That said, the culture was very open source friendly among the students as well. The students wanted to use Linux on their desktops and were happy with it. That is probably the exception at the university, but hey, we were studying electrical engineering and should be able to manage complex operating systems.

Personally I frowned upon Microsoft and the Office package. I was an Open Source zealot. (Now I am a “best tool for the job” follower). The teachers at the university generally gave the assignments in Microsoft Word format (.doc). This, I thought, forced me, a poor student, to buy expensive software just to be able to carry out the assignments. It would have been ok if the format (.doc) was open to everyone, but that was and still is not the case.

I therefore created the website, Doc2PDF, which converted documents from Word to PDF, since you can read PDF on any computer for free. (It also converts PowerPoint and Excel files, as well as converting from PowerPoint to Flash). I sent the department’s director an email suggesting they could use this site and give out the assignments in PDF format. He was very positive and in turn sent the teachers an email about the site.

Thus, Doc2PDF.net was born. First it was hosted on an old desktop PC in my basement, connected to the internet through my parents internet connection (I lived at my parents in those days).

Soon the traffic was too much to handle at home and I moved the site to a hosting company in the USA. Since then I have been forced to upgrade the underlying server several times due to increased traffic. Now about 15.000 visitors use the site each day, converting thousands of documents.

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 CV‘s 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.