What is a Curriculum Vitae?

What is a Curriculum Vitae?

Your C.V. or ‘curriculum vitae’ literally means, the course of your life.
It provides potential employers with a first impression of you and gives you the opportunity to grab their attention and stand out from the crowd. Your CV is your very own Personal Sales & Marketing document which helps you to showcase your accomplishments to the employer so that they can decide if you have the correct skills and experience for the role. It must, therefore, be good enough to get you invited to an interview.

It should be short and factual, emphasising what you can offer an employer and should only contain valid information.

The main areas of information are as follows:

· Personal and Contact details eg. your name, address, phone numbers and email address
· Professional Profile
· Personal/Career Objective
· Relevant skills
· Educational history, eg. from secondary school onwards
· Work experience, eg. your employer, job title, job duties and achievements
· Professional Memberships
· Achievements
· Interests & Hobbies
· List of referees (at least 2) – References may also be supplied on request

It is very important that your CV has a clear lay-out and format so that it makes it easy for the employer to find the desired information easily and quickly. Don't include too much information as this will become tedious for the employer and may result in the important parts of your CV never being read.

You should keep an up-to-date C.V. at hand as all potential employers will need some information about you and it is by far the most effective way of giving them that information.

Always, always, always, check your CV before you forward it to the employer ensuring that there are no errors. A CV with errors will indicate lack of attention to detail and lack of interest and your CV goes nowhere but in the bin!!