For the past two months since this Covid-19 wahala started, i have reviewed and rewritten about 50 CV and Cover Letters, for nairalanders , you can confirm from my signature jopress3 above. And, I have discovered Big Mistakes that are common with the Fresh Graduates and the experience graduates and I feel I should share.

Unfortunately, this mistakes are visible to the eyes of only experts and employers, these are the core reasons these applicants were not getting the invite for interviews they desired and why it has been difficult for the underemployed graduates to moved from his low pay job, to a higher pay job that he desired.

Let’s get into the detail of these Big Mistakes below..

#1. Poor Arrangement of information in CV

87 % of the 50 Cv i worked on, has poor arrangement of information in their CV. This sets of applicants did not understand the principle of strength and weakness.

And So, how can they tackle this problem?.

Consider SWOT analysis. According to Wikipedia, “SWOT analysis is a Strategic Planning techniques used to help a person or organization identify Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats related to business competition or project planning”. No doubt you have competition in the labour market, in that job you wish to apply for. Therefore, it is your duty to identify your SWOT and position them to your advantage, if you must be ahead of your competitors.

So, what information can be classified your Strength or Opportunity, Weakness or Threats? For me, Information such as, Added academic qualification (Msc,MBa,Phd etc), Additional Certifications, Big brand Work Experience, and your achievements, will stand as my strength and opportunities. And, I will position them in my first page. While, information such as Personal data (Date of birth; where you are above the age in an advertised job, Your Marital Status, State of origin etc.) will be considered my Weakness and Threats and i will relocate them to the behind pages.

The idea is, you position your strength and opportunities in your first page so that they attract attention of your potential employers.

#2 Address of Residence

Common sense is not common practice, as basic as address of residence is, it has denied about 95% of applicants opportunities of getting their desired job.

Time has really change things, the days when most employers will recruit new employee from any part of the country and provide free accommodation for 3 months, to help you settle down, have gone down the drains. The Market forces of demand and supply has change every thing, the Number of graduate Supplied into the labour market far exceed the available jobs in demand. And, it has given Employers a lot of choice to choose from and they enjoy it a lot, because it created avenue to cut cost to its minimum.

These days, for example, let’s say an employer in Lagos need 50 qualified graduates, she can get all the 50 graduates in Lagos alone, in a day, anytime she places a vacancy advertisement. These is definitely a problem for an applicant, whose address of residence is not Lagos state, the same for Employers in Portharcourt and Abuja, considered to be job hub in these country. Applicants need to be dynamic in approach.

How do you tackle this challenge if you reside outside these three states(Lagos, Portharcourt, & Abuja)?

Its very simple, for example, let’s say you reside in Benin and you find a job vacancy in portharcourt that you meet the requirements, ask yourself, did I have relations or friends in portharcourt, if yes, put a call immediately to them explain clearly the situation at hand, ask for their address and replace it with yours in your CV before you apply. When you get the job sort yourself out.

#3 Too Many Jobs Within a short period of time.

93% of the 50 CV i worked on have this Big mistake. This class of applicant thought that the more places they have worked the better the job opportunities, some have worked in 3 places in 3 years, 4 places in 5years or 6 places in 7 years etc. The question I do ask most time, is it necessary to include all your previous job in your cv or reduce it to few number of jobs?

Lets compare and contrast two applicants below and give our verdict as employers. The first, is an applicant who has worked in 6 places within 7 years. The second, is an applicant who has worked in only 2 places in 7 Years. Who will you consider for a job?.

Here’s My verdict, for the first applicant that worked in 6 places in 7 Years, I will not give him the job, because his job history has shown that he doesn’t stay long in a job, he is not consistent, no stable job experience, it might be that he is not a hard working person or he might have a character problem, as such no job for him. For the second applicant who worked for 2 places in 7 Years, I will give him the job, because he has demonstrated from his job history that he stay longer in a job, it means he has acquired better experience in each job with time, he is consistent and might be hard working and have better character. Yes for him, I will give him the job. So you see the implications.

The idea is, you don’t necessarily need to pile up long list of previous place of work, you should consider prone it down to 2 or 3 work places maximum. You can selects that which you acquired good experience and can get good reference in case. Be creative.

#4. Unnecessary Long List of Responsibility.

99.5% of the 50 CV i worked on failed in this aspect.? This class of applicants see responsibility as an achievement, so they pile up a long list and cover the whole space in their CV. As define by an online dictionary, “responsibility is the state of facts of being responsible, answerable or accountable for something within ones control”.

Hence that is what it is, it means responsibility is a general things and not personal, such that, 50 persons can have the same responsibilities at a time. for example a responsibility of Customer Service Officer is the same in similar industry every where you go. Then , why the long list of responsibilities in your cv? Wouldn’t it be better if you summarise it to one or two sentence and save yourself a lot of space in your CV. The best CV are not more than Two(2) pages.

For example a Bank Marketer can summarise her responsibility this way ‘Sale of banks retail products, such as Assets, Liability and Non financial' Simple and straight forward. An attacker in football team, like Lionel Messi and Neymar Junior, if you ask them to tell you their responsibilities, they will answer ‘ to score goals and give assist' simple and straight to the point, any other thing is secondary.

The idea is that, responsibility is a general thing, it doesn’t make you smarter or hardworking and it is not an achievement as you will see below.

#5 Complete Absence of Achievements.

99.9% of the 50 CV i worked on, did not mention achievements, even the very few that did, hid it inside their long list of responsibilities. Its quite unfortunate, perhaps because some applicant confuse achievement for responsibility and others did not realise the impact achievements carry on their CV.

The fact is, Your Achievement is what make you “Stand out from the crowd”, it makes you "an island of intelligent in a sea of mediocrity". Achievements is personal possession, you own it and no two persons has the same achievements, even twins Children.

From our example above, Lionel Messi and Neymar Junior, they are attackers, their responsibility is the same thing, ‘to score goals and give assist', but their achievement is completely different, while both players where in Barcelona in 2014/2015 football season, Lionel Messi Scored about 73 goals and 89 assist, While Neymar Junior scored about 33 goals and 41 assist. Lionel Messi has better achievement, and it is the singular reason why Lionel Messi is paid higher than Neymar in Barcelona. And, he is needed in all the big football clubs.

It is your achievements that catches the attention of your potential employers, they come to see you as a problem solver particular to your job function. No wonder i have started receiving positive testimonials from the 50 CV i did reviewed and rewritten here on nairaland, because i use my experience and expertise to uncover their achievements and project it properly in their CV. It is your duty to identify your achievements and channel it to your advantage. If you are finding it difficult to fix, you can always chat me up on WhatsApp or email below and I will gladly use my experience and expertise to fix it for you, for a small Service fee.

#6 Complete Absence or knowledge of Cover letter.

Unfortunately, almost 98 % of the cover letters i reviewed were very poor.

The fact is, as you aspire to move up in the job markets from a low pay job to a higher pay job that you desired, Cover letter and not your CV, became the most important weapon you need to persuade employers to look towards your direction.

It is in your cover letter that you have all the space to express your skills and achievements. You can get down to the details and demonstrate how your skills have solve previous problems of employers, particular to your job function. You will have the space to give details of your achievements.

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The family of a 28-year-old graduate of the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, Ifeoma Abugu, has been thrown into mourning after she was allegedly sexually assaulted and killed by the personnel of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Federal Capital Territory Command, Abuja.


It was gathered that three policemen on September 10, 2020, around 5pm, stormed the residence of Ifeoma’s fiancé, Afam Ugwunwa, at Wumba village in the Lokogoma area of Abuja to arrest him.

PUNCH Metro learnt that in absence of Ugwunwa, the policemen arrested Ifeoma and took her away.

Our correspondent learnt that all efforts to know the police station she was being taken to proved abortive as she was not found until Ugwunwa got a call the next day that Ifeoma had died and her corpse had been deposited in the morgue.

Ifeoma’s brother, Alex, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, said she had just concluded her National Youth Service Corps and was arrested and killed four days after she had her introduction with Ugwunwa in Enugu State.

He said, “I was in Lagos when one of my junior brothers called me that he learnt that SARS arrested our sister and she died in detention. I just came to Abuja today (Sunday) and I have asked some of my uncles, who have been to the police station, and they said that the policemen alleged that they met my sister unconscious on the bed and they carried her to hospital, where she died.

“When I asked my sister’s fiancé what happened, he said he went out and someone called him on the telephone that SARS had arrested my sister and when he came back, he called someone he knew at the SARS office to help in facilitating her release, but the person was unable to do it that night.

“The following morning, he gave the woman money to help facilitate the release, but the woman called back to tell him that Ifeoma was dead. When my uncles saw the picture of her corpse, they saw signs that she was sexually assaulted. We’re waiting for the result of an autopsy to come out to ascertain what happened to her.

“My sister was arrested four days after her introduction in the village and her wedding was slated for December. We want the killers to be brought to justice.”

When PUNCH correspondent contacted Ifeoma’s fiancé, he said he was too distraught to talk.

The family’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Mamah, who spoke to PUNCH correspondent on the telephone, urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to order a proper investigation into the matter.

He said, “She (Ifeoma) had just finished cooking that day, while her fiancé and her friend had finished eating and the friend left, while the fiancé went to see a friend in one of the neighbouring estates, when he received a call from a neighbour that the police had come to arrest his fiancée and she had been taken away and he received another call from Ifeoma that she was been taken away by SARS, but she didn’t know where they were taking her to.

“Ifeoma’s fiancé called a friend of his to help in looking for her and secure her release, but she was not found, only for the fiancé to receive a call the next day that she was dead and her corpse had been deposited in the morgue.

“The family of the deceased have not seen the corpse; the picture we have is the one the IPO snapped and sent to us when she went to the hospital, where her corpse was deposited; from the picture of the deceased, it appeared she was sexually assaulted before her death.

The SARS officers alleged that they met Ifeoma in an unconscious state and that when they got there, there was cocaine on the table and that they only helped to take her to hospital, where she was examined and pronounced dead, but they forgot that people witnessed when she was being taken away.

“We want justice to be served; we want the matter to be thoroughly investigated and assigned to good investigating officers, because the IPO that has been handling this matter is not erudite enough; that is why we do not have confidence in them. The officers, who perpetrated this act, must be brought to justice.”

Mamah’s petition to the IG read in part, “The IPO, Inspector Bullus, and DPO Usman informed us at the police station on September 15, 2020, in explanation that the deceased was met in an unconscious state by the officers. This explanation is contrary to the information from residents and our clients are not confident with the way the matter is being handled at the Apo Police Station.

“The SARS operatives, who did the arrest, are still not yet arrested and are freely walking the streets of Abuja. Our clients are not confident that the division will do justice in the matter, and the deceased body is still lying lifeless at Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital. Sir, we appeal that you use your highly esteemed office to ensure that proper investigation is carried out, that the culprits be brought to book and justice done.”

Our correspondent learnt the matter was first reported at the Apo Police Station and later transferred to the FCT Command.

When contacted by our correspondent, the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, Anjuguri Manzah, said he was not aware of the matter and urged the family of the victim to come to the command for further investigation.

“I’m not aware of this incident, but give me time to make enquiries. You can also link me up with the family of the victim so that they can come to the command,” he stated.

Source: Internet