Course: How to write a CV

During my Bachelor's semester abroad in Rwanda, I gave a short course on "how to write a CV".

My fellow Rwandan student friends told me they were a bit insecure about how to go about job searching. So I thought, why not give a short course? And we would all exchange ideas!

My course consisted of 3 parts: Presentation, Creativity and Action. This is the way I approached it:

1. PowerPoint presentation (if not available: with paper examples) with my own CV on it. I went through section-by-section to explain what I had put on my CV and why.

• Section 1: Personal information

   

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn page > you can first write your resume and then copy the information to make a LinkedIn page - however, not everybody has the ability to access internet.

• Section 2: Education

   

  • Full name of the degree, possibly with track
  • Name of the institution
  • Location of the institution: city and country
  • Duration e.g.: Sep 2013 - Aug 2017

Example: 

Bachelor of Arts in African Studies

Track: History and Anthropology

Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.

• Section 3 & 4: Work / Volunteer experience

   

  • Function
  • Organisation with short explanation about the organisation
  • Tasks included to show what you are capable of
  • Duration of your time there

Example:

Costumer Service Call Centre Assistant at KPN.

KPN: a sustainable provider of telecommunication and internet services.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Tasks included:

• Providing extensive costumer service
• Administration of personal data
• Sales of ICT services

Dec 2015 - Jan 2017

• Section 5: Languages

   

  • What languages do you speak? And on what level?

Language categories:

Example:

Dutch: Native speaker

English: Fluent

Swahili: Basic communication skills

• Section 6: Skills

   

  • You can put hard and soft skills.
    • Examples of hard skills: working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, fast typing, computer programming, presenting.
    • Examples of soft skills: not afraid of taking initiative, orderly, positive, good leadership.

2. Be creative! This is an example of my CV. But a CV is personal and can be adjusted to one's own creativity.

One can:

• Add Hobbies
• Add Contact details of former employers for references
• Indicate briefly why you left a job
• Adjust the order of the sections. After gaining years of experience, it might be logical to put Work Experience on top and Education below that.

3. Let's write a CV!

Why not start writing while we are all together? This way ideas can be exchanged and productivity will flow.

• They sat in groups of 4 and discussed their ideas, wrote down the order of the sections the way they liked it, and eventually everybody had a CV on paper!

I did encounter a small problem that I didn't expect: "What if I don't have an address?" ... OK, these students didn't live on the street, but they lived in student apartments or campus housing that often is located on a street without a name or number. Therefore, the postal service wouldn't be able to find them. So I suggested to them to write down the address of a parent or family memember or friend who lives nearby, that has a steady place and steady address for them to collect their possible invitations from.

That was my short course! Please feel free to commend down below your own ideas and suggestions.
 

During my Bachelor's semester abroad in Rwanda, I gave a short course on "how to write a CV".

My fellow Rwandan student friends told me they were a bit insecure about how to go about job searching. So I thought, why not give a short course? And we would all exchange ideas!

My course consisted of 3 parts: Presentation, Creativity and Action. This is the way I approached it:

1. PowerPoint presentation (if not available: with paper examples) with my own CV on it. I went through section-by-section to explain what I had put on my CV and why.

• Section 1: Personal information

   

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • E-mail
  • LinkedIn page > you can first write your resume and then copy the information to make a LinkedIn page - however, not everybody has the ability to access internet.

• Section 2: Education

   

  • Full name of the degree, possibly with track
  • Name of the institution
  • Location of the institution: city and country
  • Duration e.g.: Sep 2013 - Aug 2017

Example: 

Bachelor of Arts in African Studies

Track: History and Anthropology

Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.

• Section 3 & 4: Work / Volunteer experience

   

  • Function
  • Organisation with short explanation about the organisation
  • Tasks included to show what you are capable of
  • Duration of your time there

Example:

Costumer Service Call Centre Assistant at KPN.

KPN: a sustainable provider of telecommunication and internet services.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Tasks included:

• Providing extensive costumer service
• Administration of personal data
• Sales of ICT services

Dec 2015 - Jan 2017

• Section 5: Languages

   

  • What languages do you speak? And on what level?

Language categories:

Example:

Dutch: Native speaker

English: Fluent

Swahili: Basic communication skills

• Section 6: Skills

   

  • You can put hard and soft skills.
    • Examples of hard skills: working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, fast typing, computer programming, presenting.
    • Examples of soft skills: not afraid of taking initiative, orderly, positive, good leadership.

2. Be creative! This is an example of my CV. But a CV is personal and can be adjusted to one's own creativity.

One can:

• Add Hobbies
• Add Contact details of former employers for references
• Indicate briefly why you left a job
• Adjust the order of the sections. After gaining years of experience, it might be logical to put Work Experience on top and Education below that.

3. Let's write a CV!

Why not start writing while we are all together? This way ideas can be exchanged and productivity will flow.

• They sat in groups of 4 and discussed their ideas, wrote down the order of the sections the way they liked it, and eventually everybody had a CV on paper!

I did encounter a small problem that I didn't expect: "What if I don't have an address?" ... OK, these students didn't live on the street, but they lived in student apartments or campus housing that often is located on a street without a name or number. Therefore, the postal service wouldn't be able to find them. So I suggested to them to write down the address of a parent or family memember or friend who lives nearby, that has a steady place and steady address for them to collect their possible invitations from.

That was my short course! Please feel free to commend down below your own ideas and suggestions.