I can help review your CV FREE (my little gift back to society).

For confidentiality purposes, I suggest you exclude your address and Bio data when sending your CV to me. When I return it to you, you can simply input it.

Deal?

Send your current CV to the email address at the end of this message and also include the type of job or industry you look to work in.

Oh and a little about me: I'm Nigerian, schooled in the UK and now back working in Nigeria working as an Internal Auditor. I've been looking for my little way to give back to society.

What led to my idea to review your CV? Yesterday I was at work and decided to look through my email sent box. I noticed my first ever CV and it made me laugh so hard.

It was a very horrible CV. Luckily at my university, I had access to a career advisor. I had never worked before and had no idea what I should put on my CV. She reviewed my CV and from a one page document that in her opinion 'told employers that I lacked skills and shouldn't be employed', she was able to give me very good pointers and I had a lovely 2 page CV.

I eventually got a job and worked for a few years in the UK before returning to Nigeria.

Your CV is a picture of your career; it sells more when it is beautiful.

I have helped several friends with their CVs and from what I have come to notice, there are lots of people out there that need help. The typist at the business centres usually copy and paste whatever they like which may not accurately reflect all your skills.

So, lets get started,

Send your current CV to info@thekrine.com and also include the type of job or industry you look to work in.


UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please, before sending in your CV use the links below as they have pictures of CVs I have reviewed for users of this forum .
You may actually find out that you really don't need to send yours in after visiting the links because I also explain changes I've made and there are also notes to the reviews.

If you don't use the link I'll know and simply reply you referring you back to the link. The links are;

Writing a CV When You have Zero Work Experience - http://www.thekrine.com/writing-a-cv-when-you-have-zero-work-experience/

Illustration: Creating a More Effective CV (Part 1)- http://www.thekrine.com/illustration-creating-a-more-effective-cv-part-1/

Illustration: Creating a More Effective CV (Part 2)- http://www.thekrine.com/illustration-creating-a-more-effective-cv-part-2/

Illustration: Creating a More Effective CV (Part 3)- http://www.thekrine.com/illustration-creating-a-more-effective-cv-part-3/


Regards


It is FREE. Don't forget to tell a friend and don't forget to help a friend.

Send your current CV to info@thekrine.com

I promised to post notes on some points I drew from the CVs I've reviewed so far. I will post my take on the following drawn from my opinion on some of the CVs I've looked at:

1. Career Objective
2. State of Origin, LGA, Religion
3. Clarity of CV
4. NYSC and Industrial Training work experience
5. Professional Qualification and what to include under Education and Qualifications


1.   CAREER OBJECTIVE

Do you really need one? Most of the ‘career objective’ I came across while reviewing the last set of CVs were really NOT Career Objectives.
Infact, they bent towards the side of Personal Statements.

A Career Objective is NOT [/b]the same a Personal Statement.

I am not a fan of the Career Objective section. Removed mine from my CV ages ago.

However, I noticed that most people prefer having the Career Objective section on their CV so I decided to do a quick research on it.

Before going into the Career Objective bit let’s get the Personal Statement issue out of the way.

[b]A personal statement is simply an About Me. It tells the employer who you are and what you can do for them.



Now back to Career Objective

Here are some hints on Career Objective I found from about 5 websites put together. (please google career objective if you need further information. There are loads of free samples out there)

A career objective, as it pertains to your curriculum vitae, is a statement of purpose which targets a specific job within a particular industry. It should[b] provide clues as to why the candidate might be suitable to work in his/her target industry.[/b]

So for example:
'To apply my five years' experience in personal training, and master's degree in sports psychology, to a role as physical education instructor.

From this example we can note the following components of a Career Objective:
Target industry/specific job – Physical Education/instructor
Why is this candidate suitable for this job? – Has five years experience in personal training and a master’s degree in sports psychology.

Career Objective functions to offer a rationale for the submission of your CV to the recipient, by defining the job you want to acquire, and highlighting the qualities that make you ideal to attain it.

So, in simple terms a Career Objective states:
- The job being applied for (eg instructor)
- The industry (eg education)
- Qualities that support your goal (eg qualifications, previous work experience etc)


Hints and Tips for Compelling Objectives

-Stay short and sweet. About two lines is all you need.

  - Be specific, but not exclusionist. Stating that you want to work as a computer programmer is fine; stating that you want to work as a computer programmer specialising in relational databases coded in XML is restrictive in the extreme, and may prevent you being considered for any other computer programming position.

- Don't use the 'I' word when the 'My' word will do. 'I want a job in retail sales' sounds egotistic and confrontational; 'To use my accounting and customer care skills in a role as retail sales manager' is more restrained, but no less persuasive.

- Ensure that what you say in your objective is born out by the content of your CV, and vice-versa.

More examples of career objectives:

For an entry level accounting position:
•   A position in the accounting field where excellent analytical and technical skills can help to improve the company's profitability.

If you have two years experience:
•  A Data Entry position where skills in spreadsheet development and troubleshooting can improve efficiency and enhance profitability.

If you are changing areas of employment:
•   A position as Assistant Engineer where construction knowledge, high mechanical aptitude and commitment to safety can contribute to profitable operation.

If you are a creative worker:
•   A Graphic Design position where advanced graphic and creative skills will produce a quality product for agency customers.


Career Objectives are quite limiting and may have to be edited each time you need to send you CV for a job (to adapt to the position you are applying for).


2.   STATE OF ORIGIN, LGA, HOME TOWN, RELIGION etc
I am one person that likes to get a job based on my skill. In fact I once had an argument with my mum for editing my CV, removing my home address and putting her office address there as C/O Her name, Manager etc etc. I just felt the CV screamed (this is my daughter and I am the Manager of xyz). I was reminded that this is Nigeria so I shut my mouth and left the rights of editing my CV to her and her ways.

However, I was outraged that she included my LGA, State of Origin and even Hometown and Date of Birth on my CV.
What I’m trying to say here is simply….your skill can take you to great heights; much greater heights than you LGA or state of origin or your reference. YES THE REFERENCE ISSUE - I have noticed that people with the most horrible CVs tend to use big names as their referees. STOP IT!

Work on your CV, show off your skills properly. Be careful about revealing things that do not add to your skills. Some recruiters are really picky. Some are tribalistics, they zone employment. Some are picky about religion etc.
Some people are NEVER invited for interview. Their CV always get chopped off. I advise you work on your skills. You may have skills but your CV may have failed to show them. When sending out your CV, your first aim is to get called for an interview.

I only include  my state of origin, LGA etc just when a recruiter specifically requests. The personal data on my CV is simply:
Suname
Firstname
Mobile (GSM)
Email
Date of Birth (which I only started including since applying for jobs in Nigeria)
Nationality (which I only started including since applying for jobs in Nigeria)

Some information should be provided only on request (in my opinion)

When I sent my CV to my career advisor back at university, this white British woman quickly circled my nationality. She told me what I wanted was a job and my CV should tell my recruiters to employ me. She said by including my nationality, an employer was immediately aware I was not British and will wonder if I had the rights to work. Your skills tell people to employ you. Things like State of Origin, Religion really do not have anything to do with your employable skills.

Now my own experience with these
Months after my career advisor looked at my CV, I was applying for another job. I was in my second year of university. I got a call for an interview BUT the recruiter immediately sent me an email.
She understood I was a student in accounting but was abit confused by name. My name wasn’t an english name. Infact I’m Nigerian, my first name is Nigerian my lastname is Italian. I hadn’t included my nationality on the CV I sent her!

Why was she confused? If I were British or European then I had the right to work in the UK. But she couldn’t tell what country I was from cos I hadn’t given her that information.
Now, this confused state of mind gave me the opportunity to explain to this recruiter that even though I was a ‘foreign student’ who was Nigerian, I have the right to work up to 20hrs per week. This job needed someone to work 15hrs per week so I was good.
This recruiter was unaware that I was a foreigner, she was also unaware of my right to work as a foreigner and I had to reply her email with a link to the Home Office website for her to read up that I had rights to work and didn’t require a work permit. She later told me she liked how I fought to get this job.

Now can you imagine what would have happened if I put Nationality: Nigerian on my CV. I wouldn’t have been invited for this interview. She would have simply come to the conclusion that I was Nigerian and NOT British/European and therefore did not have the right to work in the UK.

After graduation I had another experience. This had to do with my age. I was 21 at the time but just due to identity theft issues I decided not to put my age on my CV.  If you know about identity theft, you’ll know age is very sensitive information. However including my age on my CV would have cost me a job. I had applied for a job as an Accounts Assistant. I received a call from the recruiter, turned out to be the owner of the company. It was an impromptu phone interview. This man was so blunt and just when I thought I had the job he asked ‘How old are you again’. I said 21 and he said ‘No I’m sorry I can’t give you this job, it was someone like you that messed up my accounts last time and ran away. You young ones’.

I started to fight for this job again. Luckily this job was similar to the job I had while at university so I explained and explained and explained how good I was at accounting. He wasn’t even concerned that I was a graduate in accounting. This man’s concern was that I was similar age with his previous accountant who messed things up and quit.
He finally invited me to the office to see the accounts. The last accountant was more of an office administrator. Filing bills and invoices whether or not they’ve been paid. Monies the company was being owed by customers had not been chased etc.
He left me at the accountant’s office and walked out to take a call. Now as someone who was coming from a well organized accounting department of a company, I started picking out invoices and checking them against records in the accounting software. I could already see the mess he talked about. The records were not updated. He walked in and had to stop me saying he told me to just look and I had already started working. Made me laugh. I went on to tell him of monthly reports I could prepare for him and how I could run the accounting section.  Of course I got the job!

Now it is not every recruiter out there that has the time to give an applicant such a chance to prove what they can do. Infact I think he had not received allot of response to his advert and perhaps I was one of the few to reply.

And one final experience
During the interview for my current job, I recall my employer paused, looked at my CV then at me and ask…are you Igbo? She was an Igbo woman. Of course I am not Igbo and I told her I wasn’t igbo. There was a brief silence afterwards. But I had already blown her mind with the skills on my CV and my interview (The interview got so hot that at a point I pulled out my laptop from my handbag to show her excel spreadsheets I had created for clients to use in place of accounting softwares). She was impressed.

Who knows, perhaps I may not have been invited for that interview if I had stated my hometown, state of origin etc.
All I am saying here is that things like your State of Origin, Home Town, etc do not have anything to do with your skill. You get invited to interviews based on your skills….Show your skills!


3.   CLARITY OF CV
Clarity has to do with neatness, understandability etc.

Keep it simple, arrange items properly. Page layout, Bullet point style, text alignment add to how well your CV is received. Trust me, I understand it is really quite tasking to sit down and write about things you’ve done a while ago, so give yourself time. Perhaps use a day to work on each section of your CV and in a week you should be through.

As I said in a previous post, you are not the only one looking for a job. Thousands of people may have applied for that same job with you. Help the recruiters to understand your CV. Arrange it properly, choose a readable font and space things properly.

How can you expect a recruiter to believe you are good at using MS Word when you have submitted a CV that is poorly presented? - Poor use of bullet points, uneven lines and unreadable fonts. etc

How do you expect a recruiter to believe you have good communication skills when you have grammatical errors in every sentence of a rather long and pointless ‘Career Objective’ section of your CV?

I was impressed by about 2 CVs I reviewed yesterday. They were so neat. I almost didn’t know where to start from with reviewing these CVs. If I were a recruiter, I'd have been interested in reading them. I decided to work on them much later and focus on the CVs with obvious flaws.

Then there were some really scattered CV arrangements BUT with good content - very good skills and all but things were written all over the place.
Keep it simple, arrange items properly. Page layout, Bullet point style, text alignment add to how well your CV is received. Please take the time.

4.   NYSC and Industrial Training work experience
Are you a recent graduate? If yes, then your NYSC and Industrial Training work experience are of great importance. Work experience is not about how much you were paid on the job, it is about what you did. I noticed some CVs just listed the year, name of their employer and job title. No information was given on what they did on the job.
Please don’t give the excuse that you were just a subject teacher or admin assistant during your NYSC. It is still experience. These jobs require allot of skills and I suggest you take the time and draw out the activities you performed while on the job. Bring out at least 5 activities you did on these jobs.

When you’ve had more years / activities of work experience, you may decide to give just brief summaries of the less relevant employment.

My first job while at university (first year) was at a call centre. My second job still while at university was as a data entry personnel. My third job was as an admin and finance officer. After I got the job as an admin and finance officer I simply listed my first 2 jobs in summary. Then on the section with my job as an admin and finance officer, I used over 10 bullet points (yes I did allot there handling 2 companies I had to show it off). I was at an interview and the recruiter stated ‘It seems you were running these companies’.

So please find the words to describe your activities and include them in your CV. This is the best way to describe your skills.

Also, it is not good to exclude previous experience. I could easily spot out missing years in some CVs. Some CVs had up to 5 years missing.

For example, if you graduated in 2001 and the next year input on your CV is an employment from 2008 to Date, a recruiter is likely to wonder what you were doing between 2001 and 2008. Perhaps you were in a job you HATED between 2005 and 2008, still include it. Perhaps you were looking for a job between 2001 and 2002 and during that time you attended some courses or trainings, include it on your CV. Don’t leave blank years on your CV please. It screams idle.

5.   Professional Qualifications + Education and Qualifications
Professional qualifications show your area of specialisation. Soon as you identify your career path, I advise you search for professional qualifications that are relevant. There are loads of them out there and it is advisable to start early. Accountants have ICAN and ACCA. You can start these in your NYSC year.
ACCA is very flexible too. You don’t need to be a university graduate to qualify to register. Infact the highest scorer of the last sitting in June 2011 wasn’t a university graduate! But can you imagine the number of employers that will be willing to offer that girl a job. I think her lowest score was not below 80% (in a professional exam like ACCA!) She started working at age 16 and years later saw a career adviser who put her in the right track and instead of going to uni she started a professional qualification.

Don’t give the excuse that this is Nigeria or whatever.

What I am saying is that there is something out there for you too. Just take the time and figure it out. Don’t give excuses that you did not make a good grade at University or that you did not attend a university. I’m sure there are professional qualifications you can include with your OND and HND too.

(Oh and please do not list NYSC under Education and Qualification)

And one last thing, please go for trainings and courses that are relevant and in line with your career path.

If you studied economics or have a career path in finance, stating on your CV that you have a  certificate in Java or that C++ thing (I tend to see everywhere) really has no input on your CV. If you studied Computer Science or perhaps have a career path in IT then having such a certificate is great and makes sense.

My cousin recently graduated with a degree in International relations and while chatting he mentioned he was tired of sitting at home waiting for NYSC. He wanted to go to computer school for some database program or something I can’t even remember. We talked and finally he arrived at a better idea to do a French course instead. What has a course in database management etc got to do with a person with a career path in International Relations? NONE. However, a knowledge of many languages makes more sense for such a person.


Hope these few tips helped and sorry for such a long post.


Cheers

This is really nice, WELL DONE POSTER!

I sent my cv,expecting ur reply sir.nicebaby98@yahoo.com.

this is really interesting

I'm so impressed.

Now this is what I call COOL! I know my CV may not be the best there is, but it was good enough to get me a call from eight firms, four of which were multinational coys. I always wanted to talk to some peeps in school about 'home-based' CV writing tips that did not have all those janded tricks that never worked in Nigeria. I think this kinda nailed it. You try. Pls we look forward to the Pt 2 of this.

Thanks for the review, much appreciated

Just sent mine - God bless you real good.

Teskyman

I sent my CV and never heard from you or got reply. what is the essence

S/he's replied 75 people so far.

I'm sure s/he'll get to you once she resumes Jan 16th if you resend it in MS Word format.

Check the thread above in the link above.

FAITHSFI:

I sent my CV and never heard from you or got reply. what is the essence

Hello,

I sent mine to mycvclinic@gmail.com on Thursday, December 29, 2011 at exactly 3:27 PM.

I haven't got any reply as at the time of this post.

I guess she might be on vacation.

Good job thooooo,

Regards.

Teskyman.

Check This site out.

http://e2c558yik9h96z34qsjrtttdhs./

it wld be of great help as regards CV building.

Cheers

Patiently waitin for your resumption

yamakuza:

www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-801878.0.html

yamakuza:

S/he's replied 75 people so far.

I'm sure s/he'll get to you once she resumes Jan 16th if you resend it in MS Word format.

Check the thread above in the link above.

apart from the initial 75, another 89 have been received and majority have one problem in common,

Career Path:

www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-843342.0.html

WOW,

Hello Everyone, I totally overlooked this thread and have been active on the thread on the Career Section. Many many many apologies.

I will go on and post all I have said there over here.

Please if you sent your CV to me after the 22nd of December, I beg your patience. I stopped reviewing CVs from the 22nd and went for a break. I posted information about this on the Career Section and failed do so here, sorry.I'm back now.

Also, just yesterday, I noticed I had 41 emails in my Spam box (19 of which were actual spam) which I had NEVER checked since I started this review. Therefore, If you had sent me an email before the 22nd and you have never received a reply, please resend your CV. My spam box deletes emails after 1 month and I noticed the oldest email there was send on the 10th of December which is exactly one month away from the current date.

So, I will go on and update this thread now.

Thank you for your patience. And once again my sincere apologies

Cheers

CAREER PATH
   
When thinking of career path, I suggest you physically imagine a path (even a bush path will do).
Now you follow a path cos you are headed to a destination.

Career path has to do with career planning.
A Career Path, like the name suggests, is like a plan or map of your career. With a career path, you are able to chart out the course of your career. The answer to questions like ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years time’ fall into your ultimate career plan.

Mapping out and identifying your career path is a key career planning tool. It enables you identify your career aspirations and then take the necessary [b]steps [/b]to work towards achieving these identified goals. These [b]steps [/b]include skills and knowledge acquisition.

Your skills and your interests have a major effect on your career path and how successful you eventually are in your career. In drawing your career plan, it is important that you strike a balance between your skills and interest.

It is impossible to function in a field without the necessary skills. Hence, for you to progress in your career journey, you need to equip yourself with some essential skills. Also, having a good deal of skills without an interest in your chosen field has a reverse effect on motivation to function in a field.

As an accountant, I have identified my career path, specialising in audit. While studying for my degree, I was already looking ahead to develop the skills and abilities I needed to build a worthy career in the field of Accounting. Decisions I was faced with included how to obtain the relevant skills and professional qualifications. At a point, I had to choose between studying for an MSc in Accounting & Finance or sitting for my ACCA qualification exams. With my career path in mind, the ACCA appeared to be a more lucrative venture for me as I wanted to specialise in audit.

Now, this decision will vary if my career path was in Management Accounting. I would have found a professional qualification like CIMA to be more beneficial.

WHAT HAS A CAREER PATH GOT TO DO WITH YOUR CV?
Your CV contains information of your academic qualifications, work experiences and skills. You can look at my CV and tell what my career aspirations or career path is.

If I send my CV to apply for a job in the Engineering field, the recruiter will not get past page one; he will throw if out!!! My CV tells a story that will only be of interest to a recruiter in the finance field.

Your CV shows your ability and capability in a chosen field.

Therefore by choosing a career path and bearing such path in mind when creating your CV, you are able to include all necessary pointers and ingredients to capture the attention of a recruiter.

Answering questions like:
- What are my skills and interests?
- In what field do I want to specialise?
- What qualifications do I need to progress in this field?

will enable you can draw up a career plan and hence build a CV which will get you started on your chosen career path.

THE CHALLENGES
Among the CVs I reviewed, I remember replying the sender of a CV to get him to tell me what his career path was. Looking at his CV, you could hardly tell the industry he was interested in pitching his career tent. From his CV, I could single out almost equal interests in Finance, IT and Engineering.
He informed me that although he had a specific career path, the challenges of the employment market in Nigeria had thrown him to different paths. I wasn't motivated to work on this CV because it didn't have a path, it lacked a story, it lacked a focus.

Question: Will you get the opportunity to explain to a recruiter (probably going through thousands of CVs) that your CV has a clash of career paths because of the job market? Probably not.


What is your Career Path? What is your focus?

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV

Find attached pictures showing an illustration of how to achieve an effective CVs.

I have used a CV I received, making some changes for privacy reasons.

The first Image is the original CV that was received and the second is the reviewed CV. Can you notice any differences?

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV

Here are some pointers on the CV review illustration above (please refer to post with pictures of a CV).

The first flaw of this CV had to do with clarity. Notice how texts are not aligned properly. For example, at the section 'Personal Information' notice how items seem to jump around. There is an obvious lack of order in that section.

Now looking at the reviewed CV, you will notice that a proper order and alignment of texts has been achieved. As I said in a previous post, clarity boosts understandability and this CV has really shown that that.

Clarity also has an effect on the choice of sections and content of your CV.

Notice that the Email and GSM items were moved away from the header of the CV to a location where it can be easily viewed under 'Personal Information'. Please always ensure your contact information is written clearly and visibly.
Avoid squeezing allot of information at the header of your CV. It works against clarity most times. You will be acting unkind to yourself if a recruiter is unable to contact you because you have not made your contact information visible enough. I usually prefer listing my contact address in the 'Personal Information' section too.

Notice I have removed the item 'Certificate of National Youth Service' from the 'Education and Qualification' section. This item doesn't add any value to your CV. If however you really must include information stating that you have completed your NYSC, you can do so by including a line under 'Personal Information' section as follows;
NYSC Certificate:        Yes (although I really do not see the need)

Also, Instead of lumping the CIPM membership into this section, I have given this qualification more visibility by creating a separate section for Professional Qualification'. You may also name this section 'Professional Membership and Qualification'.

Moving down to the next section 'Work Experience' - notice that the only information contained in the CV was the employment duration, jobtitle and name of employer.
This is the most important section of your CV because it provides the best opportunity for you to portray the use of your skills to a recruiter.
Do you know that possession of a good mix of skills is likely to convince a recruiter to overlook the fact that you may not have met some other requirements of a job advert (eg age or degree classification)?
Please portray your skills in an effective manner - list your duties and responsibilities.

If you notice the reviewed CV has a new section - 'Skills'. After I sent the CV back to the owner, he/she went a step further and added that section to the CV. He/she was interested in a career in HR and included teamwork and communications skills on his CV, drawing from his experience in extracurricular activities. Impressive.

Also, going back to the work experience section, notice that although the positions were not HR roles, he/she managed to list responsibilities in a manner that highlighted the core skills required for a career in the HR.
Please do a research on the core skills for your chosen career and ensure that your CV highlights these skills.

Notice that he/she did not do the usual listing of skills but he backed it up with those activities (evidence).
As I stated in a previous post, anyone can list skills as follows:
Excellent Communicator
Effective customer relationship and service quality.
Ability to integrate quickly into a new team.
Willingness to learn new skills and to adopt new progressive ideas.
Good negotiation and interpersonal relationship skills.
This is a VERY ineffective method of portraying your skills, always back it up with activities.

Finally, notice that I relocated the section 'Computer Education' from the first page of the CV. Now, I may have considered leaving that section on the front page if he/she had a career path in IT. Hence, I moved this section away to page 2 under the heading courses and training. Looking at this CV again, it really should have been named Computer/IT skills instead.
I usually use the heading 'Courses and Training' only for trainings that are relevant to a career path.

I advise you use the changes highlighted on this CV and see if you can make improvements to your CV.

Hello Everyone,

So a few days ago, I noticed a couple of emails (41) held up in the SPAM folder of my email. I've had to reply these emails with an apology for not getting to their CVs on time because I DON'T normally read my spam box.

However, I looked at some of the email addresses for the mails that got trapped in the SPAM box and could not help but assume that perhaps, these emails were treated as junk because of the nature of the email address. Most (not all) of them were in the form of: yemibigboiz@xyz.com, fiercebabe01@xyz.com, chinew_@xyz.com (there is an underscore "_" on this email but the hyperlink won't let you see it)

Could your Email Address add to the reasons why you don't get replies from recruiters? Ever wondered if perhaps your email didn't actually get through to their inbox OR they replied you but you didn't receive it because they sent the mail to the wrong address? (I'm not trying to stir up worry in anyone).

I know multinational companies recruit using online forms but what of those cases where you send your application by email or even visit recruitment consultants?

(For this write up, lets assume my name is Apple Head)

When I got my first email addresses I tailored it to look just like those of my siblings. I wanted it to sound 'cool'. My 2 email addresses were apple4real@xyz.co.uk and realapple4life@xyz.co.uk.

Sadly, I thought this was 'cool'. Fastforward a few years, I was now at University, 100L and in the heat of IM and all that, it just seemed laborious trying to get people to understand my email address. I changed email ads to adapt to a style I had come across. The address was in the form lady_name@xyz.com (there is an underscore "_" on this email but the hyperlink won't let you see it). I decided to adapt my new address to this and started using miss_apple@xyz.com (there is an underscore "_" on this email but the hyperlink won't let you see it). However, when I started filling forms, I noticed how hard it was sometimes to recognise the "_" part of the email address. Some people that were not familiar with the underscore character "_" thought it meant there was a gap, some used a "-" instead and all sorts while others excluded it all together.

I recall being called by a recruitment agency for an interview at their office and after filling the form the lady struggled to understand my email address as she reviewed my form. I explained to her that it was an underscore "_" . As I walked out of that office, I prayed she or whoever was going to be responsible for emailing me about the outcome of my interview will remember that my email address had an underscore.

Obviously as I got home without even taking off my shoes, I sat by my laptop and created a whole new email address in the format firstnamesurname@xyz.com.

Now even though I have a very weird name, anyone that has a difficulty with my email address can easily cross check it using my personal information where I have details of my fullname.

Anyway that was my simple opinion on email until I bumped into several articles talking about email address and the image they project.


I came across the following article. Read the full thing at http://www.jumpstartyourjobsearch.com/email.html

Does your e-mail address project the right image?
Your e-mail should not be silly or playful, but professional. Do not use cute or "personal" e-mail addresses like queenmother@abc.com, JohnsonFamily@123.com, harleyhunk@abc.com, cat-luvR@)xyz.com, and so on.

Is your e-mail address short and intuitive?
Avoid e-mail addresses with long strings of numbers and letters. Try to select an e-mail address that's easy to remember and get the shortest e-mail address you can find.

Does your e-mail address include digits like L, I, 0, or O?
The digit 0 looks like the letter O and a non-capitalized L (l) looks like a capitalized i (I). Avoid using these letters and digits.

Does your e-mail address include underscores?
Underscores are not visible if the text is underlined
Is your job search confidential?
Protect your identity. Don't let your e-mail address give you away

Read more about this at http://jobsearch.about.com/od/jobsearchtips/a/jobsearchtool.htm
also see http://www.savvysugar.com/Job-Search-Tip-Get-Sensible-Email-Address-3052970 and try to read the comments on the last link.

I need an IT expert to help me and perhaps those interested to check if the following are myths or facts:
I have always had the following opinions about spam boxes:
- they also trap emails originating from email addresses with "funny" or "cool" texts
- if your email address has been blacklisted by several people, your mails will by default be delivered to the SPAM folder. (I have this thing I do where I blacklist email addresses that constantly send me chain emails and those annoying FWD: messages as I dislike receiving unnecessary mails. ) Now imagine if several people have blacklisted you. Most email providers such as yahoo have maintain a database of emails reported as spam, so imagine what may have happened to your Email address. The same one you use to submit applications.


oh and one final thing, how do you asses your replies from recruiters if you receive 60 new mails in your inbox everyday? - 30 notifications from facebook, 10 from twitter etc. I had a dedicated email address for my job searches and I used my miss_apple@xyz.com for facebook, twitter and all other social networks.

Again I'm asking, Could your Email Address add to the reasons why you don't get replies from recruiters? Ever wondered if perhaps your email didn't actually get through to their inbox OR they replied you but you didn't receive it because they sent the mail to the wrong address? (I'm not trying to stir up worry in anyone).


Cheers

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV - Part 2

Find attached pictures showing an illustration of how to achieve an effective CVs.

I have used a CV I received, making some changes for privacy reasons.

The first Image is the original CV that was received and the second is the reviewed CV. Can you notice any differences?

(There is a limit on the total size of image I can upload so I've had to really reduce the size of these images to fit in one post in. If you have a problem seeing it clearly, give me a shout and I'll put up the 2 CVs on separate posts)

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV - Part 2

Find attached pictures showing an illustration of how to achieve an effective CVs.

I have used a CV I received, making some changes for privacy reasons.

The first Image is the original CV that was received and the second is the reviewed CV. Can you notice any differences?

(There is a limit on the total size of image I can upload so I've had to really reduce the size of these images to fit in one post in. If you have a problem seeing it clearly, give me a shout and I'll put up the 2 CVs on separate posts)

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV - PART 2

Here are some pointers on the CV review illustration above (please refer to post with pictures of a CV).

If you have looked at the first post (photo) on CV illustrations, you'd have noticed that prior to the review, the CV was scanty as skills hadn't been detailed properly. Duties on work experience had been left out.

Now, the CV used for this current illustration is the exact opposite!

This original CV in this case was crammed up with TOO MUCH information. Infact, the owner of the CV used all the tricks in the book to make his CV fall into 2 pages (Perhaps to remain compliant with the socalled 2 Page CV rule, I'll try and do a post on this soon).

Infact the message that came with this CV was "I was told no HR can read it because it's too comprehensive"

I ended up with a headache yesterday night after working on this particular CV, no jokes. I went on to shut down my computer and watch tele.

I'm beginning to see that the keyword with CVs is CLARITY

Now for a start, I removed unneccessary information - of which this CV had ALLOT.

For a start, the[b]"Competences"[/b] Section - if you read one of my previous post, I talked about the most effective ways of conveying information about your skills to recruiters. I advised you to avoid using vague statements to describe your skills. Such as';
- Superb in results-oriented, self-motivated, decision-making, planning and organizing skills
- Understanding and approaching technical issues coupled with an enthusiasm for technical challenge
- Superb in adding value, pro-active, hard working, dynamic, critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Good in basic Mechanical Engineering services and good in making researches on critical / difficult issues
- Commitment to safe working practices desire for continuous learning, strength of character and stress tolerance

This CV had about 14 of such statements. I don't see any recruiter sitting down to read all these. Now in the middle of these 14 items, important information on IT Skills had been hidden;
-Superb in Corel Draw, PDMS and AutoCAD for design
- Knowledge of Microsoft suites such Ms Word, Ms Excel, Power Point and internet (I have highlighted the "internet" in red because I really don't see that as a skill a recruiter will look out for in a CV)

I moved these IT skills away to a new section "Computer / IT Skills" and deleted the remaining 12 items.

After the "Competencies" section, there was another section with another listing of skills in a rather ineffective manner. The "Qualities and Skills" Section.
This section listed about 12 items in the manner of:

-Ability to recognize problem in some engines and communicate ideas
- Ability to work with little, without direct supervision and work under pressure
- Ability to follow instructions accurately and ability to evaluate jobs periodically
- Ability to schedule tasks and events and ability to monitor project programmes
- Ability to carry out quality inspections and ability to oversee zero break-down of engines
- Ability to monitor the functioning of all engines and quick respond to engines breakdown

If you look at these items properly they appear to be the fall out of duties on a job. These skills are better reflected under your work experience section. When you list skills in this manner it looks like just tales which anyone can cut and paste BUT when you reflect these skills through your duties on a job, a recruiter can immediately picture your ability to do these things.
This section was deleted.

Moving on to the "Employment and Work Experience" Section, notice that duties have been listed. Some of the listed duties appeared irrelevant and were excluded from the reviewed CV.

I notice allot of people hide the "Personal Information" and "Education" Sections of their CVs at the bottom of the CV.

I really don't see any reason why personal information should be hidden at the bottom of the CV.
As for the "Education" Section, I've seen that practice more common among people with advanced career history who perhaps have a career path that is different from their Education.
At entry level (which the owner of this CV is at) I advise you keep your "Education" Section at the top of your CV.


And the final section is that of "Reference". I'm not a fan of detailing Reference on CVs mainly for the sake of confidentiality. It really is not good sending out someone's contact information all over the place. Recruiters will usually contact your Referee after some test or interview stages. They will ask of it when they need it. For the CVs I've reviewed so far I remove from some CVs and other times I don't. I advise you remove it from your CV unless a recruiter states that it should be included. The available on request signoff is good enough.

I highlighted the[b] "Career Objective"[/b] Section in red because I needed the owner of the CV to work on it. I usually use red highlights on CVs to note things I need a CV owner to work on.

I advise you do some initial work on your CV before sending it in. I'm sure if you work with these two samples you should be able to achieve very good improvement on your CV.

Cheers

(please ignore any grammatical errors, it's a long reply on Saturday morning)

Mycv. Hope you had a nice break? I already placed 16th January on my alarm to remind me of you resuming 'work' as a reviewer. I used to think I was good but after going through this page, i humbly confess i've not even started.
Please, I want to send my cv over, should I do it now or wait till 16th which by the way is just a few days away

I am going to change my email address. Thank you mycv. I have figures in my address including a '0'. What if somebody mistakes the '0' for 'O'? Trouble! My eyes are opened. I am so grateful girl.

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Hi everyone,

I've just glanced through some of the CVs I received yesterday and I can tell the owners of those CVs haven't effected any changes on their CVs using these notes.

Please may I ask that before you send in your CV, you at least use these notes to do abit of work on your CV. I'm trying to clear the backlog and it will really help if CVs I receive show that some work have been put in to achieve the effectiveness. Once the backlog is cleared I can continue review as usual.

Also, I am reviewing from the oldest to the newest so it may take a while for me to get to yours if you're only just sending it now. The best way to jump the queue in this case is to use these notes.



Happy Sunday

Hello Everyone,

This week, I'm featuring a Geologist as the "Professional of The Week". It was a very enlightening interview and I encourage every professional or budding professional out there to read on.

(Please note that due to the level of her position in the industry, we've kept her identity anonymous but in future editions we may include names and pictures).

Name: Anonymous

Location: Lagos

Profession: Geology, a Management Level staff in an Oil Company in Nigeria

1. Why did you choose Geology as your profession?

It wasn't in my plan to have a career in Geology. I was admitted to study Computer Science in a Nigerian university. In my second year sometime in the 70s, the university lacked facilities/computers and didn't want to teach us only theory. We were therefore given the option to transfer to either mathematics or any department in the School of Physical Sciences. The only professional course in the School of Physical Sciences at the university was Geology. I choose Geology.

Please continue reading all 8 interview questions using this link http://www.thekrine.com/professional-of-the-week-a-geologist/

Please send the link to your friends too, especially students.

Cheers

Hello mycvclinic, actually registered this night 2 sy welldone and thus this is my first post.A toast to your input here,you really giving back and thats what i hope to do one day.hp ur break was enjoyed thoroughly,

mycvclinic:


CAREER PATH
   
When thinking of career path, I suggest you physically imagine a path (even a bush path will do).
Now you follow a path cos you are headed to a destination.

Career path has to do with career planning.
A Career Path, like the name suggests, is like a plan or map of your career. With a career path, you are able to chart out the course of your career. The answer to questions like ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years time’ fall into your ultimate career plan.

Mapping out and identifying your career path is a key career planning tool. It enables you identify your career aspirations and then take the necessary [b]steps [/b]to work towards achieving these identified goals. These [b]steps [/b]include skills and knowledge acquisition.

Your skills and your interests have a major effect on your career path and how successful you eventually are in your career. In drawing your career plan, it is important that you strike a balance between your skills and interest.

It is impossible to function in a field without the necessary skills. Hence, for you to progress in your career journey, you need to equip yourself with some essential skills. Also, having a good deal of skills without an interest in your chosen field has a reverse effect on motivation to function in a field.

As an accountant, I have identified my career path, specialising in audit. While studying for my degree, I was already looking ahead to develop the skills and abilities I needed to build a worthy career in the field of Accounting. Decisions I was faced with included how to obtain the relevant skills and professional qualifications. At a point, I had to choose between studying for an MSc in Accounting & Finance or sitting for my ACCA qualification exams. With my career path in mind, the ACCA appeared to be a more lucrative venture for me as I wanted to specialise in audit.

Now, this decision will vary if my career path was in Management Accounting. I would have found a professional qualification like CIMA to be more beneficial.

WHAT HAS A CAREER PATH GOT TO DO WITH YOUR CV?
Your CV contains information of your academic qualifications, work experiences and skills. You can look at my CV and tell what my career aspirations or career path is.

If I send my CV to apply for a job in the Engineering field, the recruiter will not get past page one; he will throw if out!!! My CV tells a story that will only be of interest to a recruiter in the finance field.

Your CV shows your ability and capability in a chosen field.

Therefore by choosing a career path and bearing such path in mind when creating your CV, you are able to include all necessary pointers and ingredients to capture the attention of a recruiter.

Answering questions like:
- What are my skills and interests?
- In what field do I want to specialise?
- What qualifications do I need to progress in this field?

will enable you can draw up a career plan and hence build a CV which will get you started on your chosen career path.

THE CHALLENGES
Among the CVs I reviewed, I remember replying the sender of a CV to get him to tell me what his career path was. Looking at his CV, you could hardly tell the industry he was interested in pitching his career tent. From his CV, I could single out almost equal interests in Finance, IT and Engineering.
He informed me that although he had a specific career path, the challenges of the employment market in Nigeria had thrown him to different paths. I wasn't motivated to work on this CV because it didn't have a path, it lacked a story, it lacked a focus.

Question: Will you get the opportunity to explain to a recruiter (probably going through thousands of CVs) that your CV has a clash of career paths because of the job market? Probably not.


What is your Career Path? What is your focus?

I wish to commend you on this service offering to the people. Well done.

However, I also wish to observe that many of your suggestions so far, though been very helpful, seem to neglect some realities. An example is on the issue of Career Path. Yes, it is important for CVs to tell the recruiter a story and not just any story but the story the recruiter wants to hear. The reality that seem missing here is that your suggestions fit the ideal situation i.e where the economic, political and social system work in the manner that they should- something similar to the developed Western/European economies. Don't get me wrong, some of your ideals do work in emerging markets like Africa as well but the Nigerian situation is very unique.

Many graduates out there have aspirations and career goals (some obviously struggle) but just don't have the opportunity to express them. Unfortunately, the CV which could serve such purpose seem to be increasingly confused and near to being irrelevant in Nigeria. Have you asked yourself how many graduates in Nigeria REALLY have the choice to choose or decline job offers? Many will thank their stars for getting just one! One could decide to turn down job offers or refuse applying for particular jobs simply because it does not align with their career path if there are ALTERNATIVES. But are there any alternatives in this country (except may be the individual is 'silver-spooned')?

Again, how many graduates today know much about Career Counseling (probably the younger generation of graduates might do but not the whole lot)? Access to counseling at the university level might have helped the present unemployed market situation but again, the Nigerian educational system failed in this area.So what hope do people thrown into different career path do? What encouraging advise do you have for them? May be that will be the best way to start.

On a more personal note, I do believe that to some extent we are masters of our destinies and to some extent we are not. Speaking from the former perspective, I meant we are responsible for the decisions we make and we don't make but also there is the activity of the divine hand (God's Providence). Such providence, most often, comes with grace and favour that disregards your past to give you a brighter future. Some graduates will confirm to you that they have gotten jobs that was not really based on the smartness of their CVs.  You do not have to accept this view but if you do I think it is important to spell it out. Doing this will not make less of your campaign for an excellent CV but rather to complement it and job seekers should know better.

Again, I say that you are doing an excellent job but may be a balanced perspective can be reflected in your suggestions to give hope and encouragement to those whose career path/growth have been badly affected by the Nigeria core unique elements. I am sure that there are many out there, may be you can confirm that yourself from all the CVs you have received so far.

God bless