John Fahy
22 Loreto Grange,
Vevay Rd.,
Bray, Co. Wicklow.

0857300488
fahyje@tcd.ie

WORK EXPERIENCE

Dates: June ‘05-December ‘07
Employer: O’Brien’s Fine Wines
Main activities and responsibilities: Initially responsible for general day-to-day running of the shop, I was chosen to take a wine course (8 weeks with exam at the end) after which I could further develop my wine knowledge and also play a more significant role alongside the management; helping customers select wine for weddings, parties, corporate events or organising local/corporate wine tastings, especially to promote sales in the run-up to Christmas.

Dates: Summer ‘07
Employer: TEFL International
Main activities and responsibilities: After having completed the course, I was given the opportunity to teach classes of various levels and ages. This required the production of various kinds of lesson plans and their implementation.

Dates: Summer ‘03/’04
Employer: ELC (Euro Languages College, French)
Main activities and responsibilities: As a teacher’s assistant it was my job to ensure both classes and activities ran smoothly so as to promote a good learning atmosphere. This involved supervision, participation and organisation. Outside of classes my job was mainly to ensure the students spoke French. To this end I prompted them and corrected grammar and other mistakes made.

Dates: June ’01-‘03
Employer: Anvil Trading, Bray
Main activities and responsibilities: I worked in the electrical section. It was my job to ensure the shelves were stocked and the customers looked after. Every week I had to fill out an order form to make sure the shop was stocked. This sometimes involved dealing face to face with sales reps and deciding on what was needed from week to week.

EDUCATION

Sept ’04 – June’08
M.A. in Classical Civilisation and French from Trinity College, Dublin
Sept ’98 – June ‘04
St Gerard’s School (Leaving Cert: 500 points)

SKILLS / TRAINING

TEFL International Certificate (teaching English as a foreign language)
This course (in Bordeaux, France) ran over the period of a month. It was 120 hours long and comprised of additional class hours where we would teach French people English (Grammatical, Basic etc.), all of which were based in the Communicative Teaching approach. I achieved a score of 86 in the end of course exam.

WSET Certificate (wine-tasting course over 8 weeks)
I was given the opportunity to take this course by the HR manager of O’Briens as I felt my lack of knowledge of the wine world was holding me back in the company. This was an intermediate course which covered Wine Regions, grapes, varieties, food matches etc and was geared towards producing more knowledgeable sales assistants. I achieved a score of 84 in the end of course exam. I then visited some vineyards in Bordeaux and am now confident that I have a very good appreciation and knowledge of the wine world.

PERSONAL

Languages; Fluent French, beginner Italian, basic Greek and Latin.
Music; Play guitar, piano, drums and mandolin and write scores for films.
Sport; Tennis (won senior championship in school and came runner-up in Leinster schools championship), archery (came 4th in National championships in 2003), rowing and jogging.
Reading; main areas of interest are Ancient Rome, 19th century French history and anthropology.
Travel; Lived in Montreal and L.A. for a short period of time. Spent a lot of time in Paris, Bordeaux and Rome in particular.

REFERENCES; Available on request