With so many people looking for work, on this day which should be the workers' day but which easily becomes a day of protest for those who do not have the job, we dedicate an article on how to write and send your CV vitae so that it becomes a winning card or that, at least, does not destroy every chance. Leaving aside theoretical suggestions on what is better to write and what formulas to adopt within your CV, I want to give technical advice on the best ways and errors to avoid when writing to the computer and sending a curriculum vitae via Email or via web form.
Not all types of files are the same, therefore, when writing to the computer, there are errors that must be avoided to avoid bad looks.
It is important to understand that a resume must be written for employers who must be able to read it clearly and without difficulty, even if this person is a perfect ignorant of file management and computer use.
You also need to understand what the best types of files are and the methods that can help you find a new job or to change jobs.
We have seen, in a previous article, how to move on the internet on the best sites to find and look for work, to which you must send, in addition to the curriculum, also a cover letter.
It therefore becomes easy to send at least one application per day even if, most likely, no response will be obtained.
A single job position of which the announcement is read on sites like Monster are literally stormed, sending 200 or 300 CV per day.
With all these candidates vying for the same job position, your resume is easily ignored.
In order to apply well for a job position it is necessary to avoid technical errors such as :
- Send files that won't open on all computers;
- Use an uncommon character or font that makes the CV written on the PC unreadable or otherwise strange.
- Use special or original formatting of the curriculum that is not respected by all programs.
When you have to compete with hundreds of other job applicants, every little thing could destroy any chance of being hired.
I can assure you that, having worked in a company in collaboration with human resources, the majority of the CVs received are poorly written.
Many job seekers simply send out resumes at random, hoping for divine providence.
When writing the CV and the cover letter, keep in mind that whoever reads it will go very fast and judge it at a glance.
When writing the curriculum you should keep in mind:
- To be specific and concise as if you were writing a shopping list, inserting the level of education and the most significant work experiences.
- Be brief: even if you had ten years of experience, the CV must never exceed two pages.
- Terms such as "motivational skills", "problem solving", "troubleshooting", "results orientation", "responsible", "habit of working in stressful situations" and so on, are empty formulas that take up space and will not convince anyone .
In addition to this, and we finally arrive at the real objective of this article, there are basic formatting rules that will avoid making ridiculous figures when the selector opens the text file containing to read the CV.
So here is a mini guide on how to write and send a resume to respond well to job offers .
The worst mistakes not to make are:
1) The most common and most serious mistake to make is to save the curriculum vitae in DOCX format, when it is written with Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 .
DOCX is a file format that is not opened, by default, by anyone who has Word 2003 or previous (see how to open docx file with Office 2003).
As employers have a 90% older version of Microsft Office (because updating costs them a lot of money), resume selectors may not be able to open CVs written in DOCX format, trashing them.
2) When writing the CV you must absolutely avoid writing in a non-standard font or font which, on other computers, may not be readable.
Fonts are not embedded in the file so it is best to always use generic fonts, such as Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Tahoma, Verdana etc. which are correctly readable by any computer, old or new.
3) Openoffice.org ODT
Who does not want to buy Word and the Microsoft Office suite, will use the open source OpenOffice or LibreOffice.
Unfortunately, files saved with OpenOffice are of the OpenDocument (ODT) format and cannot be opened by Word (only from Word 2010)
Most companies and employers will not be able to open ODT files, therefore, you should always save files written with OpenOffice in DOC or PDF format.
4) Some may save or convert resumes as an image file from the low resolution JPG format and therefore not readable clearly by older computers.
5) There would be nothing wrong with sending a TXT text file but it would be a rather strange choice.
Many employers care about the graphic care and the formatting of the text of the documents therefore, a curriculum written on a TXT file may not be appreciated.
6) In the past I had written that a good idea is to publish the curriculum online on the internet to be found more easily by employers.
Conversely, responding to ads by providing links and URLs to websites that lead to HTML pages is not recommended.
Many large companies trash emails with external links taken as spam, block the internet and block social networks such as Linkedin and then they could use old-fashioned browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 which does not correctly open modern sites.
The safest types of files for sending a CV and for applying well are:
1) Adobe PDF
PDF is now a standard file type that is supported by any computer and company.
Acrobat reader is a free software present on every computer.
I think it is impossible that an employer cannot open a PDF.
In addition, the PDF is a protected file, which cannot be edited and which is read in the same way and with the same formatting from any computer in the world.
There are no font, font and formatting problems.
To convert an Office file to PDF there are several free ways.
A problem that can arise with pdfs is that these files may not be read and recognized by automated curriculum selection systems
For this reason, when sending the CV to a multinational or a large company, it is better not to use the PDF and send it in RTF or DOC format.
2) Microsoft Word .DOC is the standard format still today for documents written on the computer.
While DOCX can be dangerous, you can be 200% sure that any business can open a DOC file.
If the Curriculum is based on text, formatted with common fonts and written in the European model, it is possible to predict that what you see on your monitor is identical to what the employer will see.
Unfortunately, depending on the Word settings, there may be differences so you must absolutely avoid personalisms, limit the use of tables, pay attention to bulleted lists, spaces and page breaks .
It is therefore appropriate to use the format of the European curriculum model which is a standard only to be completed.
OpenOffice and Microsoft Word can save any text file as a doc file.
3) Rich Text Format or RTF
RTF is a file format that includes some basic formatting information.
Any computer, Mac, Linux and Windows, old or new, with the standard readers included, is able to correctly open and read an RTF file:
Be careful, however, to use common characters and always respect the European format so as not to make mistakes.
4) Text on Email
Sending the CV as text in the body of an e-mail message ensures that those who receive the curriculum can read it without problems but may not be appreciated by those who demand a more orderly graphic style.
Finally, I could say that every computer-written resume must be printed to see if it is easily legible even using a quick draft with economic settings.
So avoid using colors in the curriculum, do not overdo the bold and underlining.
It must be considered that those who receive the curriculum prefer to print them before reading them.
Beyond education and work experience, what makes the difference in the first selection phase is not to make a well written and legible curriculum.
