Course of study on the curriculum vitae

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When applying for a job position, the aim is to positively impress the potential employer by providing as much information as possible about our experiences, work and training. Among the fundamental elements of a CV there is certainly one’s own course of study, which must be specified in such a way as to allow those who evaluate our curriculum to make a reasoned decision. In this guide, we give you all the tools to evaluate what information related to your school career you need to include on your curriculum.

The curriculum of CV studies, a fundamental element

Unlike other data that can be omitted, such as one’s personal status and gender, information on the school career must absolutely be entered, treating it like one’s own contact details (telephone number and email) and one’s own experiences working. This is because in a working world where competition is increasingly high, what makes the difference can also be those that appear to us as irrelevant and insignificant details.

Education is important for several reasons:

  • It allows you to effectively outline the candidate’s profile.
  • If consistent with all the rest of the experiences present in the CV, it is a way to distinguish yourself from other candidates.
  • If not consistent with other experiences, it can be a way to demonstrate an aptitude for adaptation and possibly change.

Is it mandatory to enter information about your education in the CV?

There is no formal obligation when it comes to entering information about your school career in a CV but there is an unwritten obligation, which requires that this data be added to generate an attractive and above all complete curriculum. If this formal obligation is to be considered valid for all job positions, it is even more important to take it into account when applying for highly specialized positions that require a higher level of education; in fact, with the same professional experience, for this type of professions very often companies prefer to select candidates with a more in-depth and structured school background.

Let’s take an example, to better understand this point.

Open position as a senior executive at a major energy company

The position requires a master’s degree in engineering and no other educational requirements are specified in the job description.

  • Candidate 1 specifies to have a degree in engineering and also specific experience in the field.
  • Candidate 2 specifies having an engineering degree, a master’s degree in energy sector and experience in the sector
  • Candidate 3 specifies that you have an engineering degree, a master’s degree in energy, a master’s degree in a particular segment of the energy sector, and industry experience.

In your opinion, who will be the candidates who will pass the very first selection based on the curriculum?

How important is it to specify the institutions at which you studied?

Every year the data relating to the most prestigious universities and institutes in Italy are released, which are classified taking into account the services offered, the percentage of students who have just graduated, and other parameters that vary annually.

Generally in Italy, we tend to specify the Institute where the degree was obtained or where it was studied if the University is considered prestigious but also if it is not.

However, this is potentially irrelevant and unnecessary information since having studied at one university or another does not automatically guarantee that you are better than those who studied at other universities. But even today it is information that can be entered (but in fact almost never requested during the interview, unless the University is particularly relevant for the job position being interviewed) and therefore it is possible to decide independently whether to add or not.

Masters and post-graduate courses

Masters and post-graduate courses must absolutely be included in the CV, as we have seen above, as they define the skills of the candidate in a given subject and, even if this is not always the case, they can constitute an advantage over other candidates.

Unlike university courses and similar, in the case of postgraduate masters or specialization courses it is always It is important to specify the institution where you studied since each structure is specialized in a certain sector and this partly determines the specific experience of the candidate on a single subject.

Enter owner a school career within the CV

We have specified several times that a good CV is easy to read, coherent and non-redundant, and it is for this reason that you need to be careful when entering data on your school career in the document, especially if you have to insert it multiple.

Here are some basic rules to follow:

  • The school career must be entered in reverse chronological order, starting from the last to get to the first;
  • If you have no work experience or if you have little, the information about your school career should be entered immediately after the personal details;
  • If you have at least 6 months of work experience, it is good to enter the information on your school career immediately after work experience, which must be entered immediately after the personal details;
  • If your university and post-university career is particularly rich, omit the information relating to high school altogether ;
  • If you stopped in high school, add all the information related to the skills acquired and matured during the course of study;
  • If you stopped in middle school, add the years of study;
  • Do not overdo the information: specify only the years of study, any year of graduation and qualification;
  • In the case of courses and masters highly qualifying, specify if during the study period you took part in special projects.

Do not enter redundant information relating to your school career on the CV, always in order to keep the document short and clean.

Summarizing

  • Providing information on your academic background is essential for building a perfect CV;
  • Based on the job offer you are applying for, it is good practice to specify as much information as possible as long as it is relevant;
  • The information must always be entered in chronological order, from the most recent to the oldest.