MY CV?
Curriculum vita (CV) refers to educational and work history of a person. In essence, it is the life history of a person. A concise version of the CV is called resume but for the purpose of this article, permit me to use both words interchangeably. “Permission granted”. Thank you Sir.
CV are integral parts of one’s potential of acquiring a decent (yes, decent of course for you dreamed to have it come some day) job. Even before this, the attractiveness of your CV to your prospective employer, places you in a coveted position of being shortlisted for interview. Indeed, your CV is your bargaining power. Period and nothing else! Most employers are very critical of the prospective employee’s CV so as to get a fair knowledge of his or her capabilities of being able to add a sense of positiveness to the direction of his or her company. In job hunting expedition, your inability to write an impeccable and impressive CV safely earns you about 51% of your failure to get into that most desired job of yours. With this, please, why won’t you spend just the next minute or so to read through your CV before placing it before the would-be pot-bellied boss of yours who will make every strenuous effort to see every “misplaced atom” even when his pair of spectacles is just held by the tip of his protruding nose?
Yes, this reminds me of a man who called into a programme during the peak of the political campaigns last year just to ask the presenter why he (the former) should go and wait in long winding queues only to provide another person’s father with a job without even scrutinizing the applicant’s CV. If we fail to retain his hypothesis, Charlie! Let me remind you, you are yet to see more stuffs for the bandwagon job hunting has just begun after one candidate has won the election.
The august representatives of the good people of Ghana have done their quota as far as vetting the nominees is concerned. How you rate their performance to a large extent from my perspective depends on what your knowledge about vetting ministerial nominees is all about. You want to hear my judgment about proceedings so far? Please, do give me a second chance and I will not fail you but do justice to that mind boggling question.
Nevertheless, the many ‘interesting’ happenings during the process cannot be left untouched. One of such has to do with the CV of some nominees. In fact, some of the responses to questions pertaining to inappropriate CV are yet to be fathomed by my ever developing mind. My goodness, are some of the nominees really hunting for jobs? If so, when has CV lost its flagship position in job searching? Please, KSM, why didn’t you tell me in your “Unlocking the job market”? Hey, I said if it is sooooooooooooooo!
The issue of developing a marketable CV prior to appearing before a vetting committee cannot be overestimated. This compelled some of the honourable members to change their title to “CV Specialist”. Despite their consistency in unraveling “manholes” (or no womanholes as well!) in the CV of earlier nominees, subsequent nominees who appeared before the appointment committee continued to commit those serious and “unforgivable” mistakes. Did I hear some of them say, “it is a typographical error”? My goodness! Since when has complete negligence hence omission and commission metamorphosis into so called typographical errors? Let some one answer me. I need an answer. Indeed, these are some of the petty things that make our pipe holes unfriendly to water, our gutters choked, and the host of many others. Does it mean when applying for some work in those ministries and those same mistakes occur, the prospective employee would not be denied a position on the applicants’ shortlist?
Notwithstanding whatever happened during the vetting in relation to some ministerial nominees’ CV, CV still wield an immerse power capable of refusing you your most dreamt about job. So, being an adherent to job seeking principles, do spend some of your priceless moment to go over your CV before submitting it to your prospective employer.
To you the deputy ministerial nominees, please, do well to check the accuracy of your CV before submitting them for some of us are getting disappointed in those so called “typographical errors”. But to you my big man or woman out there, before you complain about my CV, do check yours first for the next moment yours might be required.
Thank you.
(Written by the author and published on ghanaweb.com on 7th March, 2009 that was during the vetting of ministerial nominees in Ghana)
