My CV, My Everything (Part 1)

A lot of us have had it rough in this aspect of our job search (let's be honest here o, my people...lol). We have had to re-do our CVs times without number, with each change as a result of a colleague's own that we peeped at and admired, or from lessons learned from CV writing articles, classes, seminars etc. Your CV tells a lot about you in your absence and can, to a large extent, get you the desired attention that you need to move to the next stage of the recruitment process.

If you are a fresh graduate intending to start job hunting or If you have sent multiple CVs to employers, without getting any response, then you need to read this carefully and take note. It is very discouraging to send an application for a job that you feel overqualified for and yet receive no response. Often times, the contents of your CV may very well be the reason for this. These content are what will convince the employer to either consider your application or throw your CV in the bin without a second thought. Let me be candid here, I personally, have received CVs that turned me off, and by this I mean, it completely dampened my will to go through them talk more of submitting them. In all cases when I received these CVs (hard copies or soft copies), I had to redo them using any of the CV templates that I had saved on my computer for this purpose. This was a cumbersome task for me because I always had to tailor the CVs to suit: the purpose of the application, experience level of the applicant, kind of CV requested for etc. Gone are those days sha, because right now, no one has the time to do this, especially for those CVs that job seekers give to their “busy professionals” Uncles, colleagues etc. Now you have to do the work for the job you want. So with what you submit, you will get. Presentable CV for the required attention, or an ugly CV for “no response”, or “we were unable to review your CV at this time. So without taking much of your time, I’ll state the fundamentals of writing a “delicious” CV…#wink

The art of writing a "presentable" CV is every job seeker's dream, but we often get it wrong here. Please don't get me wrong, I do not mean you should make your CV "presentable" by stating lies in your CV but by following the fundamental do's and avoiding the Biggest don'ts of CV writing and styling. 

The Fundamentals for CV writing are:

• Format your CV properly

When making you CV, you need to use a font that suits the purpose (be professional). Do not use the "comic sans" font for a CV you intend to submit for a bank job, telecommunications job, teaching job etc. Also, you have to format your content properly, and be consistent with the fonts and formatting throughout. The font in your CV should not be all over the place.

“The key to a presentable CV is consistency in terms of formatting and fonts. Organization is key to an attractive CV”......Melody Mwendwa, a career advisor and professional CV writer at corporate staffing services.

DON'Ts: 

Do not have a mix of calibri, aerial and times new roman for creativity. Choose just one font and stick to it. 

Do not add color or calligraphy to your document. It is not a carnival. It is time to introduce your CV to consistency.

• Use appropriate Email addresses

You remember those exciting email addresses that you created nonchalantly when you were in secondary school or university? They are useless for this purpose.  Employers detest them and do not take you serious when they see these kinds of email addresses in your CV, especially in a case where you are applying for a senior management position. Email addresses like sexyjoy@something.com, diva4real@whatever.com, jaruledadon@whocares.com etc. are a complete no-no. If you are still using these email addresses it is time to grow up, trash them and create new professional email addresses that will depict you as being professional and mature. It takes less than 10minutes to open a new email account, do it and take your CV to the next level. Common professional email formats are Firstname.Surname@anything,com, FirstnameSurname@anything.com etc. E.g. Fabian.Rios@yahoo.com, FabianRios@gmail.com, Fabian­Rios@yahoo.co.uk

• Write in full

Resist the urge to abbreviate or use silly slangs. It is a CV and not a BBM update or a tweet. Avoid common CV mistakes like Addy, D.O.B (date of birth), 

Avoid listing out all the items on your CV, like it is a market list. 

Please Note: The differences between a CV and resume will be listed in the second part of this post.

• Apply for jobs that suit your experience level.

Be sure to apply for jobs that correlate with your experience. If you are an entry level job seeker, DO NOT apply for a managerial job. Be realistic in your applications. Avoid submitting thousands of applications for the jobs that you know you do not have the qualifications for. Employers find this habit annoying, and may end up blacklisting you if your application always turns up this way on their server. You will develop a bad reputation and be branded a joke in the job market. 

Help yourself and help the employers, as applying for the right job, helps you get your CV the desired attention in due time, and if your application was unsuccessful, you get a response on time (except in cases where it is stated that if you are not contacted within a period of time, it means that your application was not successful).

• Photographs

Some applicants make the mistake of attaching their photos to their CVs without being asked to. This practice is not advisable unless the company you are applying for has specifically asked you to attach a photo. Form the habit of following instructions, as some employers sometimes use this as a selection strategy in selecting applications from the multitude that come in.

Stick to these simple tips and maybe your CV will receive more attention and consideration the next time you apply for a job. Please refer to the Sample CV attached, to see the examples of the errors that I mentioned.

• Always proofread your CV

Please, please, please, always take out time to review your CV after every modification is done in it, for grammatical errors (I mean gboshing, banger, bad spelling, errorneous punctuations...lol). Editors like the grammarly editor (www.grammarly.com) are best suited for this purpose. The app checks contextual spellings, grammar, punctuations, sentence structure and writing style, the even suggests corrections. It also helps to tailor your content of your document to suit the purpose for which it was written; Academic, Business, General etc 

See you in the second part of this post, until then, start applying these corrections that I stated here to your CV...#wink

Bad CV Example