In Nigeria’s competitive job market, having a standout CV is crucial. Many job seekers often make mistakes that can hinder their chances of getting noticed by today's Nigerian employer. Certain aspects of your CV which may appear harmless are actually doing you more harm than good.
Here are five common mistakes and how to avoid them to improve your CV.
1. Overloading Personal Information:
Past trends for CVs in the country included a detailed personal information section. We all remember the cringe-worthy "Curriculum Vitae" our uncles and aunties had in the early 2000s-2010s. Believe it or not, a lot of professionals still include personal information like age, marital status, state of origin, and even religion in their CVs today.
Why It's a Mistake:It not only makes your CV appear outdated and unprofessional, but it also opens the door to possible discrimination or recruitment bias.
Recruiters are people too, and you would not want to miss being shortlisted for your dream job simply because the HR assistant from the third-party recruitment company screening candidates looked at your CV and has a tribal bias.
Tip:For details, focus on professional information only, such as your name, contact details, and LinkedIn profile. Avoid including excessive personal details unless specifically requested by the employer.
2. Using Unprofessional Email Addresses:
It's common to see email addresses that are informal or playful. I'm sure many of us still have that "Foxycleopatra92@gmail.com" email we created in secondary school while giggling with our friends. It can work fine as a personal email, but it should never be your professional email.
Why It's a Mistake:As a candidate, you want a recruiter to remember your name. If a recruiter wants to reach out to John Adachi for an interview, chances are they are going to type "John Adachi" in the search box in hopes of finding your email/job application.
If you sent your application with "BigmanJA@gmail.com," they might not be able to find you in a pile of emails.
Tip:Create a professional email address using your name, such as firstname.lastname@example.com. This presents a more serious and mature image to potential employers.
3. Poor Formatting and Design:
You probably already know that a cluttered, hard-to-read CV with inconsistent fonts and styles can be off-putting. However, you might not know that in a bid to avoid this, candidates sometimes end up with too much "white space," resulting in a scanty-looking CV.
Why It's a Mistake:Employers spend only a few seconds scanning each CV. Poor design can cause them to skip yours entirely. They do not want content that is too jumbled up, nor do they favor content that seems too spread out across the page. Your CV needs to look like a structured document, easy to read and visually appealing.
Tip:Use a clean, simple layout with consistent formatting. Highlight key information with bullet points, color, and/or bold text. Working with pre-existing online templates makes it so much easier. CVs typically need to be 1-3 pages, with a decent amount of information spread out across each page. Notably, a lot of modern CVs have just 1 page.
4. Including Irrelevant Work Experience:
These days, you would be hard-pressed to find candidates who have worked in just one industry their whole life. People tend to change jobs and career paths as they go along. While your CV should hint at your diverse background, it does not need to itemize it. Many candidates simply list all their previous job roles in the experience section without regard for whether it's relevant to their target job or not.
Why It's a Mistake:Including irrelevant work experience dilutes the focus on your relevant skills and accomplishments. Employers are interested in how your past roles have prepared you for the specific job they are hiring for.
If recruiters are looking to hire a marketing manager, they would only be interested in seeing skills and experience related to this role. Let's say you worked in marketing for the last three years and prior to that worked as an English tutor for two years. Detailing your teaching experience would add unnecessary bulk to your CV. Rather, you should focus on highlighting every skill, training, and accomplishment related to the marketing industry. Transferable soft skills like communication or people management can also be highlighted strategically.
Tip:Tailor your CV to the job by emphasizing relevant roles and achievements. Use keywords from the job description to ensure your CV stands out to both human readers and applicant tracking systems.
5. Lack of Quantifiable Achievements:
Instead of highlighting specific accomplishments, many candidates list their job duties and responsibilities, which doesn’t effectively demonstrate their value to potential employers.
Why It's a Mistake:Employers in Nigeria tend to favor candidates who appear "ready-made." They look for evidence of your impact and contributions in your previous roles. They want to see how you added value to your past employers and what you can bring to their organization. Quantifiable achievements provide concrete proof of your capabilities and skills. Without these metrics, your CV can come across as vague and unimpressive.
Tip:Include specific accomplishments with measurable outcomes, such as "Increased sales by 20% in six months." Quantifiable achievements make your CV more compelling and credible. It’s not just what you were employed for; it’s what you did, how you did it, and what you accomplished.
Conclusion:
Avoiding these common mistakes can significantly improve your CV and increase your chances of landing your desired job. Take the time to review and revise your CV, ensuring it accurately represents your skills and experience.
Still need help? Reach out to us and have our professional writers craft you a standout CV!
We invite you to share your CV-related questions or challenges in the comments below. If you need professional help, check out our resume writing services to create a standout CV. For more tips, don’t forget to read our previous blog post on how to write the perfect CV for the Nigerian employer.
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