Your C.V: The reason you don’t get called for Job Interviews

A man’s labor is not only his capital but his life. When it passes it returns never more. To utilize it, to prevent its wasteful squandering, to enable the poor man to bank it up for use hereafter, this surely is one of the most urgent tasks before civilization.- William Booth

According to International Labour Organization (ILO) Trend, despite the increase in world economy by 3.1% estimate, the number of unemployed people in the active population (ages 15 to 64) which as at 2015 was 197.1million will increase nearly by 2.3 million this year and 1.1 million in 2017. The same report also says that 1.5 billion people are vulnerable employees which is over 46% of total employment and in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa countries such as Nigeria, 70% of workers are in vulnerable employment, as well as having limited access to contributory social protection schemes, these workers suffer from low productivity and low and highly volatile earnings. There are also significant gender gaps in job quality. Women face a 25 to 35 per cent higher risk of being in vulnerable employment than men in certain countries in Northern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States.

Support the Nigerian Gender Equality Bill until every person regardless of gender, ethnicity or race has equal right.

It is then of utmost importance that we understand how to place ourselves in a position of massive advantage, where you and I will be the select few in a haystack. Simply put your Curriculum Vitae is an avenue to prove to yourself and employer that you are worthy of employment and the measure of investment you desire.

Many of us have heard of such advert.

Quick facts

• Many individuals are unemployable.
• For any JOB advert placed there is an average of 200 people applying for the same job.
• It takes an employer 5-30 seconds to read through your C.V./Resume.
• Employers now make use  of computer programs that run analysis on C.V.

Curriculum vitae (C.V.) is a Latin word meaning ‘course of life’. Resume on the other hand is a French word for summary. In UK, commonwealth countries; a C.V. is usually not more than two A4 pages and only contains information particular to the position you applied for. In U.S a C.V. is much longer with all your qualifications and everything you have done so far, while resumes are shorter and for positions applied. It most times depends on the company or organization.

Contents of a C.V.

1. Contact details: name, house address, phone number and email.
2. Profile: in a sentence sell yourself and what your competencies are
3. Career goals: what is your life goal?
4. Educational qualification; M.sc, B.Sc., secondary leaving certificate
5. Interest: what you like, your hobbies
6. Awards and honour
7. Volunteer service: what organization you worked with
8. Key accomplishments: what you did, where you did it and how you did it
9. Core competences: e.g. time management
10. Research work
11. Publication
12. References
13. Qualification and Skills
14. Previous work experience

They can be written in any order that suits you best.

Here are somes tips on how to effectively write a C.V.

• Tailor it to the job you are applying for
• Kiss: keep it short and simple not more than two A4 pages, conciseness of your C.V cannot be overemphasized.
• Your personal statement or profile must be compelling, passionate and must answer the question of who you are.
• Keep your C.V up to date
• Focus on achievement and never rewrite job description.
• Never lie, it could do more harm than good.
• Get someone to proof read.
• Be cautious of your social media profile and presence, sell yourself on social media, platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, WordPress, Instagram are powerful tools to utilize.
• Use reader friendly fonts and font size, possibly Times new roman.
• Mind your language and use of English.
• Select key items you want to highlight.
• Learn to rephrase sentences, rather than write you love surfing the net; reading and research is more appropriate, or rather than writing I love meeting people simply put networking.
• Your activities and programs you helped organise is also part of your work experience.
• Volunteer works are a great push if you ever did any
• Don’t leave gaps, if there were courses you took, volunteer work you did or soft skills you developed, write them out.
• You could ask for professional help, also make the best use of the internet or you can also upload your C.V on websites that offer free appraisals.

I have decided to add a link for the first C.V. I wrote after graduation from the University of Ibadan. Download and read through.

Download my C.V; Tailored for teaching position

I had my C.V uploaded on Jobberman.com for a free appraisal, with the link below you could check out the analysis of my C.V

My C.V. appraisal by Jobberman.com

And before you conclude it is good one, here are some comments professionals made when I had them look at it;

• Skills were not highlighted
• Too religious
• Watch your caps and typos
• When there was IT experience there was no specification to what you did.
• You seem to be self-driven but it does not spell that out

In simple terms of products and sale, you are the product, the employer is the customer, the benefits of the product are your skills, knowledge, qualification, competences and your Resume is your advert, your billoard.- Kumbi Adeoti

I trust this article has been of immense help, so share it on as many platforms, you can also follow this blog or subscribe for our article to be sent to your email, your comments will be much appreciated. You can also follow me on twitter @iamrebelone and on Linkedin Oluwasegun Oladele-Ajose.I wish you the best

 Iam.rebel