4.1 General Presentation

If the CV is being used as a means of getting a job, whether in a speculative way or as part of a specific application, it should be obvious that it will be one of many CVs potentially seen by an employer so it does need to stand out from the competition but it also needs to be brief. It is, after all, a summary.

Most of the guidance does seem to be agreed on this point and the optimum length for th eCV would appear to be two pages. This has the advantage of being printed on two sides of a single A4 sheet of paper so it is easy to handle ( no staples) and quick to read. It is also easy to copy but here remmeber that colours may look great on the original but may not copy so well if the CV is photocopied.

Of corse it can be quite difficult to include the level of detail desired and so the space needs to be fully and well utilised withou tbeing overcrowded or cluttered
Linked to the length of the CV is the requirement that it should be easy to read. To a significant defree this is about the way in which is formatted. A lot can be achieved through careful use of fonts and layout. Too much bold or underlining and nothing will stand out.

The apperanced of your CV need to be unfussy with careful use of bold emphasis. It should avoid distration such as background images or borders around tables. Producing a good layout is about clarity in the wy the information is set out on the page and this, in turn, is about the relationship between text and the space around the text so careful though needs to be given to margins and spaces between paragraphs.

The quality of the paper send a massage about you too ....