What is curriculum vitae?
A curriculum vitae (CV) is a document summarising what you offer to a potential employer in terms of academic and professional, technical and soft skills, experience, and a good record of personal achievements.
Lay out of CV
There are no universally accepted formats you can adopt to prepare a CV. There are however many formats you can choose from. It would be best if you designed your CV in a way that can easily be read. Therefore, use a clean, professional design with consistent fonts, spacing, and headings.
What are the employers looking for in your CV?
A good CV helps you get potential employers or their agents to invite you for an interview to assess your capability and suitability to join their organizations. The CV is only helpful if it contains the skills, abilities, experience, and qualifications that the potential employers seek. The CV should be well-written, formatted, and free of grammatical errors to encourage the potential employer to read on. It should contain at the least the following;
- Contact details
- Personal statement or profile
- Key Qualifications
- Education and academic qualification
- Professional qualification and membership
- Work experience demonstrating leadership and problem-solving
- Special achievements and awards
- Membership of boards
- Membership of Clubs
- Interests
- Community service
- Languages
- References from those people who know your experience, skills, abilities, and achievements.
Things you should avoid
To enhance your chances of your CV being selected for an interview avoid the following;
- Grammatical errors;
- Lack of clarity;
- Outdated CV;
- Incomplete CV;
- Unexplained gaps in the CV;
- Incorrect contact information;
- Too short/long CV;
- Badly written and formatted;
- Exaggerations and lies;
- Using an unprofessional email address;
- Unexplained rapid changes in jobs;
- Including personal information;
- Lack of tailor-made CV and
- Including your photographs when not asked.
Parts of the CV
Contact details
Your details enable the potential employer to contact you if your CV is shortlisted. Your details should include the following;
A must
- Full Name and Professional title;
- Email address;
- Phone number;
- Social media profile and
- Residential address.
Optional
- Website
Unless specifically called for in the job advert avoid including in your CV the following in detail as they form private information and are not relevant to the position you are applying for;
- Age;
- Date of birth;
- Marital status;
- Nationality;
- Gender;
- Number of children and
- Religion.
Personal statement or profile
This is a personal summary or executive summary about yourself in a paragraph. It highlights your values, skills, experience, and key qualifications. “
Key Qualifications
Apart from academic and professional qualifications the potential employer is looking for the key qualifications or soft skills that may add value to the organization;
- Communication skills;
- Personal network;
- Interpersonal Skills;
- Innovating ability;
- Creativity;
- Customer service skills;
- Leadership ability and
- Diplomacy.
Education, academic, and professional qualification
Prioritize qualifications that are relevant to the job and you may exclude qualifications that are not relevant.
Professional membership
Prioritize memberships that are relevant to the job.
Membership of boards and Clubs
Highlight memberships that are relevant and will enhance your capacity to succeed in the job. Your CV should demonstrate active involvement in corporate, social, and community organizations that showcase a strong commitment to growth and collaboration.
Work experience
Highlight work experience demonstrating your leadership, problem-solving, and other key qualifications. In some jobs, you have to demonstrate that you have experience in dealing with global or cross-cultural issues and diverse teams.
Special achievements and awards
Highlight only those awards and achievements that demonstrate your ability to succeed in areas in the job applied for. The achievement may include employee of the year, or best innovator among others.
Interests and Community engagements
Only include interests and community engagement that demonstrate your skills or experiences that are transferable to the position.
Languages
Include only those that you have a reasonable level of proficiency and are relevant to the job you are applying for. You have also to describe your level of proficiency in each language.
Professional development
Include relevant training, workshops, and courses attended that contribute to your qualifications and enhance your capacity.
Publications and Presentations
Include sector articles, research papers, or presentations that you have delivered at conferences or workshops that are relevant to the job.
References
Include only references that when contacted by the potential employer will vouch for your values, skills, qualifications, and experience. Avoid including people who are not of good character and those closely connected to you as references.
Signing the CV
Sign and date your CV as evidence that you have carefully prepared your job application and that the content of the job application document is up to date.
