26/07/2014
It is that time of the year when our very first of their own kind final year HONOURS DEGREE STUDENTS gather their documents in preparation to respond to the 2015 vacancies as officially advertised by the Ministry of Education.
Among others, a comprehensive Curriculum Vitae is pre-requisite.
Because this will be an obvious competition, we therefore strongly feel the information below is vital to help you construct a competitive CV thereby securing yourself a post.
1. CONTACT DETAILS
First off, you’ll want your full name in big letters right across the top. Under that you’ll put in your living address (remember to keep it up-to-date if moving soon), email address and contact phone number.
Stand out with a personal email address:
You are about to enter a career that obliges you to be official at all time. To make a really great first impression, register your own domain name.
How much better does [email protected] look compared to [email protected]?
note that your nationality and sex/gender are also of essence in this section.
2. EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATION
In this section list your most recent education first (ie. university), finishing off with your GCSEs (or equivalent). Remember to include the title of each school, university or other institution and the years that you attended.
If you are an undergraduate then you can still include your expected grade and share any previous year or grades.
It can also be a good idea to list some key modules that you have taken, especially if they demonstrate your knowledge, skills or interest in a certain job role. After this you should include all of your A-level subjects and grades.
GCSEs should be summarised not listed to save space. For example, “10 GCSEs (4 As, 5 Bs, 1 C) including English and Maths“
the whole idea is to keep your CV short; you surely don't want to hand in an assignment.
3. EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Kick off with your most recent employment, as with the education section above. You should include paid work, voluntary work, internships, placements and shadowing roles.
It is important to state the months and years that you worked at each place.
Under each experience, highlight the key skills, responsibilities and duties which you gained to highlight your suitability for the job you are applying for.
4. MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS (OPTIONAL)
This section is not absolutely necessary, but is strongly recommended! It fleshes you out as a person and can set you apart from the competition.
You could include a range of extra-curricular achievements such as completing a Duke of Edinburgh award, captaining a sports team, winning a Young Enterprise program or even running a website.
Remember to make these achievements relevant to the employer and always demonstrate the key skills you have identified.
5. OTHER SKILLS
You wouldn’t have this in a skills-based CV layout, but otherwise this area gives you an opportunity to expand on the main skills you’ve highlighted to include a few more. Specific skills such as IT, language and having a driving licence, which may not be directly relevant to the job application can be included in this section towards the end.
This is an area which might be called up on in an interview, so don’t make anything up and have relevant examples of applying these skills ready.
6. SELECTIVE INTEREST (OPTIONAL)
Selective because you probably have dozens of personal interests, and to be blunt, the employer won’t care about most of them.
Keep it short and avoid obvious things such as “reading” or “watching TV”. This section is your opportunity to show what you do outside of work and give the employer another insight into character
7. REFERENCES
To tie your CV up you should have a reference section. You can choose to include two contacts – one academic and one a previous employer – or it’s perfectly acceptable to put “Available upon request” which saves space.
If you do put down references with contact details, you should always ask the relevant people or companies for their permission beforehand. This will save you and them any embarrassment if an employer follows up without warning!
PLEASE: keep PLAGIARISM aside for now. this is no time for "according to".
REMEMBER TO KEEP YOUR CV TWO (2) PAGES!
ALL THE BEST!!!!
