Curriculum Vitae

Origin: -The term curriculum vitae comes from the Latin Curriculum (course) and Vitae (life): The course of ones life. "It is vitae (not vita) because "life" in the phrase "course of life" ... is in the genitive singular.... - Eric Daniels -Curriculum vitae is a Latin expression which can be loosely translated as course of life. In current usage, curriculum is less marked as a foreign loanword. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2009) Importance: -The main purpose of the curriculum vitae (CV) is to get you an interview. Your curriculum vitae should summarize your relevant experiences and education. - It is often used as a key for getting a job that you really want -it serves as a selling tool or advertisement for you and not just an account of your experience - This is where you can include all the details which emphasize what you have written on your resume. SOURCE: (http://grandresume.com/blog/resume-writing/the-importance-of-a-cv-and-a-resume) Parts of Curriculum Vitae (CV) 1. Your Contact Information -Name -Address -Telephone -Cell Phone -Email 2. Personal Information -Date of Birth -Place of Birth -Citizenship -Visa Status -Gender 3. Optional Personal Information -Marital Status -Spouse's Name -Children 4. Employment History (List in chronological order, include position details and dates) -Work History -Academic Positions -Research and Training

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5. Education (Include dates, majors, and details of degrees, training and certification) -High School -University -Graduate School -Post-Doctoral Training 6. Professional Qualifications -Certifications and Accreditations -Computer Skills 7. Awards 8. Publications 9. Books 10. Professional Memberships 11. Interests SOURCE: (http://jobsearch.about.com/od/cvsamples/a/cvformat.html) How to write curriculum Vitae In writing curriculum vitae, the focus is on updating and polishing it. Below are advice on maintaining and updating your curriculum vitae. 1. Begin to exclude details on earlier experience such as graduate school assistantships. You may still note the experience without discussion of the responsibilities. 2. If certain categories of your vita are growing substantially, begin making subcategories (e.g. Publications may be divided into article, books and reviews.) 3. Ask others to review your curriculum vitae. In addition having them to look for typos and grammatical errors ask them what items they notice and remember If the most important items stand out, youre in a good shape. Additional advice:

1. Look at the curriculum vitae of your peers and role models. Many faculty members
post their curriculum vitae online. If it is not online, you could ask them if you can see a copy. Notice the formatting, organizational techniques and wording that works well. 2. Keep your curriculum vitae updated. It can be difficult to remember presentations, awards, workshop, service work and more. You want to be recognized with your efforts, and one way to do that is to include key events, committees and more on your curriculum vitae.

3. Consider removing personal information (such as your birth date) from your
curriculum vitae to protect your privacy.

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4. Ensure your curriculum vita is easy for others to read and that the key information is
easily accessible. Things to check:

Is your curriculum vitae is in electronic format that can be viewed easily by others
(e.g. pdf file)? Does the font size/type scan and fax well?

Does the layout looks good to others? Talk to someone who is good at visual layout

and design. They might have recommendations that would make your CV more visually appealing. Ask someone who is detail oriented to review your CV. You might be surprised by the corrections they recommend. Discuss the organization of your CV with others -- is there another way the information can be presented so that it's clearer to others? These tips may require reworking your CV "from the ground up," but the changes will probably be worth it. Is your name highlighted in your list of publications, especially if there are multiple authors? Highlighting your name makes it easier for others to see your name. Is your name listed on every page? Are there page numbers? Your name and the page number serve as reference points for readers. Updating a curriculum vitae can be time-consuming and is a task that can be quickly pushed to the bottom of your to-do list. Having updated curriculum vitae ready to go will reduce the stress of having to update it at the last minute. SOURCE: http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/guides/grad.html Guidelines in writing Curriculum Vitae 1. Make a list of jobs you have held in the past (include dates), a list of qualifications you have obtained and a list of hobbies and interests. Use these lists to draw up a list of key skills which set you apart from other candidates. 2. Reference each key skill to a job you have performed in the past. Keep in mind that key skills dont have to be obtained from paid employment alone. 3. Use as many verbs as possible: (here is a list that should get you started) achieved, acquired, adapted, addressed, administered, analyzed, anticipated, assembled, assisted, audited, budgeted, calculated, centralized, changed, collaborated, composed, condensed, conducted, constructed, contracted, converted, coordinated, created, cultivated, demonstrated, designed, developed, devised, discovered, doubled, drafted, edited, eliminated, enforced, established, evaluated, expanded, explained, forecast, formed, founded, generated, guided, hired, implemented, improved, informed, insured, interpreted, interviewed, launched,

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 maintained, managed, marketed, minimized, mobilized, motivated, negotiated, obtained, operated, organized, originated, oversaw, out-performed, performed, planned, prevented, produced, promoted, provided, publicized, published, recruited, reorganized, reported, researched, resolved, reviewed, selected, separated, set up, simplified, solved, surveyed, staffed, supervised, targeted, tasked, taught, tested, trained, Utilized. 4. Next is your Personal Information section this is normally two, three or maybe four bullet points creating a summary of who you are and what you can offer the organisation. Who you are (e.g. graduate, experienced barman) and the role you are applying for. If you apply separately it might be nice to include the company name here. Your skills and experience relative to the role. General skills such as motivated or ambitious and will say how they help you become a valuable asset wherever you work. (optional) explanation why you are leaving your current role. In this section you really need to sell yourself keep it short but make yourself sound like the ideal candidate. 5. Next is the Education History session; here you will have the dates to the left and the qualifications and place you studied to the right the more recent and relative the education the more fleshed out you will be 6. Now comes your Work Experience section again date on the left and a brief summary of where you worked and the role you undertook. Underneath this you might list the skills and experience you have developed which is relative to the new role 7. Next you may include an Interests section and/or and Other Important Skills section in bullet point form, make yourself sound both qualified and interesting if youve run a marathon or worked for a charity this shows your motivation and hard work tell the employer this (keeping it concise of course) 8. Do not lie. 9. Make a list of key sections or categories (these may be different for each job you apply for depending on what you wish to emphasize): Personal Information, Education and Qualifications, skills and experience, technical skills, employment hobbies and interests, references. 10. Submit your Curriculum Vitae to an employer for whom you have no intention to work. Ask him or her to review curriculum vitae and provide any feedback. 11. Ensure your Curriculum Vitae is no more than four pages long. 12. Provide contact details along with the dates and times you are available to work. Be as flexible as possible. 13. A good idea would be to look at the companys website if they have one. What is their mission statement? What kind of people do they employ? Would you fit in well with this company? Do you have the required skills and experience? Do you know the company inside out?

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 Are you passionate about what they do? 14. Another tip is to look at the job advertisement and the things that the company expects from an employee. 15. It is also important to not just write out the requirements of the role as it is written on the advertisement as this will appear lazy to an employer and they will suspect that you are merely copying and pasting skills that you dont necessarily have. 16. When asking friends or family to read over your curriculum vitae, get them to answer a few questions that will help you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your curriculum vitae better. 17. Create sentences that really appeal to an employer and illustrate your passion for the job. 18. If you are in any doubt as to whether your curriculum vitae is doing the job that you want it to then have a look at friends or colleagues curriculum vitae as you might find ideas that you never even thought of. 19. The content of curriculum vitae should reflect the position for which you are applying. For example, if you are applying for a job as an IT technician, it is not relevant to your employer that you worked in several bars early in your career. If you are applying to work in a call center, your employer would love to hear about the customer service skills you learned when working with the public. 20. Call the company you wish to work for before sending them your curriculum vitae. Be positive and sell yourself. The employer will then be looking forward to reading it. Moreover, you may learn more information about the open position and therefore what is pertinent to include. 21. Send a cover letter with your curriculum vitae that explains why you want to work at that specific company and why you are qualified. Emphasize highlights of your curriculum vitae in this letter. 22. Believe in yourself. If you do not show confidence, how will an employer have confidence in you to do the job you are applying for? 23. For skills do not merely list the tasks you have done in the past but rather the results you achieved and the skills you have learned. A poor example would be, "When I worked at a local pub, I collected glasses and cleaned up mess". A good example would be, "When working as part of a team at 'The Crown and Cushion', I learned the importance of maintaining a clean working environment and improved my customer liaison skills". 24. Don't come across as desperate. Remember that you have a lot to offer a company. You are not losing out! They need to impress you as much as you need to impress them. 25. It is common to be rejected for the majority of jobs for which you apply. This occurs when there are many more applicants than jobs and you should not let it get you down. Think of this as a learning experience. Ask yourself how you could improve your chances when applying for the next job. 26. It's not only unemployed people who apply for jobs. You can always apply for a better job than you have now to improve your career. 27. Try to stick to a job for at least six months! If your career history shows you have worked for 12 different companies in the last year, it will appear as if you are not reliable.

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28. Put yourself in the employer's shoes. What would you think if someone handed you that curriculum vitae? 29. Show passion about your work and your hobbies. 30. The effectiveness of your curriculum vitae can only really be judged according to the career you are focusing on. There are things that you can do to target your curriculum vitae specifically to your chosen industry and you need to mention all of the attributes needed for working in your particular role. To really target your curriculum vitae it cannot be generalized, you must completely concentrate on the role that you want and highlight all of your skills to fit well with that position. If you decide to target another industry then your curriculum vitae would need to be rather different and I would suggest re-writing the whole thing. A good idea is to write up to 3 different curriculum vitae if you want to apply for three slightly different jobs. This is to optimize your chances by being specific and using existing experience in a way that can illustrate your suitability for the job. They basically have most of the same information but it is written in a completely different way and some skills were emphasized for a particular role. This really targets your curriculum vitae and makes all of your experience and training as relevant as it can be. SOURCE: http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/guides/grad.html Uses of curriculum vitae 1. A supporting document with a grant or contract funding proposal 2. A requirement for internal review for a tenure or promotion 3. A requirement with an application for membership in a professional society or organization or 4. A background statement for an introduction at a conference presentation. SOURCE: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/resumewriting/g/def_vitae.html

Activity

Instruction: Match column A to column B. Write the letter of the correct answer in the space provided. COLUMN A _______1. A Latin word that means life _______2. It is a part of curriculum vitae that has information about the date of birth, place of birth, citizenship, visa status and gender. _______3. It is a part of curriculum vitae that has information about certifications and accreditations, computer skills _______4. It means the course of life. _______5. It is a part of a curriculum vita that contains information like your name, address, cell phone number, telephone number and email address. _______6. It is a Latin word that means course. _______7. It is part of curriculum vitae that contains information like Marital Status, Spouse's Name, and children. It is only optional.

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_______8. It is also a part of curriculum vitae that contains information about your work history, academic positions, research and training. _______9. It is a part of curriculum vitae that have information about your high school, university, graduate school, post-doctoral training. _______10. When you are writing your own curriculum vitae you must not ____.

C. Contact Information D. Employment History E. Curriculum Vitae F. Optional Personal Information G. Vitae H. Curriculum

COLUMN B A. Lie B. Education

I. Professional qualifications J. Personal Information

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