3. To help somebody to do something, is

         

Assisted:
(verb) It means to 'help' a person who is in charge/responsible for something by doing some tasks/work for them. For example, if your manager is responsible for organising/running a meeting, you would 'assist' him or her if you sent out the invitations for the meeting for your manager or wrote down what was said in the meeting (which is called the minutes). You can 'assist' people on projects, meetings, events etc... For example, 'I assisted on the organisation of job interviews for the company. I reserved the room for interviews and sent emails to the job candidates'. The noun for this verb is 'assistant'. In Spanish: "ayudar".

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4. A way to say the activities and tasks that you manage/are in control of, is

         

Was responsible for:
(phrase) 'to be responsible for' is commonly used in formal situations when you are telling people what tasks and activities you manage/have responsibility for. For example, 'in my current job, I am responsible for writing the training documentation and doing the customer service training'. It has a very similar meaning to 'to be in charge of', but 'to be in charge of' is normally used when you are telling somebody what teams, projects, departments or numbers of staff/workers that you manage/are in control of. For example, 'in my current job, I am in charge of a customer service team'. In Spanish: "ser responsable de".

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5. To manage/run a meeting, is

         

Chaired:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to chair'. This is the formal way to say 'be in charge of' or 'run' a meeting. When you 'chair' a meeting, you are normally the person who controls what happens in the meeting, e.g. 'thank you for coming, I'll be chairing the meeting today'. The title/name for the person who 'chairs' a meeting are the nouns 'chairman/chairwoman', but it is normally shortened to 'chair', e.g. 'sally will be the chair today in the meeting'. In Spanish: "presidir".

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6. To make certain/sure that something happens, is

         

Ensure:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to ensure'. It is commonly used in formal situations and is a professional way of saying 'make sure'. It means that you 'make sure' or 'have a responsibility' that something does or doesn't happen. For example, 'In my job, I ensure that all customer orders were processed and sent out within 24 hours'. The verb is normally followed by 'that' and then the thing or task you have to 'make sure' happens or doesn't happen (see the above example). You can also say how you 'ensure' it happens. For example, 'by monitoring and training we ensure that all customer phone calls are resolved professionally and quickly'. In Spanish: "asegurar".

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7. To get/obtain a job in the same company with more responsibilities, is

         

Was promoted:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to be promoted'. This means when you obtain a higher position/role in the company that you are working for. It is commonly used by job candidates in job interviews and on CVs/resumes, because it shows that the person has done their job very well. The noun for this verb is 'promotion'. The verb is used in the passive ('to be promoted') by the person who received the promotion, e.g. 'I was promoted twice in my last job'. It is used in the active ('to promote') by the person who gave somebody a promotion, e.g. 'because of her hard work, we promoted her to supervisor of the customer service team'. In Spanish: "ascender".

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8. To make a request to buy a product or service from a company or somebody, is

         

Ordered:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to order'. This has two meanings. In this context it means to ask a company or person to supply/sell a product(s) or service(s) to you that you will receive in the future, e.g. 'he has already ordered the components/parts. They should arrive next week'. With this meaning, you normally say what products/services you 'made a request for' after the verb, e.g. 'I order the metal from suppliers'. The noun of this verb is 'order', e.g. 'have you made the order for the components?'. The other meaning of 'to order' is to tell/force somebody to do something, e.g. 'I ordered Peter to do the report'. With this different meaning the verb is always followed by the name (e.g. Bill etc...) or pronoun (e.g. him, them etc...) of a person, group or company and then the infinitive of a verb (e.g. 'to go', 'to do' etc...). For example, 'he ordered them to finish it'. In Spanish: "pedir/encargar".

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9. A way to say how many staff or what team/department that you manage/are in control of, is

         

Was in charge of:
(phrase) 'to be in charge of' is commonly used when you are telling somebody what teams, projects, departments or numbers of staff/workers that you manage/are in control of. For example, 'in my current job, I am in charge of a customer service team' or 'he's in charge of 10 staff'. It has a very similar meaning to 'to be responsible for', but 'to be responsible for' is normally used when you are telling people what tasks and activities you manage/have responsibility for. For example, 'in my current job, I am responsible for writing the training documentation and doing the customer service training'. In Spanish: "estar al frente/al cargo de".

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10. To organise and do/perform interviews or reviews, is

         

Conducted:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to conduct'. This is a very formal verb which is excellent to use on CVs or in job interviews. In this context it means to 'organise' and 'carry out'/'perform' job interviews, investigations and reviews. For example, 'in my last job I conducted all the interviews for new staff in the department'. The noun for this verb is 'conducting'. This noun is normally used with the phrase 'to be responsible for', e.g. 'I was responsible for conducting all the interviews for new staff in the department'. In Spanish: "llevar a cabo".

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11. To check/observe that something is working or done correctly, is

         

Monitored:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to monitor'. This verb means to 'check' by observing (looking at or listening to) that an activity is being done correctly by other people or that there are no problems, e.g. 'one of my responsibilities in my last job was to monitor customer calls to the company. I did it to make sure that the customers were receiving good service'. The noun is 'monitoring'. Normally, 'monitoring' in companies is done to find/identify problems, so they can be fixed. In Spanish: "seguir/controlar".

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12. To be involved in an event or meeting and contribute/say ideas or suggestions, is

         

Participated:
(verb) The infinitive is 'to participate'. This means to 'be involved in' an event (e.g. a meeting, a conference, competition, a review etc...) and to 'contribute' or 'take part' instead of only listening or watching. Although it has a similar meaning to 'attend', it is different. If somebody said to you that they 'attended a meeting', you don't know if they sat in the meeting and just listened or if they spoke in the meeting and were actively involved and contributed ideas. But if somebody said to you that they 'participated in a meeting', you know that they spoke in the meeting and were actively involved and contributed ideas. When you use the verb 'participate', it is normally followed by the preposition 'in' and then the name of the event. For example, 'during my time in the company, I regularly participated in project reviews with the clients'. In Spanish: "participar/tomar parte".

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Practice

Now that you understand the meaning of the words/phrases and when to use them, practise using them by creating your own sentences with them in English. Also click on the icon next to each correct answer and listen how each is pronounced correctly..