CV and Skills: Building an Attractive CV for Higher Education Success

This essay delves into the critical aspects of curriculum vitae (CV) development, focusing on how individuals can enhance their CVs to attract employers, particularly in the competitive job market. It explores the significance of transferable skills, which are valuable across various professions, and provides insights into acquiring and showcasing these skills, even without prior work experience. The essay examines strategies for building a compelling CV, including identifying and developing relevant skill sets through online courses, skill development programs, and internships. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of skills acquired at universities, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork, and explains how these skills are crucial for success in the workplace. The essay also discusses the importance of presenting a well-structured CV, avoiding common pitfalls, and the value of networking and career counseling in boosting job prospects. Overall, the essay provides a comprehensive guide to CV enhancement and professional development, helping students and job seekers to create a standout CV and secure employment opportunities.

Study Skills
for
Higher Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The term CV stands for Curriculum Vitae, this is a type of document which is used by a
person to apply for the jobs. The curriculum vitae includes the person's education, experience,
skills along side with basic personal information of the job seeker. It can be said that you try to
sell your abilities to the employer through the curriculum vitae to the employer. This document
describes the person's each and every step of career journey. In the today's world the
competitiveness of the job market is relatively high, having the right skill with you apart from
the academic degree can differentiate you from the other competitors who are seeking for the
job. The transferable skills are those skills that are useful in every job irrelevance of the field or
title. Also these skills are portable that person have with them (Asamoah, Doran, and Schiller,
2020). The main aim of this essay is to elaborate how a person can boost his curriculum vitae
through different ways, finding the right skill-set to build and how to make his own experience if
a person does not have any work experience for grabbing the attention of the recruiter. It also
aims to examine the different skills that student can learn and develop at universities, and to
evaluate why these skills are important in the workplace, how will these help students in the
workplace.
MAIN BODY
Assessment 1
Curriculum vitae is very essential for the person who has completed his education and
seeking for the job in the job market. When a person goes for the interview, he or she has to
present his CV. The curriculum vitae should not be confused with the resume, resume is a shorter
document which presents a concise key information about professional qualification and skills.
Whereas a curriculum vitae presents full information of whole course of career. The CV
contains important information and documents that are needed to be present in front of the hiring
manager (Dunnick, 2022). It contains informations such as skills, education background,

work experience, career goals and abilities of the person in order to grab the attention of
recruiter. The most important thing in the curriculum vitae is the work experience, but if one
does not have it then is is very difficult to grab the opportunities. But there are certain ways
through which a individual can boost his CV which will help him to grab the attention of the
employer. In each country the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced the number of opportunities for
the youth. The students can develop different type of skills in order to enhance the CV making it
more effective and alluring (Torres-Toukoumidis, and et. al., 2019). The students who does not
have any work experience can work on gaining different types of skills which are commonly
used in every business and workplace. This could increase the performance and capabilities of
the person. The first step in is order is to identify and examine the skills that a person possess and
the skills that are needed to build. Thus the person can find the area of improvement and work on
it (Eduan, 2019). Having the right skill for the specific job can help you during the hiring
process. The person can obtain the right skill set through different modes for instance the
online coursed, skill development programmes and certification courses online. These are
helpful to build the specific knowledge of the field and increasing the capabilities. There are
various online websites that are providing paid and even free courses for the youth. Having these
certifications and skill set in the CV can increase the chances of person to get noticed and hired
for the job. Also some of the companies are providing internship programmes to the students in
which they can enrol and get the practical exposure of the workplace. Through these the student
can obtain the knowledge how the business workplace functions. Connecting with the peers is
another way to increase the opportunities (Frejd, 2020). Connecting with the same field people
and increasing the network is another way to boost the general experience for the people who do
not have any work experience. There are a lot of forums and websites which provides access to
the people to connect with the people who are famous and proficient in particular field. By
gathering information from the working people or experienced people is helpful in gaining
experience of that field. This could help with the guidance to move forward and grow in that
career. There are also different counselling forums are available for the students. These are
conducted with the aim of encouraging the students and helping them performing better in
their life also in achievement of their goals. These counselling sessions find different and
innovative ways for the students and provides chances to them to prove the professional skills
and qualities that they have obtained through the sessions (Macfarlane, 2020).

My CV does not include some points and this could become a negative point for me in
front of the recruiter. As we saw in above discussion the skills are most important part of the CV.
But there are some basic and common areas of improvement in the skill set where I am lacking.
Not having these basic skill is a major drawback of my CV, as employers mainly focuses in
this particular area of curriculum vitae for knowing the capability of the job seeker in order to
enhance the performance of the organization's business. It is forcing me to doubt my confidence
and creating the sense of less confidence in myself when I am facing the recruiter of any
organization. And on the different side, having no experience in any work place or organization
is creating several issues while conveying my side to the recruiters of business organizations. It
is very necessary for me to work on these areas to improve my chances and make my CV
recognisable to the recruiters for the wanted position in a organization. To overcome these
difficulties I have opted to follow the online courses and certifications to enhance the skill set
for achieving my future goal. Also I was mentioning the references in the CV which caused the
poor presentation in front of the recruiter, and this is wrong for me. The businesses wants the
person who have the knowledge of a particular field (Teixeira da Silva, 2020), but I was
mentioning myself as a multitasker and it could cause the confusion to depicting myself as a
inefficient employee in front of the recruiter. Also I was mentioning too much irrelevant
information in my CV, which is totally unprofessional and making my CV messy. In my
personal experience I am partially unhappy with my CV.
Assessment 2
Skills which students develop at university and why they are important in the workplace
Universities helps the students to get the proficiency in the different subjects or fields that
student opted but in the modern time the companies look for some skills that students must learn
with the degree in the universities. These skills are known as transferable skills. The transferable
skills can be hard and these can be soft too for learning. For instance the hard transferable skills
are data analysis, coding, and other tech oriented skills. And the soft skills includes
communication, writing, relationship building, teamwork and many more. These skills are useful
in any professional environment. These skills are required to learn by the students in order to be
successful in the life. Some of them are discussed below;

Critical thinking: This skill refers to the evaluation, analysation of information to make
a decision or come at a right conclusion. Critical thinking is about asking the relevant questions
in order to come at the best conclusion or decision. The student must learn to view a situation
from various view points this will help them to identify the right course of action. Critical
thinking helps companies to deal with complex situation because critical thinking is not specific
to some subject, it is the capability to analyse information, statics, data and other relevant details
for finding the best possible solution (Ebo Hinson and Mogaji, 2020). This helps students to
develop decision making skills and problem solving skills which would be helpful in the
workplace to tackle the difficult solution. The critical thinking skill can be developed or
increased by the students through asking the questions in the classroom, doing participation in
the different discussions at the university, study with the help of different examples, and going
beyond the academic learning. Critical thinking further includes different type of skills those are
observation, analysis,open mind-ness, analytical thinking, inference and evaluation. The
students can highlight these into the resume to get noticed by the companies.
Problem solving: This is the ability to solve a problem effectively. This skill helps
students to identify the problem and it also helps them to find the cause of the problem and
choosing right course of action to solve the problem. The companies also wants the employee
who are capable of identifying and solving the bottlenecks or inefficiency in a project or process
and help companies to improve the organization. Students can develop problem solving in this
following manner; The problem solving includes different steps those are; identifying the
problem, evaluation of the problem, developing potential solutions, evaluation of options,
selecting the best solution, implementing the solution and lastly evaluation of results (Kolmos
and Holgaard, 2019). Students can implement these into examples of companies situations or in
real life situations. This skill is helpful in workplace in this manner; it provides them the deeper
understanding, they become more resilient, they can develop new ways or perspective to look
at problems, this also develops the ability to work in the pressure, and thinking outside of the
box. Thus they are able to take measured risk in the company.
Communication skills: This refers to the persons ability to communicate. This is the
ability to present and share your informations and idea in a clear and brief manner. It is one of
the most important skills that should be developed by the students. In the today's world the
communication is done through different channels such as video conferencing, social media,

telephones and through texting. The companies wants the employees who are capable of
communicate with the team, management, and others people outside of the the organization. The
students can improve the communicational skills in this following manner; the student must
focus on listening, the students can develop to convey the message in short and clear manner and
stick to the point, the student should keep eye contact while communicating, watch the others
tone and use the hand movements it will help them to have a good body language, also the being
confidant while communicating is important, the student must develop sense of respect in the
communication, it could be achieved through paying attention and using person's name,
communication should be done through right mode such as if student is communicating to the
any officials about something it should be done through emails (Lewin and Gregory, 2019). The
communication helps students in work place in these ways; this helps to boost their morale,
productivity, engagement and satisfaction. This also helps students to improve team
collaboration and engagement. It also helps to drive best possible result for the employee,
teams and business. Thus effective communication is essential to develop for the workplace.
Team work skills: This skill refers to the ability of working with each other as group in
order to achieve a common goal. The classroom in the universities provides a culture of
competitiveness among each other instead of collaboration or team work. The students have to
adapt the culture of the teamwork in the organisations or at workplace. The employers also look
out for the employees who are capable of working in a team and collaborative environment, they
seek for the team players who are capable of giving positive contributions for the team in order
to get success (Lu and et. al., 2021). The students can develop teamwork skills in these following
ways; the students can take participation in extracurricular activities in the universities, they can
volunteer for the programmes happening at universities, participation in communication, they
should be adaptive to new ideas, build trust with teammates, stay humble and excited about
things. These practices can help student to improve the teamwork, this can also improves
leadership and conflict solving skills, it will allow students to show their skills in the
organization. The teamwork in workplace will help students to build strong relationship with
employees. This will increase the synergy, innovation, productivity and engagement.
Time Management skill: This skill states the ability to schedule and manage time
efficiently. Managing your time is very essential for the workplace. The employer seek for the
time management skill in employees for evaluation of workload, dividing it according to

priorities, and maintaining the focus on endeavours that are productive, and completion of
assigned tasks on time. The student can develop time manage time management skills in
following manner; the student should set priorities of work in the day to day task, the
multitasking should be avoided, staying away from the distractions, they can also use technology
they can use time management apps and they can set timers in order to improve their skills of
time management. The time management skills helps students at workplace in better
performance (Nghia, 2019), deliver work on the time, this will help them to reduce anxiety and
stress, it will also increase the quality of the work, this will help to improve productivity and
efficiency and lastly it will help students to maintain the life balance and work better.
Computer skills: This skill refers to the knowledge of the computer programmes and use
of common software that business uses at workplace. The businesses seek for the computer skills
in the employees because in today's world the work is done with the use of computers and
businesses are dependent on the computers heavily. The students can develop computer skills by
taking computer classes in order to enhance the basic computer knowledge. The students can
search answers online (Peck and Callahan, 2019). By practising the skills that know, they can
also develop those by enrolling in educational courses, the students can learn different shortcuts
online. The computer skill is helpful for the students at workplace in this manner; it enhances
their capabilities, productivity and efficiency, this also opens opportunity for them it increases
the chances for leadership and promotions. This also helps to increase work performance. It also
improves the communication because in the workplace most of the official communication is
done through the mails and computers. Thus being computer proficient, the student can grow
better in their career.
Presentation and public speaking skills: These are the group of abilities that allows a
person to give a oral presentation effectively and with confidence. This skill includes different
minor skills that a person requires for effectively performing presentation skills. Some of those
are; use of eye contact, using body language in presentation, creating helpful materials for
presentation like slides and documents. The companies also seek for presentation skills in
employees for business success (Sarkar and et. al., 2020). The students can develop presentation
skills in these ways; the student can use classrooms to present the presentation skills on different
topics, they should use useful information for the audience, they can learn from other speakers,
practice watching in the mirror, and also they can try to memorize the presentation and speech,

stay relevant while presenting, staying confidant on the presentation, keeping pauses between the
presentation and being open to the questions. The presentation is effective when it is done in a
story mode and the presentor should be able to connect with the audience also they should be
loud and clear. These ways will help student to develop presentation skills which will help them
in effective team communication at the workplace, increasing efficiency and effectiveness. The
student becomes more confidant at the workplace and they can overcome the anxiety of talking
to the audience. This will also help them to avoid the miscommunication.
Leadership skills: This skill refers to the ability of the person to manage and supervise a
team, this also includes ability of leading a project and get a group to follow through and achieve
shared goals (Sawarynski, Baxa, and Folberg 2019). The employer seek for the leadership skill
in the employees in order to build strong teams and ensure the work projects are completed
successfully. The student can develop leadership skills by gaining other skills collectively, taking
part in the leadership activities in the universities, it can be done through taking responsibility of
different programmes and also volunteering in them, the student should practice for discipline in
them, they can focus on motivating and inspiring others, they should also learn to solve the
conflicts. This can help students in this following manner; it helps in building relation within
groups, this also helps to effectively achieve tasks, it also provides opportunity to display their
interpersonal skills, it also helps to motivate and inspire other team members (Tse and Di
Bona, 2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it can be concluded that the CV is very important to get the desired
job. The essay shows us the ways to develop the skill set and improving personal development.
This shows us the proper way to find own areas of improvement and start working on them.
There is also some some positive and negative points of the CV has been shared. Also it
concludes that different skills developed by the student during the academics helps them in the
workplace throughout different situations. The transferable skills are helpful for both the
employee and the employer. These helped students in different ways on the workplace for
instance it increased their ability, performance, efficiency and effectiveness in them. It also
helped to manage their time and tasks in order to achieve the maximum potential. The
transferable skills also improves the teamwork and communication between the employees and

also provides different opportunities. Thus these skills are essential for the student for overall
development and career growth of the students at workplace.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
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students: Towards an informed decision-making process. In Higher education marketing
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Eduan, W., 2019. Influence of study abroad factors on international research collaboration:
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students ready for work?. In The Engineering-Business Nexus (pp. 499-520). Springer,
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generic employability skills in science curricula. Higher Education Research &
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developing transitional skill sets through a scholarly concentration program. Teaching
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