CV Writing – References

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Our CV includes personal details, profile sentences, work experience, education, references and skills. Today I would like to take a stand and talk about your References. The people in your CV references can vouch for your character, skills, and work performance. Recruiters like to contact your references to find out more about you.

The questions that the recruiters are most likely to ask the people you noted can be:

  • What is their relationship to you?
  • Are you a good employee?
  • Why are you no longer working for them?
  • What are your defining characteristics, such as abilities, work ethics, interpersonal skills, punctuality etc.?
  • Will you be a good fit for this job?

When choosing your references, you should remember that recruiting professionals will always check them; here are some tips:

  • Be careful with who you include in the list; make sure they know you well. For example, you may write the name of someone with a very high position in your company or even a well-known professional in the field. However, please note this will only do you much good if they know you enough to have something meaningful to say about you.
  • It would be best not to put your friends or relatives in your references.
  • Traditionally you should provide at least two references on your CV. The first should be your current or former employer, and the second can be someone who knows you well in a professional or academic setting.
  • Remember that if you use a former employer as a reference, it should be the most recent.

Use a clear and short format to present your reference: Full name, job title, company name, work phone number and/or email. Briefly describe your relationship with the contact.

For example, My mentor, Yael Uzan-Tidhar, Programme Director, Nhloso Likusasa Le’lichakazile, info@likusasa.org

Need help with your CV? Visit us at Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre for employability. You can also find us on social at Likusasa Letfu, email info@likusasaleftu.com or call us on 79585564/78033230.

CV Writing skills –Education History

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When writing your CV, we recommend you add your educational history, even if you did not finish high school.

While the basics are obvious, there are some valuable tips to impress the H.R. manager who reads your CV.

Let’s start with the basics: this is the information you need to include:

  • Your most recent degree (or education in progress)
  • The name of your school
  • Location of your school
  • Dates attended and graduation date (or expected graduation date)
  • Your field of study
  • Any academic honours, relevant coursework or awards you received
  • Appropriate extracurricular activities and study-abroad programs

Now let’s make it better with some tips:

  • Tailor the education history to the job.
  • Start with your highest degree first.
  • Add all other degrees in reverse-chronological order.
  • Only add your high school information if you finished college/diploma/certificate.
  • You can spell your degree as “Bachelor of Arts” or use the initials “B.A.“
  • You can either use periods to separate initials “M.A.” – or not “M.A.”
  • You can write out the name of your major “MA in Psychology”, or separate your degree from your major with a comma “, MA, Psychology.”
  • Use the same format for the entries in your education section; remain consistent.

You can order the information in various ways.

For example, a candidate who graduated from UNESWA may feel like her degree is separate from the job for which she’s applying. That can happen when you’re a social science major.

In that case, she may want to lead with the fact that she attended UNISWA, as having a degree is an added value, regardless if it fits the job or not:

University of Eswatini, Matsapha, BA

BA Social Sciences

Graduated in 2022 with a distinction

If you didn’t graduate high school, you should still mention the years you were there:

St. John Bosco High School, Malkenrs

Attended school from 2019 – 2021

Visit Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre for Employability for more information and support in job searching. Please find us on social media at Likusasa Letfu, or call 79585564/ 78033230 info@likusasaletfu.com.

Skills – makes your CV shine

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Our CV includes details, profile sentences, work experience, education history, references and skills. While education and experience are essential, the skills we have and can offer to the job can sometimes make all the difference. The CV is a flexible document that we can change according to our position and history. When it is essential to prove our education – we start with that. When it is the experience we can impress with to get the job, we start with it. If we don’t have enough of either, we can put our skills at the start of the document and use them to impress the reader.

Skills refer to the ability to do something well. It can be the ability to use knowledge effectively and readily in execution and performance. They are divided into two, hard and soft skills.

Hard skills are the abilities you learnt and can easily prove, for example, computer skills and driving.

Soft skills are attributes you have within you (by nature, or you developed and practised) which are not unique to any job, such as communication and management skills.

Everyone should have both skills to be employed. In your CV, list a combination of both.

When using the buzzwords of soft skills, it’s best to know what they stand for and ensure you can perform them if asked to do so. Refrain from stating you have Excellent communication skills when you cannot speak loudly and clearly at the job interview. Here are some of the more common soft skills we should be able to have:

Communication and interpersonal skill is the ability to express your ideas and opinions clearly and to explain what you want to achieve without ambiguity. This includes listening, understanding and acting upon what others are saying or instructing.

Problem-solving skills is the skill that allows someone to think logically and find a solution.

Self-motivation is the ability to develop new ideas and solutions

and display enterprising capabilities to do things independently without being instructed.

Working under pressure, the ability to deliver the best performance within deadlines without buckling under stress.

Identify your hard skills by listing what you learnt or did at your previous work. If you have work experience, list all the things you do at work and map them to the list of employability skills. If you have yet to gain experience, record the activity you know best from your course or life experience. Try to show unique employability skills.

 

Visit Likusasa Letfu Youth Centre for Employability for more information and support in job searching. Please find us on social media at Likusasa Letfu, or call 79585564/ 78033230 info@likusasaletfu.com.

Address

Shop 14, Matsapha Business Centre, Matsapha, M202, Eswatini
P.O. Box 1167, Matsapha, M202, Eswatini

Telephone

+268 7958 5564
+268 7803 3230

Email

info@likusasa.org

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