Your CV: nature credentials for tourism, formal qualifications for the public sector

A CV has one job: to make someone decide, in seconds, that you are worth reading properly.

What it needs

• Name and contact. A phone number with WhatsApp and a professional email address.
• Location. Parish or village.
• Experience. Employer, role, dates and what you actually did.
• Qualifications. CSEC, CAPE, technical certificates, degrees.
• Certifications, with validity dates where relevant.
• Languages, including French Creole where relevant.

What to leave out

Social Security number, marital status, number of children, date of birth. None of it helps the decision.

Eco-tourism and nature-based work

Dominica's tourism sector is distinct, and so is what it screens on:

• Guiding qualifications and site knowledge
• Dive certifications — instructor, divemaster, rescue — with dates
• First aid and rescue training
• Trail, hiking and environmental knowledge
• Languages, given the visitor mix

Naming specific sites, trails or dive locations you know demonstrates the local knowledge the sector values.

Public sector

Formal qualifications stated precisely with institution and year. Applications are structured — follow the stated requirements exactly, since missing a required document usually means the application is set aside.

Construction and trades

Trade certifications, equipment and systems used, and any experience on reconstruction or resilience projects, which recurs in Dominica.

Agriculture

Crop and equipment familiarity, supervisory experience, and availability across harvest cycles.

Describe the work, not the title

"Tour Guide" says little. "Led hiking and waterfall tours for groups of up to 14 across the Waitukubuli trail sections, held current first aid certification, and worked in English and French" says a great deal more.

Length

One to two pages. In a small market, precision beats volume.

Keep it current

Review certification dates first — those expire, and in guiding and diving that removes you from consideration.