[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Charles Duquette of the Maryland English Institute at the University of Maryland, College Park. From this moment on you are not alone anymore in your job search. From this moment on you will have my help and the help of many others in navigating the complex path of interviewing and resume writing in English. [MUSIC] If you believe you have a unique gift. If you're convinced there's no one else in the world who sees what you see, thinks like you think, and can do what you can do, then come join us. If you don't want to be one of the majority who wakes up every morning and goes to a job you hate, who only looks forward to the weekend and dreads Monday morning. If you believe you are or can be one of the minority who loves what you do, and would do what you do even if you weren't getting paid for it. Then I'm here to tell you, you're not alone. I want to help you find the work you feel you were meant to do, and help you get there from wherever you are now. 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, whether you're coming back into the world of work after some time away. If you believe in more than working for a paycheck, then I'm here to help you. I was fortunate to find something I loved to do early in my career. When I got out of school I had to find work and found a job with a government contractor. I didn't much enjoy it. But one day a guy threw a Fortran book on my desk and said, hey, I bet you'd like this. Well, it turned out I loved it. I taught myself the language, quite a few more. Talked myself into a job as a firmware engineer, and spent the next decade or so as a serious code jockey. I wrote real time operating systems, storage caching systems, probably a million lines of code in a dozen or so languages. Writing code is what I love to do. I had a couple of companies and went on to turn myself into a database developer, because I loved that as well. I went a long way with technology until I didn't love it anymore. I still write code for fun. I'm a registered Apple developer. I have an iPad app in the app store. But I had to get out of the game, the business side just wore me out. I got into teaching because I volunteered as a math tutor and I loved the work. My students learned and they gave me great feedback. I was living in Washington DC, not far from American University, and I was wondering what I was going to do next. And one day I saw a flyer for an information session on a Master's program in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Something clicked. I'd always loved language. But because I'd been good at math I was routed on the math and science track as a kid. I went to this session. I thought, yeah, I'd like to do that. I entered the program, got my Masters, and through good fortune, the kind of luck that only preparation can create, I landed a job about ten years ago at the University of Maryland. Which brings us back to you. What can you do today to be a star at interviewing and improve your career? How can you get the offer you want from the company you want to work for? How can you move forward in your career? One of the key skills that will help you move forward is knowing how to interview. How to convince the interviewer that you are the best candidate for the job. [MUSIC] Let you in on a secret though, the goal of a hiring manager, not just to hire people who need a job, it's to hire people who believe in the work. 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. This specialization will teach you how to be more successful by showing you how to identify and market your key competencies. Giving you the strategies and tools you need to perform well in any interview. Demonstrating the language elements of English that can help you communicate your value to an employer. Providing you with a road map that you can follow to develop your English speaking skills. Offering you a rich set of opportunities to practice your interviewing skills and get feedback on your performance. This specialization is designed to support English language speakers at levels of high B and above, including native speakers. Strategy lessons are separated from language lessons. So those of you who need the language can get that support. But those of you who don't can still benefit from the strategies we'll share with you. The specialization is organized across four courses. The first course focuses on your preparation. It includes modules on identifying your best opportunities. And strategies for presenting your skills in a convincing manner. It also includes modules for those who need help with their English pronunciation. We give you those lessons early on as part of your preparation, so you can practice and improve going forward. Course 2, Successful Interviewing. Course 3, Advanced Interview Techniques. These two courses focus on successful interviewing and advanced interviewing techniques. You get details on what hiring managers are looking for, and asking specific questions, together with language and strategies for answering those questions. The fourth course focuses on writing resumes and cover letters. You'll learn the real purpose of a resume and how to write resumes that get results. Course 5 is the Capstone, the last course, the final capstone project. You'll put all the skills you learned together to find the work that best uses your strengths and talents. Finally, the most important way you're not alone anymore. This specialization brings together job seekers from all over the world. You'll meet these other seekers in online practice groups. You'll have opportunities to practice your interviewing skills with peers from around the world. You'll give them feedback and they'll give you feedback. And in this process you'll gain new insights into what makes a speaker successful. And you'll gain confidence in your English interviewing skills. [MUSIC] No one ever succeeds alone in this world. This specialization is about helping you 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. So let's get started. [MUSIC]
