How to write a successful CV

 What is a C.V.?
 When should a CV be used?
 What information should a CV
include?
 What makes a good CV?
 How long should a CV be?
 Tips on presentation
 Fonts
 Different Types of CV
 Targeting your CV
 Emailed CVs and Web CVs
 Media CVs (separate page)
 Academic CVs (separate page)
 Example CVs and Covering Letters
(separate page)
 Further Help

Probably the first CV was written by Leonardo Da Vinci 500 years ago. You can view it here.
Since then things have moved slightly on, and now it's essential to have a well presented
professional CV, but still many graduates get this wrong. The following page will give you all
the tips to make an impressive CV

What is a CV?
Curriculum Vitae: an outline of a person's educational and professional history, usually
prepared for job applications (L, lit.: the course of one's life). Another name for a CV is a
résumé.

A CV is the most flexible and convenient way to make applications. It conveys your personal
details in the way that presents you in the best possible light. A CV is a marketing document in
which you are marketing something: yourself! You need to "sell" your skills, abilities,
qualifications and experience to employers. It can be used to make multiple applications to
employers in a specific career area. For this reason, many large graduate recruiters will not
accept CVs and instead use their own application form.

Often selectors read CVs outside working

hours. They may have a pile of 50 CVs
from which to select five interviewees.
 It's evening and they would rather be in
An application form is designed to bring out the the pub with friends. If your CV is hard
essential information and personal qualities that work to read: unclear, badly laid out and
the employer requires and does not allow you to containing irrelevant information, they
gloss over your weaker points as a CV does. In will just just move on to the next CV.
addition, the time needed to fill out these forms is
seen as a reflection of your commitment to the Treat the selector like a child eating a
career. meal. Chop your CV up into easily
digestible morsels (bullets, short
There is no "one best way" to construct a CV; paragraphs and note form) and give it a
it is your document and can be structured as you clear logical layout, with just the relevant
wish within the basic framework below. It can be information to make it easy for the
on paper or on-line or even on a T-shirt (a selector to read. If you do this, you will
gimmicky approach that might work for have a much greater chance of interview.
"creative" jobs but not generally advised!).

When should a CV be used?

 When an employer asks for applications to be received in this format
 When an employer simply states "apply to ..." without specifying the format
 When making speculative applications (when writing to an employer who has not
advertised a vacancy but who you hope my have one)

What information should a CV include?

What are the most important aspects of CV that you look for?

One survey of employers found that the following aspects were most looked for
(From the brilliant 2010 Orange County Resume Survey by Eric Hilden)

45% Previous related work experience

35% Qualifications & skills
25% Easy to read
16% Accomplishments
14% Spelling & grammar
9% Education (these were not just graduate recruiters or this score would be much higher!)
9% Intangibles: individuality/desire to succeed
3% Clear objective
2% Keywords added
1% Contact information
1% Personal experiences
1% Computer skills
Personal details

Normally these would be your name, address, date of birth (although with age discrimination
laws now in force this isn't essential), telephone number and email.

British CVs don't usually include a photograph unless you are an actor. In European countries
such as France, Belgium and Germany it’s common for CVs to include a a passport-sized
photograph in the top right-hand corner whereas in the UK and the USA photographs are
frowned upon as this may contravene equal opportunity legislation - a photograph makes it easier
to reject a candidate on grounds of ethnicity, sex or age. If you do include a photograph it should
be a head and shoulders shot, you should be dressed suitably and smiling: it's not for a passport!
See our Work Abroad page for more about international CVs

Education and qualifications

Some employers may spend as little as 45

Your degree subject and university, plus A levels
seconds skimming a résumé before
and GCSEs or equivalents. Mention grades unless
branding it “not of interest”, “maybe” or
poor!
“of interest.
Work experience
BI Business School
 Use action words such as developed,
Succinct, eloquent, well-structured.
planned and organised.
 Even work in a shop, bar or restaurant
Towers Hamlyn
will involve working in a team, providing
a quality service to customers, and dealing
tactfully with complaints. Don't mention the routine, non-people tasks (cleaning the
tables) unless you are applying for a casual summer job in a restaurant or similar.
 Try to relate the skills to the job. A finance job will involve numeracy, analytical and
problem solving skills so focus on these whereas for a marketing role you would place a
bit more more emphasis on persuading and negotiating skills.
 All of my work experiences have involved working within a team-based culture. This
involved planning, organisation, coordination and commitment e.g., in retail, this
ensured daily sales targets were met, a fair distribution of tasks and effective
communication amongst all staff members.

Interests and achievements

Writing about your interests

Reading, cinema, stamp-collecting,

playing computer games
 Suggests a solitary individual who
 Keep this section short and to the point. doesn't get on with other people. This
As you grow older, your employment may not be true, but selectors will
record will take precedence and interests interpret the evidence they see before
will typically diminish greatly in length them.
and importance.
 Bullets can be used to separate interests
into different types: sporting, creative etc.
 Don't use the old boring cliches here: Cinema: member of the University Film-
"socialising with friends". Making Society
 Don't put many passive, solitary Travel: travelled through Europe by
hobbies (reading, watching TV, stamp train this summer in a group of four
collecting) or you may be perceived as people, visiting historic sites and
lacking people skills. If you do put these, practising my French and Italian
then say what you read or watch: "I Reading: helped younger pupils with
particularly enjoy Dickens, for the vivid reading difficulties at school.
insights you get into life in Victorian
times". This could be the same individual as in
 Show a range of interests to avoid the first example, but the impression is
coming across as narrow : if everything completely the opposite: an outgoing
centres around sport they may wonder if proactive individual who helps others.
you could hold a conversation with a
client who wasn't interested in sport.
 Hobbies that are a little out of the ordinary can help you to stand out from the crowd:
skydiving or mountaineering can show a sense of wanting to stretch yourself and an
ability to rely on yourself in demanding situations
 Any interests relevant to the job are worth mentioning: current affairs if you wish to be
a journalist; a fantasy share portfolio such as Bullbearings if you want to work in finance.
 Any evidence of leadership is important to mention: captain or coach of a sports team,
course representative, chair of a student society, scout leader: "As captain of the school
cricket team, I had to set a positive example, motivate and coach players and think on my
feet when making bowling and field position changes, often in tense situations"
 Anything showing evidence of employability skills such as team working, organising,
planning, persuading, negotiating etc.

Skills

 The usual ones to mention are languages (good conversational French, basic Spanish),
computing (e.g. "good working knowledge of MS Access and Excel, plus basic web
page design skills" and driving ("full current clean driving licence").
 If you are a mature candidate or have lots of relevant skills to offer, a skills-based CV
may work for you

References
  Many employers don’t check references at the application stage so unless the vacancy
specifically requests referees it's fine to omit this section completely if you are running
short of space or to say "References are available on request."
 Normally two referees are sufficient: one academic (perhaps your tutor or a project
supervisor) and one from an employer (perhaps your last part-time or summer job). See
our page on Choosing and Using Referees for more help with this.

The order and the emphasis will depend on what you are applying for and what you have to
offer. For example, the example media CV lists the candidate's relevant work experience first.

When asked what would make them

If you are applying for more than one type of
automatically reject a candidate,
work, you should have a different CV tailored to
employers said:
each career area, highlighting different aspects
of your skills and experience.
 CVs with spelling mistakes or
typos 61%
A personal profile at the start of the CV can
 CVs that copied large amounts of
work for jobs in competitive industries such as
wording from the job posting 41%
the media or advertising, to help you to stand out
 CVs with an inappropriate email
from the crowd. If used, it needs to be original
address 35%
and well written. Don’t just use the usual
 CVs that don’t include a list of
hackneyed expressions: “I am an excellent
skills 30%
communicator who works well in a team…… “
 CVs that are more than two pages
long 22%
You will also need a Covering Letter to
 CVs printed on decorative paper
accompany your CV.
20%
 CVs that detail more tasks than
What makes a good CV? results for previous positions 16%
 CVs that include a photo 13%
There is no single "correct" way to write and  CVs that have large blocks of text
present a CV but the following general rules with little white space 13%
apply:
CareerBuilder
 It is targeted on the specific job or career
area for which you are applying and brings out the relevant skills you have to offer
 It is carefully and clearly laid out: logically ordered, easy to read and not cramped
 It is informative but concise
 It is accurate in content, spelling and grammar. If you mention attention to detail as a
skill, make sure your spelling and grammar is perfect!

If your CV is written backwards on pink polka dot paper and it gets

you regular interviews, it's a good CV! The bottom line is that if it's
producing results don't change it too much but if it's not, keep changing it
until it does.
If it's not working, ask people to look at it and suggest changes. Having said this, if you use the
example CVs in these pages as a starting point, you are unlikely to go far wrong.

What mistakes to candidates make on their CV?

One survey of employers found the following mistakes were most common

 Spelling and grammar 56% of employers found this

 Not tailored to the job 21%
 Length not right & poor work history 16%
 Poor format and no use of bullets 11%
 No accomplishments 9%
 Contact & email problems 8%
 Objective/profile was too vague 5%
 Lying 2%
 Having a photo 1%

 Others 3% (listing all

Choose a sensible email address!
memberships, listing personal
hobbies, using abbreviations)
One survey found that 76% of CVs with
unprofessional email addresses are ignored. Here are
How long should a CV some (modified) graduate email addresses that you
be? should NOT emulate!

o [email protected]
There are no absolute rules but, in
o [email protected]
general, a new graduate's CV should
o [email protected]
cover no more than two sides of A4
o [email protected]
paper. In a survey of American
o [email protected]
employers 35% preferred a one page
o [email protected]
CV and 19% a two page CV with the
o [email protected]
others saying it depends upon the
o [email protected]
position. CVs in the US tend to be
o [email protected]
shorter than in the UK wher the 2
o [email protected]
page CV still dominates for graduates
o [email protected]
but I do see a trend now towards one
o [email protected]
page CVs: as employers are getting
more and more CVs they tend not to
have the time to read long documents!

If you can summarise your career history comfortably on a single side, this is fine and has
advantages when you are making speculative applications and need to put yourself across
concisely. However, you should not leave out important items, or crowd your text too closely
together in order to fit it onto that single side. Academic and technical CVs may be much
longer: up to 4 or 5 sides.
How do I get my CV down to two pages from three?

 First change your margins in MS Word to Page Layout / Margins/ Narrow - this will set
your margins to 1.27 cm which are big enough not to look cramped, but give you extra
space. See www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/word-cv.htm#margins for how to do this.
 Secondly change your body font to Lucida Sans in 10 pts size. Lucida Sans is a modern
font which has been designed for clarity on a computer screen. For more on fonts see
here A good rule of thumb is to have your name in about 18 points, your subheadings
such as education and work experience in 14 points and your body font as 10 points.

Bullets make CVs more readable

 Use tables with two or three columns for
your academic results and references. See
Our brains love lists: they create a
a CV using tables for modules and
reading experience with more easily
references here and an explanation of how
acquired information. We process lists
to do this here
more efficiently, and retain information
 Use bullets for content, rather than long
with less effort. Bulleted lists appeal to
paragraphs of text. (See the box to the
our tendency to categorize things since
right)
they divide information into short,
 Finally set line spacings to single space
distinct items. They also help to alleviate
the "Paradox of choice": the problem that
If after all these tricks you are still on three pages
the more options we have, the worse we
you have to be ruthless with your content: read
feel.
every single word and remove it if it doesn't add
value to your CV!
But don't bullet everything on your CV or
it will look boring! Bulleted lists are great
The one page lean and mean CV!
for lists of skills or interests but are
necessarily limited in content and nuance,
In certain sectors such as investment banking,
and so contain less depth than paragraphs.
management consultancy and top law firms, a one
See Maria Konnikova's article for more
page CV, highly focused, highly objective CV,
about this.
now seems to be preferred. All of these areas
have in common that they are highly competitive
to enter and it may be that selectors, faced with so many CVs to work through prefer a shorter
CV.

There is no point putting lots of detailed information into a CV which doesn't add any value, and
in fact, just dilutes the impact. This is called the presenter's paradox. These CVs normally have
lots of single line bullets and no personal statement at the beginning. They are fully of factual, as
opposed to subjective, content. You must make every word count. They focus on achievements,
initiative and responsibilities more than on tasks and duties. When carefully designed, these can
be the very best CVs, but also the hardest to write!

See our page on Zen and the art of CV writing for more about this.

Tips on presentation
  Your CV should be carefully and clearly laid out - not too cramped but not with large
empty spaces either. Use bold and italic typefaces for headings and important information
 Never back a CV - each page should be on a separate sheet of paper. It's a good idea
to put your name in the footer area so that it appears on each sheet.
 Be concise: a CV is an appetiser and should not give the reader indigestion. Don't feel
that you have to list every exam you have ever taken, or every activity you have ever
been involved in - consider which are the most relevant and/or impressive. The best CVs
tend to be fairly economical with words, selecting the most important information and
leaving a little something for the interview: they are an appetiser rather than the main
course. Good business communications tend to be short and to the point, focusing on key
facts and your CV should to some extent emulate this. The longer and more dense your
CV is, the harder it is for an employer to comprehend your achievements. As Mark
Twain said: “If only I had more time, I would write thee a shorter letter”.

HireRight, a candidate due diligence

 Be positive - put yourself over confidently
company, found that 63% of applicants
and highlight your strong points. For
provide incorrect information to potential
example, when listing your A-levels, put
employers. Steve Girdler of t HireRight,
your highest grade first.
commented: “The challenging
 Be honest: although a CV does allow you
employment market created by the
to omit details (such as exam resits) which
economic downturn has increased the
you would prefer the employer not to
number of inaccuracies in CVs and job
know about, you should never give
applications, yet most businesses don’t
inaccurate or misleading information. CVs
check the claims of those they are about
are not legal documents and you can't be
to employ."
held liable for anything within, but if a
recruiter picks up a suggestion of
o 38% exaggerated or lied about
falsehoods you will be rapidly rejected.
their education
An application form which you have
o 35% included incorrect details in
signed to confirm that the contents are true
their employment history
is however a legal document and forms
o 31% made false statements about
part of your contract of employment if you
professional qualifications and
are recruited.
memberships.
 The sweet spot of a CV is the area
selectors tend to pay most attention to: this
Also see CV lies could lead to 10 years
is typically around the upper middle of the
in jail and Students threatened with jail
first page, so make sure that this area
for telling 'white lies' on CVs
contains essential information.
 If you are posting your CV, don't fold it -
put it in a full-size A4 envelope so that it doesn't arrive creased.

Research by forum3 (recruitment and volunteering for the not-for-profit sector) suggested:

 Graduates sent out 25 letters per interview gained.

  The average graduate will send out about 70 CVs when looking for their first
graduate job. Of these, the average number of responses will be 7 including 3 to 4 polite
rejections and the remainder inviting the graduate to interview or further contact.
 There was a direct link between the number of CVs sent out and the number of
interviews gained: the more CVs you send out the more interviews you will get.
 Applicants who included a covering letter with their CV were 10% more likely to
get a reply.
 60% of CVs are mailed to the wrong person: usually the managing director.
Applicants who addressed their application to the correct named person were 15% more
likely to get a letter of acknowledgement and 5% more likely to get an interview

“To say things like ‘I get on well

 Applicants sending CVs and letters without
with people’ is meaningless unless it
spelling mistakes are 61% more likely to get
is backed up by example”
a reply and 26% more likely to get an
interview. "In the age of the spell checker,
Selector for a retail bank
there is no excuse for spelling mistakes". The
most common mistakes to not show up in a
spell check were: fro instead of for, grate instead of great, liased instead of liaised and
stationary instead of stationery.
 Set your spell checker to UK English (assuming you are British) or you will get center
instead of centre, and color instead of colour.
 Other turnoffs include:
o misspelling the name of the company or the addressee,
o not having a reply address on the CV
o trying to be amusing.
o Using lower case i for the personal pronoun: "i have excellent attention to detail"

Why you need to use a spell checker  Instrumental in ruining an entire

operation for a chain operator
 I would like a job in the servillian  I was an administrator in a busty office.
police  Suspected to graduate early next year
 I am applying for a mini-pupiledge  For a PR job: I have a long term
 i am a prefectionist and rarely if if ever interest in pubic relations
forget details.  I want experience in a big sex practice
 Proven ability to track down and  Vox pox for BBC Radio enhanced my
correct erors. ability to analyse information
 I have good writen comunication skills.  A ' full shit system’ instead of ‘a full
 Lurnt Word Perfect computor and shift system’
spreadsheet pogroms.  Enthusiasm was needed to
 Develop an annual operating expense communicate in an interesting manor.
fudget.  As indicted, I have over 5 years of
 Good custermer service skills. analysing investments.
 I am death in my left ear.  On an application to work with
  In my 3rd year of BA houners English. teenagers: I am experienced in teaching
marital arts
And why you must read it carefully as  Relevant work experience’: followed
well by ‘Irrelevant work experience’
 My role included typing in details of
 I was a prefect and pier mentor accounts, customer liaison and money-
 I would like to do a law conversion laundering duties.
cause  I am a genital person (instead of
 Extra Circular Activities gentle!)
 But I was not aloud to be captain  I would be happy to work in any part of
 At secondary school I was a prefix England or Whales.
 In my spare time I enjoy hiding my  I am still under sided on my career.
horse  That will test my ability’s and give me
 I hope to hear from you shorty the ability to work on something may
 I have a desire to work with commuters can have a real impact.
 Dear Madman (instead of Madam)  I'm from the European Onion.
 My hobbits include - instead of  I own and maintain a volts wagon
'hobbies' beetle.
 I am sicking and entry-level position  I have a full/clean driving license and
 I have a friendly manor own a cat (Kent graduate)
 Oversight of an entire department  Language skills: German: intimidate
 Restaurant skills: Severing customers (instead of intermediate!)
 In charge of sock control - instead of  Sense I was young.
'stock control'
 I’m an accurate and rabid typist Thesaurusitis (using the wrong synonym!)
 Over summer I worked for an
examinations bored.  I demand a salary commiserate with
 Abilty to meet deadlines while my extensive experience
maintaining my composer  I am a strenuous student.
 Cleaning bathrooms and hovering  Reason for leaving last job: maturity
hallways. leave
 Have made speech's at Open Days  i am a conscious individual with good
 I can make models using a verity of attention to detail (Kent grad.)
different materials  Received a plague for salesman of the
 Working Kills. (This may very well be year.
true in the long term but Working  I was formally in a music group in
Skills might just be a better heading.) which I performed in three
 Reason for Living: Relocation conservative years.
 I have a degree in orgasmic chemistry.
 I have a doable award in science

Fonts

 TIMES NEW ROMAN is the standard

windows "serif" font. A safe bet - law
firms seem to like it but it isn't easy to
 read on the screen, especially in the small font size you may need to use to get your
CV on one or two pages. If you do prefer to use a serif font, try CAMBRIA which
has been designed for screen readability. See the example fonts to the right to see
how much clearer Cambria looks than Times New Roman.
 I personally prefer sans fonts - sans fonts don't have the curly bits (called serifs) on
letters. ARIAL is a standard Windows "sans" font and is now used by the BBC web site
which used to use Verdana. As you can see sans fonts are cleaner and more modern than
Times or Cambria and also look larger in the same "point" size (the point size is simply
how big the letters are on the page). However Arial and Times New Roman are so
common that they're a little boring to the eye.

Unnecessary use of
 Classier choices might be VERDANA or LUCIDA
complex words or hard to
SANS which have wider letters than most fonts but if you
read fonts gives a bad
are running out of space then Arial is more space saving,
impression: people who
as is TAHOMA which is a narrower version of Verdana.
use simple, clear language
Notice how, in the example to the right, Verdana looks
are rated as more
bigger and easier to read than Times New Roman.
intelligent.
CALIBRI is now the standard MS Word font but is
smaller and perhaps less clear than Arial, Verdana or
Lucida Sans (see the examples to the right again). Never use COMIC SANS of course!
 FONT SIZE is normally 12 points for the normal font with larger sizes for subheadings
and headings.
 Or 10 points. My favourite CV body text font is 10 point Verdana or Lucida Sans
with 12 or 14 points for sub headings.
 14 points is too big for the normal body font - wastes space and looks crude.
 and 8 or 9 points too small to be easily readable by everyone, especially in Times New
Roman which should not be used in sizes less than 11 points
 Although many people use 12 points, some research on this suggested that smaller point
size CVs (within reason) were perceived as more intellectual!

The Recruitment and Employment

 Most CVs are now read on screen rather
Commission says that about half of all
than on paper. It's no coincidence that
CVs received by recruitment consultants
Serif fonts are rarely used on the web -
contain spelling or grammatical errors.
they are much less readable on screen
(Times Roman was first used on Trajan's
Candidates aged between 21 and 25 are
column, 2,000 years ago!), and some
most likely to make these mistakes and
fonts, such as Verdana, were designed
graduates in this age group are twice as
with screen readability in mind. This web
likely to make mistakes as those who
site is set in Verdana which, as you can
did not go on to university. See
see, is clear and easy to read.
http://careers.guardian.co.uk/cv-mistakes
 If you find fonts interesting see

 BBC article and this "Periodic Table" of Typefaces

  Helvetica: How did one typeface conquer the world?
 video: The History of Typography www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgIkxAfJsk

Using bold for job titles and schools

It's a good idea to use the "bold" style for job titles and employer names in your work experience
and education to make these stand out.

E.g.

2003-2010 St. Paul's Girls' School, London

A-levels: Chemistry B, Biology A, Maths C

Summer 2011 Next Retail (Sales Assistant)

The job entailed working in the busy sale, taking deliveries, stock control and dealing with
customers with high quality customer care.

In a survey of American employers

 33% preferred the use of bold

on job titles in the candidate's
work history
 7% preferred the use of bold on
employer names from
candidate work history
 31% preferred bold on both
 29% had no preference

Different Types of CV
 Chronological - outlining your career history in date order, normally beginning with the
most recent items (reverse chronological) . This is the "conventional" approach and
the easiest to prepare. It is detailed, comprehensive and biographical and usually works
well for "traditional" students with a good all-round mixture of education and work
experience. Mature students, however, may not benefit from this approach, which does
emphasise your age, any career breaks and work experience which has little surface
relevance to the posts you are applying for now. See an example chronological CV here
 Skills-based: highly-focused CVs which relate your skills and abilities to a specific job
or career area by highlighting these skills and your major achievements. The factual,
chronological details of your education and work history are subordinate. These work
well for mature graduates and for anybody whose degree subject and work experience
is not directly relevant to their application. Skills-based CVs should be closely targeted to
a specific job. See an example skills-based CV here
A survey of US employers found that:

 49% preferred a traditional reverse chronological CV (all jobs listed in reverse

chrological order including duties)
 6% preferred a skills-based CV with skills related to the job highlighted
 39% liked a combination of both the above styles
 2% liked a portfolio with examples of completed projects
 4% had no preference

If you are applying for posts outside the UK, remember that employers in other countries are
likely to have different expectations of what a CV should include and how it should be laid out.
The "Global Resume and CV Handbook" (available from Reception) and the Prospects website
will help you prepare CVs for overseas employment. See our work abroad page.

Targeting your CV
If your CV is to be sent to an individual employer which has requested applications in this
format, you should research the organisation and the position carefully.

In the present competitive job market, untargeted CVs tend to lose out to those that have been
written with a particular role in mind. For example a marketing CV will be very different from a
teaching CV. The marketing CV will focus on persuading, negotiating and similar skills where as
the teaching CV will focus more on presenting and listening skills and evidence for these.

If your CV is to be used for speculative applications, it is still important to target it - at the very
least, on the general career area in which you want to work. Use our I Want to Work in .... pages
and sites such as www.prospects.ac.uk to get an idea of what the work involves and what skills
and personal qualities are needed to do it successfully. This will enable you to tailor the CV to
the work and to bring out your own relevant experience.

Even if you are using the same CV for a number of employers, you should personalise the
covering letter - e.g. by putting in a paragraph on why you want to work for that organisation.

For example CVs, application forms and covering letters see

www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm with notes highlighting points relating to the content
and style.

How NOT to do it

One graduate had emailed out over 80

CVs without getting a single reply and
 was puzzled as to why.
Emailed CVs and Web CVs I asked him to show me what he had sent
out. He had sent identical CVs and letters
 Put your covering letter as the body of
to all the companies in one mass email.
your email. It's wise to format it as plain
Recruiters opening the email could see
text as then it can be read by any email
the names of the 80 companies he had
reader.
applied to in the "To: " box of the email!
 Emails are not as easy to read as letters.
Stick to simple text with short
paragraphs and plenty of spacing. Break messages into points and make each one a
new paragraph with a full line gap between paragraphs. DON'T "SHOUT": WRITE IN
UPPER CASE!
 Your CV is then sent as an attachment. Say you'll send a printed CV if required.

In which format should you send your CV?

A survey of American recruiters found that:

 63% preferred MS Office Word format .doc

 36% preferred Adobe Acrobat format .pdf
 1% preferred rich-text format .rtf
 0% preferred text format .txt
 0% preferred web page format .html

According to Professor Tom Jackson, of

Loughborough University,
“Misunderstandings occur frequently via
written communication. In fact, 68 per
cent of employees said the emails they
receive are sometimes difficult to
decipher, whether it be a misinterpreted
tone or rushed explanations.”

The most common mistakes made via

email include:

 Accidentally clicking send before

the email is ready;
 Embarrassing spelling and
grammar mistakes;
 Accidentally sending a kiss at the
end of a message;
 Copying a client into an internal
email about them;
 Forwarding an inappropriate
 email trail;
 Forgetting an attachment; and
 Forgetting to blind copy (BCC) on
PDF (portable document format) is perhaps a email (seethe example above!)
becoming a widely used format now . There are
PDF-readers for all platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux). This also guarantees that the CV will
look the same, no matter what reader is used to view the document. Modern versions of
Microsoft Word contain a PDF export function or you can download a free pdf converter such as
Cute pdf www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp: you install it and then "print" the
document to a folder on your PC. PDFs can however sometimes prevent keyword-scanning
software on job boards or applicant-tracking systems from picking up information that allows
you to be found.

You can also use MS Word (.doc) format, however .doc format is not guaranteed to be
compatible among different versions of Microsoft Word, so a CV might look garbled when
opened with an outdated or newer version of Word. Also .doc files may not easily open on
computers using Linux and Apple platforms. .doc-files may also contain sensitive information
such as previous versions of a document perhaps leading to embarrassment. MS Word
documents can contain macro viruses, so some employers may not open these. Send the CV in
.doc (Word 2003) format, rather than .docx (Word 2010) format, as not everyone has upgraded
to Word 2010, or downloaded the free file converter.

Rich Text Format (.rtf), or html (web page format) are other alternatives but as can be seen
from the above survey are not usually preferred.

If in doubt send your CV in several formats. Email it back to yourself first to check it, as line
lengths may be changed by your email reader.