7 Tips For A CV That Works For You

In today‘s job market, you want to make the most out of every job opportunity that arises. The Curriculum Vitae (CV) is the entry point to your dream job. You have one chance, so focus on getting it right.

There are enough of guidelines for creating a good CV on the internet. They all tell you essentially the same thing. Below are tips for what I feel you must take into consideration when making a stand-out CV.

Here are tips for making a great CV:

1. Don‘t use these words in your CV: Maybe, Perhaps, May, Might, Probably, Try, Hope.

Your employers don‘t want to read in your CV that you are going to try your best or you may be able to learn quickly or you will probably be very good in this job or I hope I will fulfill your expectations. You get the drift. You will do your best, you will learn quickly, you are very good for this job.

2. Send the CV as a PDF document, not as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx).

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a format for displaying and printing documents consistently. The documents are guaranteed to look the same on any computer and the printed version is guaranteed to look exactly like on screen. The fonts you use are embedded in the PDF file, the images in the document (if any) are compressed so the file size is reduced, and you can‘t edit the PDF document. So no one can steal your CV template which you spent so much time creating. Besides, Word documents (.doc and .docx) can contain viruses and are often automatically removed from email attachments. And it just looks unprofessional to receive a Word document. Convert your document from Word to PDF here: www.doc2pdf.net

3. Do a search on yourself on Google.

While Google is almost always your friend, it has a way of never forgetting things. If your name is relatively uncommon (like Gzack Ritrovado Francese rather than John Smith), chances are you will appear among the first results in Google. You don‘t want your prospective employers to stumble upon your blog post where you talk negatively about your previous employers. Also you don‘t want them to see a picture of you very drunk, holding a glass of beer, wearing a sweater with your previous employer‘s logo on it, partially obscured by the cigar you are holding. And they were just reading in your CV that you are a non-smoker and you don‘t drink.

4. Have someone read over your CV.

This one sounds obvious, but many people still don‘t do it. As I said, you only have one chance, and some people are very irritated by even the most innocent spelling or grammar mistakes. Also, when you work on writing text for a long time, you turn blind for faults in your own work. It always helps to get input from others.

5. Make minor customizations to your CV for different types of employers.

If you are applying for a job, say, at a bank, you should focus your CV on your job related skills, experience and education and not much besides that. Bankers usually have no taste for CVs that discuss at length your love of Kung Fu movies or how you love children and want to help poor people. I say not much, because you should note your interests in a very short section.

On the other hand, if you are applying for a job that involves some artistic creativity, like web design, teaching, writing, you should spend more time discussing your interests and who you are as a person. Your employer might want to hear about what books you are reading right now and perhaps a little more detail on what extra-curricular activity you take part in.

I don‘t recommend totally changing your CV based on where it is going to be sent. It‘s just too much work, and thus quality will suffer. Just make subtle modifications.

To convert an image between various image file formats, you can use the Image Format Converter.

6. Consider having a picture of you in the CV (professional looking only!).

This one depends on the country where you live as well as the company you apply to. Some employers would like to see a picture of you besides your name on your CV. It also helps to make your CV stick out in their minds. However, in some countries this is considered awkward.

If you do decide to include your picture, make sure it looks professional. Don‘t look like a fool. This sounds obvious, but some people still do send in pictures of them looking like a fool (sometimes deliberately, I‘ve seen it myself!). If your going to be taken seriously, look serious. Funny pictures in CV‘s are sooo 2007.

7. Don‘t try to make the prospective employer think you‘ve always wanted to work at their company.

Sometimes people like to try to convince the company that is reviewing your CV that you‘ve always wanted to work there and that that company is your number one choice. This sounds awkward if you are  not applying to famous companies like Microsoft or Google, big banks, McDonalds (!), NASA or the KGB. It feels awkward for someone to read that you‘ve always wanted to work at precisely this store, the local Donuts are US.

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46 comments to 7 Tips For A CV That Works For You

  1. Emanuele S.
    April 29th, 2009 at 7:07 pm

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    I’ve just found this service that i find *really* great!
    Something like this was really missing!

    Keep on working, this is a real good website (I’ll bookmark it).

    Cheers,
    Emanuele S.

  2. Michelle Princess
    May 7th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    your right emanuele, I’ll bookmark it too.

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  3. Felipe A
    May 14th, 2009 at 10:26 am

    Great website!

  4. Firza
    May 15th, 2009 at 6:05 am

    thanks a lot,,

  5. UK job seeker
    May 30th, 2009 at 11:37 am

    Great tips! Thanks.
    If anyone else is interested, more tips can be found here: http://www.jobsuploaded.co.uk/blogs/2/top-cv-tips :)

  6. Arif
    June 5th, 2009 at 5:32 am

    It is really gr8
    thanks a lot

  7. ritika
    June 5th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Its really good website.
    Thanx! a lot………

  8. Rick
    June 13th, 2009 at 5:40 am

    Great tips man…. It will really help me to improve my CV and find a better job.
    Thanks…. :)

  9. Malik
    June 28th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

    Thanx a lot……..

  10. piyush
    July 5th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    thank u

  11. Raja
    July 9th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Great website which provides the instant free help to convert documents. I wish I had known this in the past,it would have saved me from hell of worries & missing out oppertunities. BIG THANKS to doc2pdf.net

  12. Victor
    July 13th, 2009 at 1:07 am

    wonderful website.. I was totally stunned when it converted my doc in a fraction of second.. gr8 job guys.. thanks a lot

  13. Pareesh
    July 13th, 2009 at 4:56 am

    Good & helpful site.It is easier to use this kind of converter online rather to download & install converter on your computer.

  14. shubz
    July 14th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    thanx

  15. Lee
    July 15th, 2009 at 3:15 am

    great site.. thanks to doc2pdf.net!

  16. shankar
    July 17th, 2009 at 2:12 am

    Last time I wasted half an hour on net and could not find online doc to cv converter. I found only pdf file send in email. Luckly, I find this. This is good converter and also good tips for CV. Thank u

  17. om prakash dwivedi
    July 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 am

    please provide resume converter.

  18. sahil bhatia
    July 26th, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Great site for everyone……….
    thank u very much because I got a lot of knowledge from here

  19. sahil bhatia
    July 26th, 2009 at 10:02 am

    pls give tips for interview also for those who r going for it FIRST time
    i will b thankful if u send me to my mail id

  20. Ejaz Ahmed
    August 1st, 2009 at 6:31 am

    i have wasted hours to find free word2pdf converter on net. I am very happy to find this website. 24 hours i am connected to internet so i feel easy to convert files free of cost to pdf instead of downloading and installing setup on my computer.

  21. Dipankar Banik
    August 5th, 2009 at 12:31 am

    It will so effective for me. I need lot more tips to build up carrier

  22. aaron
    August 10th, 2009 at 7:27 am

    thank youu

  23. html to pdf
    August 13th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    I have been reading your blog last couple of weeks and enjoy every bit. Thanks.

  24. Smith
    September 8th, 2009 at 4:33 am

    This website is really great..I never knew how to publish in .pdf…but this website has made the task so much more easier! I wish I had known about this service long before…but at least now I know!

  25. moumita
    September 18th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    it’s simply amazing !!!!

  26. kalp
    October 12th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    wow…..i liked it…lessons wid fun

  27. Sap
    October 29th, 2009 at 1:13 am

    Also, Openoffice.org has inbuilt pdf conversion.

    Regarding CV tips, I don’t think including a photo of oneself is a good idea. It increases the chances of looks based discrimination (unless of course you are applying to the movie/modelling industry and such).

  28. Addie
    November 1st, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Its great support to convert docs to pds, real thanks, did anyone experienced that pictures are NOT converted, i converted my CV three time but the picture in my pdf is blank, does some one know whats the issue

  29. Mahmoud Karam
    November 15th, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    First I’d like to thank you for this great service, especially that it’s free.

    Second I suggest that you open a Money Bookers account so that people who don’t have a paypal account can donate as well.

    Thanks a lot

  30. Doc2PDF
    November 19th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    @Sap: You are probably right. It does depend on the local culture
    @Addie: Pictures are converted in general. If you can send me the document (see http://www.doc2pdf.net for email address) I could check why it doesn’t work.
    @Mahmoud Karam: Thanks for the tip. I’ll do that.

    Thanks to everyone for your positive comments.

  31. CV Format
    November 21st, 2009 at 8:56 am

    Hi, your 7 tips for writing a cv is excellent,,,i really liked it.
    it would help little bit more if you`ve given a sample Cv. thanks bye
    CV Formats

  32. Sarfaraz Lakhani
    December 4th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    I have gone through very useful tips on writing CVs but none of them has covered these aspects.
    Excellent! I will spread the word about this website.
    Thanks.
    Sarfaraz

  33. Bustone Chibwe
    December 7th, 2009 at 7:06 am

    Excellent tips. Keep it up.

  34. jamil
    January 17th, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    this is useful tips to me….
    thanks

    best regard

    jamil

  35. Marnel Tuble
    January 20th, 2010 at 11:05 am

    Great site indeed! Thanks for those very useful and practical tips; they really me and my friends a lot.

  36. Marnel Tuble
    January 20th, 2010 at 11:07 am

    Sorry for the missing word “helped”. It should have read “they really helped me and my friends a lot.” Thanks again

  37. wazmie
    January 29th, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    doc2pdf.net is really helping me. Thank you. But, when I convert my CV to pdf, the picture moves from left to right and my CV got haywire. I don’t know why. Can you help me please?

  38. Doc2PDF Blog
    January 31st, 2010 at 3:38 am

    Hi wazmie,

    Send the .doc file to me and I’ll take a look at it.

    My email can be seen on the frontpage.

    Regards,
    Doc2pdf

  39. Salman Ahmed
    February 1st, 2010 at 7:09 am

    Thank you for helping me out, that’s really a fantastic idea to make your cv more impressive and yes thanks alot for this service also. GOD bless you. :)))

  40. konia
    February 6th, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    nice list, I’d change though one of your pint
    “Make minor customizations to your CV for different types of employers.”
    into
    Make BIG customizations :)
    cv should be fully customized to particular employer, not only a little bit :)

  41. Doc2PDF Blog
    February 9th, 2010 at 9:25 pm

    Hi Konia,

    Thanks for commenting.

    Perhaps you are right, at least in some cases. In general though I find it a little embarrassing to read CVs tailored specifically for the company, as if that company is the only one considered. A fairly generic CV should do for all companies of a specific industry or genre. But it probably depends on a lot of factors, including how the company culture is.

    If you want to create something specific for the company you are applying to, I’d make a cover letter instead.

    Best regards.

  42. kalai
    February 13th, 2010 at 5:07 am

    hi

    this website is very to useful to us.
    nice.
    very nice

  43. Zander
    February 19th, 2010 at 4:01 am

    Coverted in a hotsecond! Thank you, very helpful to find. I took a gamble on googling EXACTLY what I needed to do (word to pdf) and up your site popped. I wish everything was so simple.
    Cudos!~

  44. MALIK
    February 24th, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    i like your tips and it will help me in feature

  45. ahmed mustafa
    March 7th, 2010 at 10:11 am

    thanks…!!! really helpful. like it.

  46. eika
    March 9th, 2010 at 4:00 pm

    very useful information..
    hope it can be as a guider 4 everyone..

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