Standard for Formatting and Layout in CV Presentation

CVs and resumes can be presented in a variety of ways.This is an opportunity for you to be creative.However, the following standards should be followed:

Ensue that your CV is neat and visually appealing:

• Choose high quality paper in white or off-white
• Have the final version professionally reproduced in a single-sided format
• Use a laser printer- handwriting, typing and dot matrix printing look unprofessional

Front Case and Size

• Times New Roman is  recommended
• 12 point front size will be the easiest to read; do not use smaller than 10 point font
• Do not use more than two front on your resume
• Use bullets to aid organisation, but be careful not to overuse them.Too many bullets lead to a cuttered appearance.
• Be consistent. Choose pattern of spacing ,an order of information presentation or a format of highlighting that is standard though-out the document. This will avoid a "patched" appearance.

Grammar

The standard grammar for a CV differs some what from everytoday professional writing. Some general points of difference are listed below:

• Use past tense, even for descriptions of currently held positions, to promote consistency.
• Do not use personal pronouns
• For the most part. use  short, simple  phrases that begin with action verbs.
• Check for grammar. Misspelling, poorly constructed sentences, and inappropriate use of words/sentences.
• Punctuation communicates negative impressions about a candidate.Do not rely on the computer grammar check or spell check.
• Be sure to catch all spelling errors, grammatical weaknesses ,unusual punctuation, and inconsistent capitalisaton weakness, unusual punctuational, and inconsistent capitalisation. Proorfead it numerous times, put it down for a week, and then proofread it again to catch any hidden mistakes.

Closing Thoughts

• Sell  yourself. Creat a good first impression by highlighting skills and abilites appropriate to the position.list your qualification in order of relevance, from most to least.
• Don't sell yourself short. This is by far biggest mistake of all CVs. Your experiences are worthy for review by hiring managers. Treat your resume as advertisement for you.
• Be sure to thoroughly "sell" yourself by highlighting all of your strengths. If you've got a valuable asset that doesn't seem to fit into any existing components of your CV, list it as its own segment or highlight it in the cover letter.