What the CV leaves out
Soraya Mohamedi Mohamed · Ubuntu Canarias · 2 min read
It saddens me to come across CVs from migrants, and especially from young people who arrived as minors, that have been completely watered down. CVs where almost nothing appears.
Very often I sense there is much more to tell behind them, but someone forgot to ask. Or they themselves don't yet know which parts of what they have lived and learned could be valuable at work. And so the very thing that could be their strength is forgotten.
The boy with the engines
I remember a young man who had learned in Morocco, with his father, to repair car engines and to paint them. When I saw his CV, there was no trace of it anywhere.
We talked about it and added it, because that wasn't "helping his father". He had practical knowledge of vehicle repair and maintenance, he could handle tools, he had worked with engines and he knew a trade that, on top of that, he enjoyed.
Then something else came up. He was sending CVs for hospitality jobs. Not because it was what he wanted, but probably because it seemed the most accessible option. His interest was in cars.
That opened another path: looking for training in the automotive sector, mechanics, bodywork and painting, depending on his abilities and what interested him.
I don't know whether he will end up working in that sector. What I do know is that if nobody asks him what he has learned, what he can do and what really interests him, that possibility never even appears.
Other questions
That's why, when I support someone in their job search, it isn't enough to ask "what work experience do you have?". Sometimes you need to ask other things:
- What have you learned, and who taught you?
- What can you do with your hands?
- What did you help with in your country, or in your family?
- What tasks did you do even without a contract?
- What do you enjoy doing, and what are you good at?
- What trade would you like to learn?
Not everything with work value shows up in an employment record or comes with a certificate. With migrants, if we only look at the CV they bring, we can leave out an important part of their story.
Guidance often starts right there, asking about what isn't on paper.