HOW TO PREPARE A CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)
Introduction
CV is a way of marketing yourself to a particular employer. So in preparing one, it must be taken as a serious business. In preparing a CV, you should be careful with what you put into it because it is going to represent you to the potential employer. Every item you input must be carefully selected and well presented in an orderly and readable manner. Except the potential specify how it should look, there is no particular way of preparing it.
Types of Curricula Vatae
Hence there are two major ways of preparing and presenting a CV.
- Specified by the Organization
- Not Specified
a. Specified by the Organization: When an organization or a potential employer specify how the CV send to them will be organized, they have helped in reducing the work to be done. Since all that is needed to be done is to fill in your credential into the format presented.
Sample (CV sample adopted from the Punch Wednesday, August 26, 2009)
- Full Name
- Present Post
- Post Applied for
- department
- Place and Date of Birth
- Home Address
- Present Postal Address (Including GSM number and e-mail address)
- nationality at Birth:
- Marital Status
- Number and Ages of Children
- Secondary and Post-Secondary Education, (Including dates and intuitions)
- Academic Qualifications, Including Distinctions with dates
- Academic Qualifications, Including Distinctions with date
- Statement of Experience Including Full Details, of Former and Present Post
- Current research
- List of Publications (Including in what Journals they were Published)
- Other Activities outside Current Employment.
- Name and Address of three referees
- Not Specified: When the CV format is not specified, then a format has to be prepared that can market your potentials. In this case there no limit as to what you put into the CV but you should know that a CV must be tailored to fit a specific job advertised. Before we go further, it will be very important at the juncture to state that there are three major factors that influence a CV format. These three factors are:
- Job Specification
- Qualifications
- Previous Experience
i. Job Specification: Job specification influences the items in a CV in no small way. In the first place it is the job specification that will inform you whether or not to put up your CV/Application. When the job specification favours you, the next thing to do is to tailor you CV in such a way as to make you potential employer to know that you are the best candidate for the job. This you do by itemizing and carefully explaining in a very short sentence your various qualifications, experiences etc. to meet the job specification. Please REMEMBER NOT TO LIE it will not help because you will be asked to present supporting paper and certificates.
ii. Qualification: Qualification also influence the items present on a CV. The Content of a CV of a PHD holder will definitely be different from that of a Master holder, First Degree, HND, OND, Diploma, NCE etc. The reason is simple the PHD holder will definitely present his CV to include all his qualification starting from his Primary School Leaving Certificate, all other side certificate arising from professional exams and all other certificates up to his present state of education. All these are going to be inputted into his/her CV.
iii. Previous Working Experience: The content of a CV of fresh graduate will be different from that of somebody who has work in different establishment for more than ten (10) years. Even working in a large established for a long time would have taken that person round a lot of departments in within that organization as a result of this such person’s CV will have more content in his CV.
Haven explain these, it should be noted that a good item you add to your CV certainly could make a different so don’t leave out any of the good things.
I have already explained that there are no specific way of preparing and presenting a CV more especially when the organization or potential employer did not specifically state the format. To give an idea of what a CV should look like, I will present three samples in the order of Normal
CURRICULUM VITAE
NAME: …………………
SEX: …………………
DATE OF BIRTH: …………………
MARITAL STATUS: …………………
CONTACT ADDRESS: …………………
TELEPHONE: …………………
E-MAIL: …………………
STATE OF ORIGIN
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA: …………………
INSTITUTIONS ATTENDED WITH DATES
List as many as you have
QUALIFICATION ATTAINED WITH DATES
List as many as you have and it should
Tally with institutions attended
PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE WITH DATES
Don’t Leave any of your relevant previous experience
behind it is very important
EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITES
HOBBIES:
Reading, listening to music, playing; football, chess and watching films.
VALUE OFFER
A team worker with individual ingenuity aimed at improving working relation with colleagues and devoted to acquisition of knowledge.
REFEREES:
Which is normally three and it should follow the format below.Be sure replace the items below with the appropriate items . e.g the name should be replaced by the name of the referee etc
Names
Post held
Place of work
Phone number
Detailed
CAREER AIMS & OBJECTIVES
May look like this Please not compulsorily this
· To develop managerial skill necessary to take key management decisions which are very vital in achieving overall organisational objective.
· To attain a high level of professionalism in my career and to acquire necessary IT knowledge in our fast developing world/ global village.
PROFILE
May also look like this Please not compulsorily this
· Good Financial analytical skills
· Management staff and key financial control Personnel
· Years of experience as Audit Team Leader on various jobs
· Proven experience as an external auditor
· Years of experience on various sector audit (manufacturing, small and medium scale biz., financial institutions e.t.c)
· Success records in installation and marketing of special accounting packages.
· Strong, clear and written analytical skills
· Demonstrated ability to think critically, evaluate solutions and make independent decisions (where necessary)
· Working experience with professionals from other cultures and nationalities
· High sense of professionalism
· Computer literate – Microsoft Office
· Ability to meet deadlines
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
In this place you list the various places you have work starting from the last place or were you are about to exit from to the first place you have ever worked (NYSC). Make sure you list every department you work in and explain in detail the kind of work you do.
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Make sure you start with the last institution you attended and qualifications obtained with dates to the very first institution you attended (Primary School) with dates.
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
In this area you have to list all your professional qualification obtained with dates (AICAN, NIM, TRC etc)
PERSONAL DATA
Date of birth
Sex
Marital status
Nationality
Address
Phone Number
