THE PERFECT CV (CURRICULUM VITAE) FOR YOUR DREAM JOB

(FOR GRADUATES)

These days, it has always been a great pain in the ass for our fresh graduates to secure a

job immediately after graduating from any Nigerian University whether Federal

University, State University, Polytechnic or College of Education.

Our graduates have suffered greatly seeking for jobs and not even one of the firms will

invite them for an interview not to talk of employing them.

The simple question we should ask ourselves is “Why is it that after applying for several

jobs online and none of the firms have ever invited me for interview”. This question

now brings us to the topic “The Perfect CV (Curriculum Vitae) for your dream job.” In

this article we are going to render the answer to the question above by providing us

with the likely recommended format for our Curriculum Vitae which when any employer

sees, will totally be convinced that you are eligible for the job.

Curriculum Vitae: Curriculum Vitae popularly known by its abbreviation CV is simply

a written summary of all your qualifications and experiences which is the first thing an

employer seeks from any job seeker. In most cases the tendency of the Job seeker

getting the job first depends on if his/her CV(Curriculum Vitae) is considered fit for the

job, apart from qualifications and experiences, a CV also includes your personal

information, your interests, your skills, your achievements and references.

The Two Major Steps Involved In CV Preparation:

1. Firstly, take a sheet of paper and make a list of all your experiences,

qualifications, interests and achievements, publications and Presentations, Skills

and References.

2. Finally, begin to put it down in an organized way i.e. in sections (format shown

below).

Note: Please know that there is no special set format for a CV, what you need is to

make sure it comprises of all the necessary contents required for a standard CV. Use

the format that suits your need or the format required by the company you are

interested in.

All the Steps Involved with Screenshot Examples:

Contact Information:

1. Using Microsoft Word as your word editor, type down your Name, Address;

Phone Number and E-mails at the top of the page and make sure that the font

size of the name is much greater than the rest of the texts.

2. Centralize the Name while your address should be listed in a block format on the

left side of the paper. Put your phone number and email below your address (see

image below).

Note: addition of other things like Sex, Date of Birth and Nationality are optional but its

advantage is that it gives your reviewer an in-depth view of you as a person

Education:

This is where you throw more light on your educational qualifications; the listing of your

education should be in reverse chronological order.

First start with the university you attended and work your way backwards. List the name

of your university, the dates you went there, your major and minor, and your grade

point average (GPA)(GPA is optional, you can leave it if not officially required from the

firm) (see image below).

Experience:

Here you put down your experiences, for any experience make sure you include the title of your position, the name and location of the organization, and finally the dates of employment. Also exactly as you did in “Education”, list all your experiences in reverse chronological order starting with the most recent one.

Note: You must avoid using personal pronouns such as “I” and make sure that verbs

are in the correct tense i.e. using past tense for past experiences and present tense for

current experiences. Also if the list of your work experience is very long, make sure you

only put the ones that is very relevant to the job you are applying (See image below).

Use this same pattern to highlight other types of experiences. Remember that you must

start from your last experience, as you can see from the image above, the first

experience there was my National Youth Service Corp which was the last experience I

had before writing the CV.

Employment (Optional):

This is where you put your employment information; this is if you have once been

employed. Just use the format illustrated below.

Employment

Job Title, Employer, Dates

Responsibilities

Job Title, Employer, Dates

Responsibilities

Skills:

In this section, you list the tangible skills you have developed through your experiences.

The tangible skills to be included are “Language skills, technical skills and other skills you

possess” (see image below).

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS:

Here you will provide a full list of all your published works and presentations which are

authored or co-authored by you. You can also put publications that are still under

review.

Include the title, co-authors names, place of publications or presentations, and dates

similar to a bibliography page. Make sure you provide a complete list of your works (See

image below).

Referees:

This is where you will put three or more names of the people you have previously

worked with. They can be in the category of “Your previous employers, Your University

Professors, Doctors etc.” The Firm you are seeking for job in is likely to contact these

persons you will use as your referees either through email or by calling them asking

them things about you in order to really know if you are eligible to be employed.

So I advise you call those people you want to use as your referee letting them know that

you want to use them as your referee and also ask them to send their current details to

you (Full Name, Place of Work, E-mail Address and Phone Number), this will make them

render a good recommendation to the company/firm whenever they contact them (see

image below).

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To download the full PDF version of article click here

To download the full PDF version of the Curriculum Vitae (CV) click here

To download the full Microsoft Word version of the Curriculum Vitae (CV) click here