Preparing and Sharing Your CV

Most Zambians would send their CV’s in various format ranging from .pdf to word document, even plain text. Their is no fast rule as into what format a CV should be sent in but the best bet is .doc or .docx. Actually the two are one and the same as both are Word documents.

This article is based on an alert as read from Life Coach on LinkedIn Immanuel Mukula

CV TIP – Avoid sending your CV in a format that is not editable such as PDF. 90% of recruiters and hiring managers work with systems that are prepared to open and read Microsoft Word documents, so it’s best to use Word if you want to ensure your CV gets read

Most Word documents have file extensions of .doc or .docx. There is also WordPerfect (.wpd), .wps and .rtf. The .docx file was a new extension that came along with Microsoft Word 2007. The advantage of .docx is that it compresses and reduce your file size as compared to .doc (Word 2003 and earlier)

To me just the normal word document .doc/.dcox is the best file extension you can save your CV in. Steer completely clear of protected document format files (PDF files). Some people feel it is important to preserve the visual appearance of the resume on-screen and use a PDF file.

The problem is most databases that receive and keep CV’s do not accept PDF file formats. Let alone as alluded to most Recruiters in Zambia will not have a proper function pdf reader software. Been in IT, of the 100% new installations of computers i have worked on Microsoft Word is the priority on the side of applications to be installed. This means that every computer you see in an office on a minimum it has Microsoft Word or andy good word document reader on it.