English Career Communications

The Resume Gets Six Seconds.

Make every one of them count.

Hiring is a communication problem before it is a talent problem. In this course you build the work that gets you into the room: a resume a machine can read and a human remembers, a cover letter that solves a problem, a 자기소개서 (jagisogeseo) that carries your story, and an interview you walk into prepared. You leave with an application you can actually send.

Career Communications · A Portfolio Based Course

See the Schedule ↓ Access Workbook →

The Arc: On Paper, In the Room, At the Table

The course runs in the same order as the workbook. First you build the documents on paper, then you say them out loud in the room, then you persuade at the table. The reference chapters you read on your own, when you need them.

Part One · On Paper · Chapters 00 to 05

On Paper

Getting past the filter, then getting read.

Mapping your career path, the resume, the cover letter, the systems between your documents and a human reader, and workplace email. You draft in Weeks 3 and 4, revise through Weeks 5 to 7, and submit in Week 8.

Part Two · In the Room · Chapters 06 to 09

In the Room

Four weeks of interview training.

The five interview formats and the prep that precedes them, four key stories built with STAR, the hard questions and the final statement, then interview day and the self debrief. It ends with the Formal Interview in Week 10.

Part Three · At the Table · Chapters 10 to 14

At the Table

How persuasion actually works.

The rhetorical triangle and Cialdini at work, the elevator pitch, rhetorical strategies, business proposals, and the final persuasive presentation.

Reference · A, B, C, G, S

Read On Your Own

Outside class, when you need it. No deck.

AI and the modern job search, conquering the Korean job market, and the offer and your first ninety days. Plus a glossary and every numbered statistic traced to its study.

Assessments & Deliverables

Four graded assignments plus attendance and participation, totalling 100%. Each one is built from the work you do in class, not bolted on at the end. The brief and the rubric for every piece live in the handouts.

Resume & Cover Letter
20%
  • An English resume at 10% and a cover letter at 10%
  • Two to three pages
  • Content 40%, Structure 30%, Persuasive Language 20%, Mechanics 10%
  • Final versions due Week 8, after three weeks of revision
See the handout →
Formal Business Interview
25%
  • A fifteen minute formal English business interview
  • Q and A Skills 40%, Body Language 30%, Content 20%, Preparation 10%
  • Formats, stories, and hard questions practised in Weeks 7 to 9
  • Held live in Week 10
See the handout →
Elevator & Sales Pitches
10%
  • A one to two minute video pitch
  • Content 50%: problem, solution, details
  • Delivery 50%: professional, effective, logical, persuasive
  • Elevator pitch due Week 12
See the handout →
Final Persuasive Presentation
25% +5%
  • Five minutes plus Q and A, on a topic from your major or industry
  • Visual aids required: PPT or Prezi
  • Delivery 30%, Content 25%, Structure 20%, Visuals 10%, Q and A 10%
  • Classmates evaluate you too, +5% · Week 15
See the handout →
The remaining 20% is earned in the room: Attendance 10% and Participation and Homework 10%, filled in by taking part in English every week. You must attend at least two thirds of the classes to pass.

The Tools You Will Think With

An application is not luck. It is a set of decisions made for the reader, and you can defend every one of them. These are the tests and frameworks the workbook puts to work on your own material, chapter after chapter.

ToolThe question it forces you to answer
The ATS and the Six Second ScanA machine reads before any human does. Will your documents get through, and then get read?
The Persuasive TriangleEthos, pathos, logos. Which one is your application actually leaning on?
The STAR MethodSituation, Task, Action, Result. Why do interviewers remember stories and forget adjectives?
Your Four Key StoriesYou cannot invent a new answer for every question. Which four stories carry most of them?
The Grenade QuestionsGreatest weakness, the gap in your CV, why you left. How do you answer without getting defensive?
Cialdini’s PrinciplesReciprocity, social proof, scarcity, authority. Why people are actually persuaded.
SWOT and the Mind MapStrengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. What do you need to know before you build the argument?
The Elevator PitchSixty seconds. Problem, solution, details. What goes in, and what gets cut?

What You Will Walk Out With

Not notes you file away. An application you can send the week the course ends, plus the reasoning to defend every part of it.

An English Resume That Beats the Screen
A Cover Letter That Persuades
A LinkedIn Profile Recruiters Find
An Interview You Can Hold for Fifteen Minutes
An Elevator Pitch, on Video
A SWOT Analysis You Can Defend
A Persuasive Presentation, Delivered Live

"Hiring is a communication problem before it is a talent problem. The candidates who get read are the ones who wrote for the reader."

Matthew Clement

How You Are Graded

Weights follow the syllabus exactly and total 100%. The final presentation carries an additional five percent peer evaluation component.

ComponentWeightDistribution
Attendance10%
Participation · Homework10%
Resume · Cover Letter · Week 820%
Formal Interview · Week 1025%
Elevator · Sales Pitches · Week 1210%
Persuasive Presentation · Week 1525%
Late work loses ten percent per day and receives a zero after five days. Assignments more than five days late are not accepted.

The Schedule

Week by week, the way the syllabus runs it, with each week tied to its workbook chapter. The schedule may shift for class progress or university events, and any change is announced in advance.

Assessments ↑Handouts →Open the workbook →
Part One · On Paper, Weeks 1 to 6 · Chapters 00 to 05
1Week 1 · CH 00

Course Introduction

How the course runs, how you are assessed, and the first conversation about your career goals.

2Week 2 · CH 01

Discovering Your Career Path

Inventory what you have, what you value, and where the two point.

3Week 3 · CH 02

Crafting Winning Resumes

Content, format, and the mistakes that get a resume screened out.

4Week 4 · CH 03

Cover Letters That Stand Out

Writing the case for you in the space of half a page.

5Week 5 · CH 04

Found, Screened, and Shortlisted

The systems between your documents and a human reader. ATS, search, and the shortlist. From here your resume and cover letter enter a three week revision window.

6Week 6 · CH 05

Effective Email Communication

The anatomy of a workplace email that gets read and gets answered. Resume and cover letter revision continues alongside.

Part Two · In the Room, Weeks 7 to 10 · Chapters 06 to 09
7Week 7 · CH 06

Interview Formats and Preparation

The five formats and the prep that precedes them. Last week to revise your resume and cover letter.

8Week 8 · CH 07

Telling Your Best Stories

STAR, your four key stories, behavioral versus hypothetical. Assignment 1 due: Resume and Cover Letter, 20%.

9Week 9 · CH 08

Hard Questions and Strong Finishes

Grenades, brain teasers, your questions, and the final statement.

10Week 10 · CH 09

Interview Day and After

Group formats, follow up, and the self debrief. Assignment 2: Formal Business Interview, held live, 25%.

Part Three · At the Table, Weeks 11 to 15 · Chapters 10 to 14
11Week 11 · CH 10

The Art of Persuasion in Business

The rhetorical triangle and Cialdini at work, plus the structure of delivery. A double chapter week.

12Week 12 · CH 11

Delivering Impactful Presentations

Problem, solution, and details, in sixty seconds. Assignment 3 due: Elevator Pitch video, 10%.

13Week 13 · CH 12

Rhetorical Strategies for Success

The devices that make an argument memorable.

14Week 14 · CH 13

Winning Business Proposals

Research, structure, and handling the budget conversation.

15Week 15 · CH 14

Persuasive Business Presentations

Audience, slides, story, and the call to action. Final Persuasive Presentation, 25% plus 5% peer evaluation.

Instructor

Matthew Clement
Matthew Clement
Hanyang University CEEC · Seoul

Matthew Clement teaches Career Communications alongside Personal Branding and Technology & AI in Seoul. The course is built on the textbook Career Communications and years of coaching Korean graduates into global careers, and it runs on a simple idea: the candidates who get read are the ones who wrote for the reader. The class works on your own real application material, week after week, and ends with an application you can actually send and an interview you can walk into prepared.