This specialization will help you develop the English language strategies and communication skills you need to advance in your professional career. Whether you already have a successful career and are looking to move forward, whether you’re looking to change careers, whether you’re starting out in the world of work, or whether you’re coming back into the world of work after some time away – if you believe in working for more than a paycheck, then this specialization will help you. The core courses cover preparing for a successful job search, including self research and research of the job market and industries of interest; strengthening your interview skills by recognizing what hiring managers are looking for and taking steps to prepare for the types of tough questions today's premier companies use; and preparing a resume, cover letter and supporting business documents. The capstone will allow you to apply the skills you learn in this specialization to your own job search.
A key benefit of this specialization is the opportunities you'll have to practice your interviewing skills with other job-seekers from around the world. You’ll give them feedback and they’ll give you feedback. In this process, you’ll gain new insight into what makes a speaker successful and you’ll gain confidence in your English interviewing skills.
Interviewing and Resume Writing in English Specialization
Master the English Job Search Process. Gain tools and strategies to navigate the complex path of interviewing and resume writing in English
Offered By
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 5 Courses in this Specialization
Course1
Interview Research and Preparation
4.6
150 ratings
This course, the first in the "Interviewing and Resume Writing in English" specialization, guides you to discover the interests, talents and competencies that you can use to find and do work that leverages your strengths, passions and who you are as a person, so you can start doing work that matters to you and to the world. Whether you already have a career and are looking to move forward, whether you’re looking to change careers, whether you’re starting out in the world of work, whether you’re coming back into the world of work after some time away – this course will help you see your path more clearly and will teach you how to communicate your value to an employer in a way that he or she can immediately recognize.
After completing this course, you will be able to 1) use your individual cognitive, social and emotional traits, together with areas of interest, to discover how to find the future jobs that can give you the greatest satisfaction; 2) identify transferable skills of greatest value to the employers who have the jobs you’re interested in; 3) apply a simple strategy for presenting your skills to an employer in an effective and convincing fashion.
Course2
Successful Interviewing
4.6
135 ratings
The goal of hiring managers is not just to hire people who need a job. It’s to hire people who believe in their organization, its mission and the work that’s involved in the job position. Every hiring manager knows: Hire people to do a job and they’ll work for your money. Hire people who believe in the work and they’ll work for their passion.
And this is not a case of “fake it until you make it.” You have to be genuine about your belief in an organization and its mission. That means you have to have researched the industry, the company, and the position – and be able to show how your goals in life align with the company’s mission. Having done so will shape the impression you convey as a candidate, the way you answer traditional questions, and the way you demonstrate that you’re the right candidate for the job.
This course is the second in a five-course specialization. We recommend that courses #1, #2 and #3 be taken in sequence. Course #4 - on resume and cover letter writing - can be taken in any sequence, while course #5 is the capstone for the specialization as a whole.
This course can be thought of as "Interviewing I", while course #3 is "Interviewing II." Course #3 covers more advanced interview formats, including behavioral and situational interviews - along with the special case of telephone screenings. The logic for including telephone screenings - which happen at the start of the interview process - late in this specialization on interviewing is that those screenings, while happening early in the process, involve all the skills that you'll learn from course #1 through course #3.
As for this course, it will teach you how to:
1. Do thorough research on a company of your choice.
2. Prepare for those critical first 3-5 minutes of an interview (when many recruiters say an interview is either won or lost).
3. Prepare for the all important "Tell Me About Yourself" question.
4. Prepare for traditional interview questions.
5. Use strategies for handling the salary question. We don't teach you salary negotiation techniques, but we do teach you how to avoid putting yourself in a weak negotiation position.
6. Prepare an elevator speech - all three variations.
7. Use persuasive speech techniques to present professional accomplishments and qualifications in a manner that conveys benefits to a potential employer.
8. Use persuasive speech techniques to convince a potential employer of your interest, motivation and preparation for a particular position.
9. Adapt your nonverbal communication style to the expectations of English-speaking interviewers.
Course3
Advanced Interviewing Techniques
4.7
80 ratings
People interviewing for jobs today often fail because they are using yesterday's strategies. Recruiting technology has become more sophisticated, and the best employers are constantly changing the way interviews are done. This course gives you detailed strategies for handling tough competency-based, or behavioral, interviews so that you can communicate the knowledge, skills, and abilities that you have and that employers demand.
You will be able to:
1. Identify what the hiring organization is looking for in using behavioral interviewing techniques.
2. List the steps in the S.T.A.R. response strategy and apply the steps, using reasonably correct language, to respond to behavioral interview questions.
3. Use your responses to behavioral and competency-based questions to communicate your personal values.
4. Identify what the hiring organization is looking for in asking situational and wild-card interview questions.
5. List the steps in the P.R.E.P. and 5 W's response strategies and apply the steps, using reasonably correct language, to answer at least one wild-card and two situational interview questions.
6. Develop an optimal strategy for responding to the weaknesses question, based on recognizing why a hiring organization asks these questions.
7. Demonstrate your personal strengths and maturity through your responses to the weaknesses question.
8. Correctly apply hedging language to soften a negative and boosting language to emphasize a positive aspect of your professional and/or academic background.
9. Ask questions to determine how well an organization fits with your personality, career goals and salary objectives.
10. Ask questions that communicate your competencies and strengths.
11. Negotiate the best job offer and compensation package for yourself.
12. Perform successfully on telephone interviews.
Course4
Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters
4.7
133 ratings
How can you bring your resume to the top of the pile? How can you present yourself to prospective employers using the language they already speak inside their organization? This course will give you answers to those questions. You will learn how to convert a boring resume into a dynamic asset statement that conveys your talents in the language that an employer understands.
After completing this course, you will be able to:
1. Identify the real purpose of a resume.
2. Identify relevant competencies for a position.
3. Adapt your resumes to Applicant Tracking Systems (resume screening software).
4. Write powerful and convincing accomplishment statements using your accomplishments inventory to strategically assemble the most relevant evidence of competency for a specific position.
5. Use the resume skills tier method to strengthen your resume.
6. Write summary sections and objective statements aligned to a job position.
7. Take advantage of web resources to find power language for your resume.
8. Produce a strong resume in a format that is suitable both to your background and the position you're interested in.
9. Produce strong cover letters that use A.I.D.A. to help you achieve your career goals.
10. Produce effective follow-up letters that help you stand out from the competition.
Instructors
Charles Duquette
Lecturer/Marketing CoordinatorMaryland English Institute
Daniela C. Wagner-Loera
Full-Time LecturerMaryland English Institute, University of Maryland College Park
About University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 47 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Is financial aid available?
Can I take the course for free?
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
There are four modules in course 1, and five modules in courses 2, 3, and 4. Each module is designed for roughly one week of work, so that means 19 weeks to the capstone. Of course, you can complete the specialization at a faster or slower pace. That's up to you. How long the capstone will take is also up to you and the progress of your job search.
How often is each course in the Specialization offered?
The courses will run every 2 weeks after launch. However the capstone will run less frequently, 4-5x per year.
What background knowledge is necessary?
The courses are aimed at learners with Business English proficiency, which is commonly taken to mean learners with at least a B1 level of proficiency on the Common European Framework Reference (CEFR) scale. Realistically, to successfully navigate the complex path of interviewing, resume writing, and working in an English-language environment, learners will need at least a B2 level of proficiency. The specialization itself, however, should help you advance your spoken language proficiency - no matter what level you start at.
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
No, you do not. You do not even need to take the modules in a course, or the lessons in a module, in a specific order.
In putting the specialization together, we did conceive of courses 1, 2, and 3 going in order - and there is some logic to following them in that order, with course 4 taken after this sequence, or concurrently with one of the other courses. We have also put the modules and lessons in a logical order.
But we anticipate that every learner will come to the specialization with unique needs. If you are a learner with a near C2 or even native language proficiency, you may choose to skip over the lessons that focus on language skills; if you're already far ahead in the job search process and have an interview lined up, you may choose to focus just on the lessons that deal with specific interviewing strategies. If you have a telephone interview coming up, you may choose to focus just on the lessons that deal with telephone interviewing.
In short, these are not courses that have prerequisites. We expect some learners will follow the lessons in sequence, while others will pick and choose at random.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
No, you will not.
What will I be able to do upon completing the Specialization?
Your spoken English skills will improve. You will be positioned to find those future positions that best complement your strengths and skills. You will have the strategies and language needed to perform well in a variety of interview formats and to craft winning resumes and cover letters.
You will be able to identify the hiring manager's purpose behind the most frequently used interview questions. You will be able to prepare for and respond effectively to traditional interview questions, behavioral interview questions, situational (case) interview questions, brainteaser interview questions, and wild-card interview questions. You will be able to prepare for and identify how to approach telephone or Skype interviews, in-person interviews, team and panel interviews, stress interviews, and competency-based interviews.
You will be able to market yourself more effectively, according to the expectations of the English job market. You will be able to align your job hunting efforts with the customs and practices of employers in the English job market. You will be able to prepare for, execute, and succeed at a job search in the English speaking world.
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