Date: Monday, May 12, 2025
Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.
Hello there, my name is Bachuma Tom, an Emerging Evaluator from the South Africa Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA). For over 2 years I have assisted graduates and well-seasoned professionals to craft their Curriculum Vitae’s (CVs) to attract their dream jobs in various industries such as sales, engineering, and science to mention a few. This skill was motivated by my interest and research in career development from an early stage during university. Here I dedicate top 3 strategies to write a compelling CV for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) professionals.
Forget the structures, forget the layout and the standard approaches used by everyone else. Write your CV the way you see fit. Allow it to represent you and align it to the company in many ways which you can. I recently had to write a cover letter, and I used a blue template and unconsciously realised that the colour blue aligns with the branding of the company. This may not be significant but one may notice such and imagine the effort and consideration leaving a good impression to the reader. This also speaks to the language you use and how you present your experience. If you are applying for an M&E position in the education space that is research focused – use education and research jargon. This also benefits you in the process of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) which is a system that allows companies to manage their recruitment process electronically.
Your CV does not verbally speak for you, but it provides an impression and brief overview of you and your skills which is further unpacked in the interview. So, the question you ask yourself should be “how does my CV set me apart from the other candidates? “or “what can I mention in my CV that will convince the recruiter to provide me an opportunity for an interview?”
I always advise that instead of writing “projects and programmes” – name them including the tools and systems you have used for different projects as there are different approaches to different sectors. The trick is to be concise, use actions words, quantify other duties, and group those that fall under the same function.
Provide links that direct the recruiter to the articles, blogs and research papers and reports which you have written or published. Secondly, have a section that shares links to any tools, frameworks, policies etc, that can not be found online but instead on a google drive. Ensure that access to the drive is protected.
Mention the networks and collaborations which you have been affiliated with during the course of your career. This does not only demonstrate excellent stakeholder management skills, but it also highlights opportunities for the potential organisation to leverage on your networks. This is where association helps to create positive impressions about you. Your networks also play a role to how one perceives your participation in the sector and reveals your cross-sectoral expertise.
Besides, just having a good CV in PDF and using your LinkedIn as your digital CV – one of the best advice I have been given in my career on mastering networking is to “always have your CV on your tongue”. The M&E space has various associations and memberships that one can be part of – sign up and be active in these platforms – they look good on your CV.
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