10 tips on writing a successful CV

Top tips on writing a successful CV: get the basics right and stick to no more than two pages of A4. Photograph. When it comes to applying for a new job, your CV could be just the ticket to get you that initial foot in the door and secure an interview – but how do you ensure your CV is added to the interview pile rather than thrown straight in the bin? Putting together a successful CV is easy once you know how. It’s a case of taking all your skills and experience and tailoring them to the job you’re applying for. But what if you don’t meet the right criteria? Well, I’ve put together the following tips to help you get started in creating a successful CV and securing your first (or next) arts job. Get the basics right There is no right or wrong way to write a CV but there are some common sections you should cover. These include: personal and contact information; education and qualifications; work history and/or experience; relevant skills to the job in question; own interests, achievements or hobbies; and some references. Presentation is key A successful CV is always carefully and clearly presented, and printed on clean, crisp white paper. The layout should always be clean and well structured and CVs should never be crumpled or folded, so use an A4 envelope to post your applications. Always remember the CV hotspot – the upper middle area of the first page is where the recruiter’s eye will naturally fall, so make sure you include your most important information there. Stick to no more than two pages of A4 A good CV is clear, concise and makes every point necessary without waffling. You don’t need pages and pages of paper – you just keep things short and sweet. A CV is a reassurance to a potential employer, it’s a chance to tick the right boxes. And if everything is satisfied, there’s a better chance of a job interview. Also, employers receive dozens of CVs all the time so it’s unlikely they’ll read each one cover to cover. Most will make a judgment about a CV within sections, so stick to a maximum of two pages of A4 paper. Understand the job description The clues are in the job application, so read the details from start to finish. Take notes and create bullet points, highlighting everything you can satisfy and all the bits you can’t. With the areas where you’re lacking, fill in the blanks by adapting the skills you do have. For example, if the job in question requires someone with sales experience, there’s nothing stopping you from using any retail work you’ve undertaken – even if it was something to help pay the bills through university. It will demonstrate the skills you do have and show how they’re transferable. Tailor the CV to the role When you’ve established what the job entails and how you can match each requirement, create a CV specifically for that role. Remember, there is no such thing as a generic CV. Every CV you send to a potential employee should be tailored to that role so don’t be lazy and hope that a general CV will work because it won’t. Create a unique CV for every job you apply for. You don’t have to re-write the whole thing, just adapt the details so they’re relevant. Making the most of skills Under the skills section of your CV don’t forget to mention key skills that can help you to stand out from the crowd. These could include: communication skills; computer skills; team working; problem solving or even speaking a foreign language. Skills can come out of the most unlikely places, so really think about what you’ve done to grow your own skills, even if you take examples from being in a local sports team or joining a voluntary group – it’s all relevant. Making the most of interests Under interests, highlight the things that show off skills you’ve gained and employers look for. Describe any examples of positions of responsibility, working in a team or anything that shows you can use your own initiative. For example, if you ran your university’s newspaper or if you started a weekend league football team that became a success. Include anything that shows how diverse, interested and skilled you are. Don’t include passive interests like watching TV, solitary hobbies that can be perceived as you lacking in people skills. Make yourself sound really interesting. Making the most of experience Use assertive and positive language under the work history and experience sections, such as “developed”, “organised” or “achieved”. Try to relate the skills you have learned to the job role you’re applying for. For example: “The work experience involved working in a team,” or “This position involved planning, organisation and leadership as I was responsible for a team of people”. Really get to grips with the valuable skills and experience you have gained from past work positions, even if it was just working in a restaurant – every little helps. Including references References should be from someone who has employed you in the past and can vouch for your skills and experience. If you’ve never worked before you’re OK to use a teacher or tutor as a referee. Try to include two if you can. Keep your CV updated It’s crucial to review your CV on a regular basis and add any new skills or experience that’s missing. For example, if you’ve just done some volunteering or worked on a new project, make sure they’re on there – potential employers are always impressed with candidates who go the extra mile to boost their own skills and experience.

STARTING OF SNAIL BIZ

How to Start Snail Farming in Nigeria in Practical Easy and Simple Way

How to Start Snail Farming in Nigeria in Practical Easy and Simple Way Snail farming in Nigeria is one of the most neglected and yet one of the post profitable animal rearing business anywhere in the country. It provides one of the finest opportunity to make good money at a very short time. But why are Nigerians not yet fully engaged in this money making animal rearing? The reason is ignorance. Most people in Nigeria still have the believe that snail can only be picked in the bush. The culture of going to the bush to pick snails in the villages during raining time has been there for generations. So, it has been difficult for people to come to term that snail can actually be kept and grown at home. Just like in many other aspects of farming in the country, Nigerians are yet to discover the great money making potential in snail rearing business and that is why we suffer in hunger and poverty. We neglect where the money is and keep pursuing it where it is not, going from one city to the other looking for one petty trading after another to trade on. The good new: After reading this article, you will be on your way to starting your own snail business in easy and simple steps. And we are backing it up with a Practical Snail Farming eBook for those who can afford it. Making ₦50,000,000 annually in snail rearing is a done deal if you do it well and get it right in a big way. I will try to be as comprehensive as possible with this article so that you can get going after reading it, and as people starts commenting - asking questions and adding what they know about snail farming, the information here will be more enriched for everyone's benefit. What is Snail: Land snails we wants to talk about belongs to the class of Molluscan, Gastropod. The one popularly known as 'Congo Meat' in many parts of Nigeria - Eju, Igbin, etc... There are so many species of snails but the ones we are looking at here are the ones that are suitable for Snail Farming. There are three Species that are most suitable in this regards, there are: 1. Achatina fulica - The East African land snail, or giant African land snail, scientific name Achatina fulica, is a species of large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae Achatina_fulica_East_African_snail Achatina fulica - The East African land snail 2. Achatina Achatina - Achatina achatina, common name the giant Ghana snail, also known as the giant tiger land snail, is a species of very large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae. Achatina_Achatina Achatina Achatina - Giant West African Snail 3. Archachatina Marginata - Archachatina marginata, common name the giant West African snail, is a species of air-breathing tropical land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Achatinidae. They can grow up to 20cm long, and live up to 10 years. Archachatina_Marginata Archachatina Marginata Among these three species, Achatina Achatina is the most desirable for farmers because it grows so big to become the biggest snail species in the world. Achatina Achaina has it's origin from Nigeria, get to Liberia from Nigeria and then Ghana Another reason is due to it’s high yield capacity. The other species are very good too but I will focus on Achatina Achatina and Archachatina Marginata in this blog post because, they are easy to find in Nigeria. Achatina-Achatina is very good for commercialization as well, because of its profitability. This is because of the volume of eggs it lays at once. Each achatina lays 300 to 500 eggs at a time in clutches, three times a year. Therefore, if you start a farm with about 1000 snails, in one year you would be getting about 1.5 million snails going by the number of eggs they produces. Having decided on the specie, let’s take you through the step by step how to setup your snail farm in a small scale level and starts rearing your snail towards harvest. 1. Snail Farming Environment - Snails are easily dehydrated, and wind increase the rate of moisture loose in snail which in turn, leads to the dryness of the animal. To prevent snails from losing water so quickly, your snaileries (the snail house) must be located in environment that is protected from wind. A low plain, downhill site surrounded with enough trees is perfect for snail farming. You may plant plantains and bananas around your snail farm to prevent the impact of wind. 2. Type of Soil For Snail Farm – Snail’s major habitat is the soil, and soil contains some of the components and chemical substances that it needed to survive. However, not all soils are suitable for snail rearing. The shell of the snail is mainly calcium and it derive most of them from the soil. Snail also lay it’s eggs on the soil and drink water out of the soil. Hence, the suitable soil for snail farming must contain these elements. Must be balanced, not waterlogged, not too dry, and must not be acidic. The most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loamy soil with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil and acidic soil must be avoided. 3. Getting The Sails For Farming – To start up a snail farm, it is advisable to get snails directly from the forest instead of buying from the market after they have been exposed to sunlight and have dehydrated. This is because snails drink a lot of water, so are easily dehydrated and this stresses them out, and reduce their fertility capacity. The intending snail farmer could pick the snails from the bush with a very simple technique; clear a little portion of land during rainy season and sprinkle spicy fruits like pineapple, pawpaw, plantain, banana etc at about 5o’clock in the evening, when you go back there about 7pm or 8pm, you will pick up snails suitable for rearing. Repeat the procedure until you get enough quantity. Another way could be to pick up snail eggs littered in the market place where it is sold and through a technique, check the fertility of the eggs, because some of them must have lost fertility due to the exposure to sunlight. The eggs are later put inside a container containing wet sand and covered with cocoyam leaf. Between 21 to 28 days, the eggs would hatch into baby snails. You start feeding them and gradually you raise a snail farm.” 4. The Snail House (Snailery) - Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind to a covered box if you are breeding in small scale. For larger population of snails, you can dug a trench or make a concrete pen with soil deep of about 10 inches, and cover it with screen or wire all around to prevent the snails from escaping. Remember that snails can reproduce fast and become pests when their breeding is uncontrolled. Snails love dark and cold places, but make sure the humidity does not drop to levels harmful to the snails. You can use fresh leaves and cloth that is regularly wet to regulate the temperature. Also, the wire is useful in keeping away rats and snakes or other predators from eating the snails in your snail farm. But aside from these bigger predators, you should be wary about smaller ones like ants and termites. Your construction must have these predators in mind. 5. Snails Foods and Feeding – Snails especially Achatina mainly feeds on green leaves and fruits though they can utilize other ranges of foods. Feed your snails leaves, fruits, or even formula from the feed store. Aside from food to grow tissues, snails need calcium to grow shells. Leaves: Cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage and lettuce leaves. Fruits: Mango, eggplant, pawpaw, banana, tomatoes, oil palm fruits, pears. and cucumber. Once they start growing, separate the big ones from the small ones. It take more than a year for the Achatina type to grow to harvest size. Others mature in two years. One million snails after a year or two sold at the rate of N50 each (highly reduced price) will give about N50 million! Isn’t that a good investment? Drop your comment below. You can get the Snail Farming eBook and other important business eBooks on our eBook page!

18 things to do before an interview:

interview

Being interviewed is a critical aspect of the hiring process. You have already made it past the resume overview and now it is time for you to have what might be the only face-to-face interaction with your potential employer before they decide to hire you or not. It is essential that you put your best foot forward and allow the interviewer to get to know the person they’d be working with. They learned about your accomplishments from your resume; now show them your personality and how you handle yourself in a professional environment.
Here are 43 items to help you through the interviewing process.
18 things to do before an interview:
1.Get a good night sleep the night before. You’ll look better and feel better, allowing yourself to make the best first impression.
2.Do your research. Know the company that you are interviewing with so you can answer their questions well and in the right context. It will also show that you are truly interested in the company.
3.Eat a good breakfast. You’ll be more alert and focused.
4.Prepare questions beforehand. Know the answers to basic questions that they will most likely ask you. Also come up with a few questions about the company or position you are applying for to show that you’re interested.
5.Make a few copies of your resume and put them somewhere where you won’t forget to bring them.
6.Search the web. It is likely someone else has interviewed with the company, so search the web and see what others are saying about it.
7.Make sure your clothes are clean and wrinkle-free.
8.Know who will be interviewing you, and learn a bit about their background.
9.Know your strengths and put together a list of them.
10.Prepare a solid list of references that you can give your interviewer on the spot.
11.Brush your teeth.
12.Put on deodorant.
13.Pre-write your thank you notes so you can drop them off right afterwards.
14.Know how to answer the question, “What will you add to the company by joining it?”
15.Carry a tissue or handkerchief in your pocket to dry your hands in case you are nervous before you go in.
16.Turn off your cell phone.
17.Prepare for the different types of interviews: behavior, experiential, or combination.

HOW TO WRITE A CV

Writing a Curriculum Vitae

A Curriculum Vitae is a summary of an individual’s professional
and educational history. This document is usually prepared by a person applying for a job.
A CV can also be seen as a marketing document – marketing you. To paraphrase it,
in a CV you are selling your skills, qualifications, expertise and experience to potential employers.
Information to include 
1. Education and qualifications Include your degree, diploma or any other relevant qualification, plus Matric, A-levels or equivalents. You can also mention grades, but this is in some cases irrelevant.
 2. Skills Some of the most important abilities to include in your CV are language and computer skills.
3. Personal details These include your name, address, cell and telephone number and email.
4. Work experience Relate the skills to the job, e.g a management role will involve team work and management abilities, or work in a book shop will involve people skills and knowledge of books.
5. Interests Keep this section short and snappy. Include interests that are relevant to the job.
5. References This is someone who can recommend you for employment, e.g a colleague, a former employer, or a university lecturer.