Better Way to Submit Your CV and Cover Letter

If you ever searched on how to write a CV and a Cover Letter before, you may have found many links guiding you  how to write an awesome CV and a charming Cover Letter. However, none of the link mentioned the importance of using PDF rather than Ms. Word when you submit your application to an employer or to a school. 

My post here is to focus on the idea of sending out PDF rather than in Ms. Word document. To me, it is better to send out your CV and Cover Letter in PDF form for two main reasons. First, people could see how professional you are as you could prove that you are a computer literate. Second, no one could ever blame you on the wrong format that might appear on your recipient's computer screen. If you type in Ms. Word, for example, the texts might appear disorder as you and your peer use different version of Ms. Word. That is not the only problem. There are many more that I could not think of for now. In short, it is better to send out in PDF if it is not necessary for your peer to edit your document.

Here I am going to show you just how. 

1. In my Microsoft Word 2007, I installed Adobe Acrobat Plug-in so I could convert all of my document into PDF with this plug-in.

Adobe Acrobat Plug-in (Click to Enlarge)

2. If you do not have this plug-in, there is another way and it is to print in Adobe PDF, the computer will convert your document and save it in PDF.

Choose Adobe PDF when you select a printer 

3. Above mentioned are to do with your CV. How about a Cover Letter in which you will have to sign? For Cover Letter, after typing, you will have to print it out. Sign where you have to sign, and then, you will have to scan your Cover Letter in PDF, not in JPG form. In this way, you will have both CV and Cover Letter in PDF forms; and you are ready to send out!

These are all the tools that I use before I send my application out. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would be very happy to learn from you.