A curriculum vitae (CV) is a written overview of a person's experience and other qualifications. A CV is also called a résumé. A CV does not usually have to follow a strict layout or format, but in order to attract an employer's attention and get invited for an interview, your CV aside having good qualifications and skills stated on it, should contain only relevant information and laid out beautifully on A4 sized plain white paper.

These three (3) tips give an insight into a standard CV.

Tip 1: Make it simple
Avoid unnecessary grammar, too much formatting and inclusion of unnecessary information such as the colour of your eyes, your best food. Such information are only necessary if you are going for a beauty contest or similar events, in which case you would be given a personal history form to fill.

Tip 2: Display more of your skills than your work experience
This is relevant mostly to jobhoppers. Instead of making a list of all your work experiences, you may display two or three of your experiences that are similar to the post you are applying for on the particular CV you are to send to the employer. You may then convert the duties performed at your other jobs (the jobs not displayed on the particular CV) to skills and display them under the skills section of your CV.

The essence of doing this includes but not limited to: not coming across the employer as a job hopper. Some employers view job hopping as a negative career attitude and this may truncate your chance of getting interviewed if the employer in that organisation falls into this category; having a short CV that is filled with information relevant to the job you are applying for, thereby making the employer go through the length of your CV if they like what they see; displaying more skills than work experience on your CV presents you as a versatile individual.

Tip 3: Use a simple layout
I have seen CVs displayed like maps or even worse. A badly designed CV makes it difficult for the employer to go through your CV and this may cause your CV being thrown in the thrash even though the content is rich.
In addition, it is important to go through your CV from time to time; this would assist you in identifying any of your skill areas you may need to improve on.

www.excellaid.com.ng/2014/01/three-tips-for-attractive-cv.htmlen.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curriculum_vitae
www.careerealism.com/job-hopper-3-reasons-stick

Go to www.excellaid.com.ng/2015/03/layout-and-content-of-standard-cv.html for a sample CV.