As the saying goes, every journey of a 1000 mile starts with a step and Rome wasn’t built in a day. The Sapphires Development Initiative with the vision of causing a fundamental evolution organized a workshop on CV writing as a step in investing value and excellence. This is in line with the vision to create a fundamental evolution where young people are groomed to attain excellence through harnessed potentials.
The workshop which was a zoom meeting held on the 7th of October, 2021 by 5p.m. The meeting hosted over 100 active participants and was facilitated by our esteemed executive director, Mr. Binuyo Olutomiwa.
A Curriculum Vitae is the first-hand information you give to a probable donor or employer. In a fast-paced and technology advanced world, CVs are usually requested for alot of application processes. These processes include but are not limited to scholarships, bursaries, graduate and post graduate programs, grants and jobs. Hence, it is of utmost importance that one puts his/her best foot forward in order to create a remarkable impression amongst the many other competitors. In Nigeria for instance, the rate of unemployment reads this: 33.3% unemployment, 42.5% youth unemployment and 22.8% under-employment according to the National Bureau of Statistics (2020). This spells how high the competition is for any vacant position not including the fact that sometimes those who put out these vacancies already have some family or friend they want to “help”; thus, leaving out little vacancies to be “fought” for.
TSDI believing that everyone has great potential to land that scholarship or job or grant decided to hold this workshop and sharpen people’s chances both home and abroad. Below are some excerpts from the insightful 1hour 30 minutes event.
- A CV is not entirely different from a resume. While the first is more detailed and could be over 2 pages, the latter is shorter and restricted to just a page of the candidate’s information.
- CVs should be tailored to a specific purpose, audience, position and not generic.
- There really is no need to be ambiguous. Make a point in your cv and make it clearly including the statistics i.e number of impact.
- We have 3 CV formats: The functional, The Direct Competency and The Chronological. Mr Binuyo excellently explaining that the first has to do with accomplishment, work history and education, in that order. The second however, starts with the skill possessed and built overtime as a result of work experience, then accomplishment and lastly education. He then defined the chronological format as summary first, work history next, organisation following and education. Find out what works for your potential employer/ hiring manager and stick with it.
- The appropriate writing format in a cv is ACTION VERB+OBJECT+CONTEXT+RESULT PRODUCED
- Your work history/ educational history should be drafted in the reversed chronological order i.e start with the most recent experiences.
In addition to these, Mr. Binuyo suggested using the europass cv template except when requested otherwise by your potential employer. The europass cv is an acceptable format worldwide. He further showed the participants how to maximize the template as a short video from the europass website was played for all to see.
TSDI contributing it’s quota didn’t just stop at giving tips for writing an excellent cv but beyond tips, decided to give assistance and support by reviewing critically and honestly the CVs of participants who submit on or before October 09, 2021 by 6p.m.
In our facilitator and E.D’s words, “if you don’t blow your trumpet, nobody will blow it for you”. This went hand in hand with his closing address of believe in yourself and don’t look down on yourself. He also advised to apply for that fellowship or group or volunteering organization. It helps with the standard packaging of your CV. No talent is useless or unnecessary. With these empowering words he ended the event and answered the questions of participants after which a poll was taken. Participants were told to send their cv for review and questions to tsdicvworkshop@gmail.com
Conclusively, participants expressed 100% satisfaction and 100% insight with the workshop. This goes to show that the over 100 participants learnt a lot about writing an excellent CV.
Truly, everyone has great potentials to be harnessed and at TSDI we are dedicated to maximizing and harnessing these great potentials for the betterment of all societies.
Thank you so much, Mr Binuyo Tomiwa for the wonderful session. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this. It was a fabulous experience