The Session on Writing Your Curriculum Vitae was attended by up to 25 participants, it focused on What a CV is, Who reads it, Creating a ‘CV dumping Ground’ for yourself, What do do before applying for a Job, the Format, Structure and Content of a CV.
A Curriculum Vitae called CV or Resume is a document that one uses to convey work related information about his/herself. It is used to apply for a job. It is a marketing tool and the aim of it , together with the other components of an application is to win an interview with the prospective employer.
The CV is important when applying for further education, international conference, fellowship, workshop and grants opportunities that require such details regarding one’s background. It is the first Impression: At least, Before or After, and /or Complementary to your Cover letter or application.
There are several people who could read one’s CV when it is submitted. These include the CEO, President, Director, Technical Staff in the domain of interest, Human Resource Manager, Administrative Officials under assignment to study CVs for selection or Hiring Managers who are contracted to pre-select for companies, from a stockpile. The key thing to remember about whoever is looking at your CV is that “THEY ARE BUSY PEOPLE”. I know this first hand as I have gone through more than 450 applications/CVs in my 7 year career as at the time of writing this article.
The best place to start a CV is from your ‘CV dumping ground’. This sounds harsh but there is not better word for me to describe the place where you keep everything as you grow and have different experiences. Make sure you have a paper, book, laptop, desktop or somewhere to keep every meaningful involvement from volunteering to jobs to experiences that speak to your skills and abilities as well as work experience. After you get your standard CV, the one in which you have everything, you can then tailor a CV for each opportunity you encounter.
When you find a job that matters to you, the first thing is to cast out any fears, pride, complexes etc, and do research about the opportunity and the organization or company from where the opportunity comes. Research the mission, vision, and other details of the organization. Before going to drop your CV, (Not having yet been called to an interview), be confident. Do research on the organization’s need, rational and expectations in this revolution.
As far as format of your CV is concerned, use Ariel, Tahoma or a simple font. Also use a simple color, especially, black text, background white). No Photos or Images (Greatest need – Skill convince to those reading: Not Photos unless modeling etc.). Bold the Topics and make in blocks and maintain appropriate spacing (Words/paragraphs) •Use Existing Templates
As for the Structure:Consider the following:
•Contact Details: Don’t hide these details. Everyone wants to see this clearly. Put it at the top of the page. Add Location, Telephone and Email Address. Date of Birth, church, marital status, detail address are not as important. The most important things in your CV gear towards your skills set and what you really have to offer. So, make sure you use a professional email: Not some “angellight@gmail.com”. Use a responsible email address for yourself.
•Personal Profile: This second aspect of your CV is like your head. When you stand in front of a Mirror, yes, you see your whole body but you see your head. It is from your head that you are recognized. Facial recognition is on the head. So, this is introductory for you. It contains your purpose. Your highest vision in relation to the role you are applying for. It is the highest point of your CV that should attracts or gets attention and gets the reader to decide if they want to dedicate more time to your CV or not. In a concise, succinct summary, it should contain your key “stand out Achievements /Core Skills; In/Out of school that can get attention. Your Education: Schools you’ve been to, Grades you’ve got or Certs, that are clearly going to bring attention to you from the employer. It’s like a peak place. Use it. So let it show who you are from an Experience point of strength too. in summary, Your personal profile should reflect your education, type of results relevant and your life aspiration/objectives in line with the role. Highlight any soft/hard skills or achievement that clearly shows you to be what they probably need in that role. This is why your research is also important.
The next section is your Achievements /Core Skills. This is a bullet point place where you put your core hard and soft skills. These are tangible and intangible skills respectively. Hard skills such as professional skills e.g Medicine, Law, Research, etc versus soft skills such as team work, leadership, ability to work under pressure, etc. Don’t just put these, know you will prove them further down in your CV when talking of your experience. This is called coherency. So, keep words in three to display these skills well. E.G business Administration, Customer Management. This section is a great tool in your hands, to make the reader not to skip over your CV. Bring in role specific skills. That is, the skills that relate and are important for the role that you are applying for. This also includes the role specific qualifications, language skills, IT Skills (Don’t just write “IT skills”- be specific, and role specific). This is an interesting section and you should meditate on it well before allowing or removing skills sets from there. Remember, keep the bullet point and not sentences. Words of two or three!!!
WORK EXPERIENCE: The Next Section is Your work experience. Put this work experience in reverse chronological order. Less details in order roles and more details in recent roles. An employer wants to know how best you are especially in relation to the most recent achievements or endeavors. Add Voluntary roles. School placements, for example, as a student, you might have done internships at very key places that do great work. You should be able to reflect it here. One key thing here is that you should use the right tenses. In roles that you still occupy versus roles that are in the past. Also, put the dates of employment, name of employer, role title, and introductory line that shows what the role was all about(provides context for the reader) and then lastly, add the responsibilities using the right tenses. This is the place where you show how you got the wonderful skills you have indicated in bullet point above. You don’t go about explaining the skills here: You reflect the great skills here by showing your responsibilities you have/had, mixed with achievements that show how you impacted the employer positively, e.g improved targets, increased costumers from yyy to zzzz, started yyyy, etc. This reflects how important you are by reflecting how useful and industrious, conscienceless and focused and achieving you were. It increases your chances of getting employed. Don’t miss putting numbers when mentioning your roles.
Education: Most people feel that their CV is about their education. NOPE!! As already mentioned, it is about conveying relevant information about what you can do. Your work and abilities so that you get an interview appointment and, boom! get your ob (If you are qualified). You MUST show that you are qualified and mean it. Showing is not the same as begging. So, when it comes to your educational background, as important as this is, it is there to provide information about the schools you’ve attended, subjects you studied, maybe , the grades you achieved (If you are happy and proud to put them there; modules and projects and even extra Curricular Activities. If you are a candidate with so much education, summarize it properly and not write two pages only of education. Convey as much as is relevant for the job, from your background with respect to education.
•Hobbies/Interests: This is where you put the icing on the well prepared cake. Here, don’t bother. I will share a secret of this section with you that most people don’t know. This is the secret….this section communicates certain skills louder than people perceive. This section can shout about your dedication, and team work, character and priorities more than many people realize. So, select well targeted hobbies that show what drives you. That show what meaningful yet, enjoyably things you spend your free time on. Your sports pursuits are a great hobby to put here. They greatly show dedication. Sports cannot be done without team spirit. If you were even awarded the best in your sports domain, think about putting it there. It’s not ust about sports, or that you are bragging, it’s about the fact that you have qualities that are not useful only in sports. So, my one word is, Target impressive relevant hobbies that can show that you are driven and someone who stands out. If you are applying for a communications position for example, and you love writing, and you have a blog, or an active social media (properly active), consider showing these aspects as proofs of hobby but you know what, they are also proof of how driven and productive you are.
What else do you want me to say? That you should sign up and donate to RADA once you get your job? No. Go and do your best in identifying an opportunity you want to apply for. Take your time and meditate on this article, approach your CV and then, apply. You can reach out to us using the contact section of the website, and then, we can also support your application process.
This session was the first under education and we will be doing more and writing more articles that can help youths to thrive and become of more value to our society. The Session Q&A was energized by answers to intriguing questions including on how to include information for persons with disabilities. Inputs was jealously obtained from an expert in disabilities who also attended the sessions and in the end, congratulated the team for organizing the session. Mr. Benuh Ezekiel was gracious as he provided the later inputs and closing remarks.
Thank you for reading. Please watch the Session Video: Here:
