The International Schools Review Forum

Hi All,

I am sending my CV and cover letter as a multi-page PDF document directly to schools (please let me know if this should be done differently). I am unclear, however, as to where to put the photo requested.... Any thoughts?

Julie- what type of picture did you go with? Passport? Professional? I'm curious as I've heard different things.

My wife and I have a joint cover letter with a professional (wearing a tie) passport size photo of each of us at the top.

I string all the information required into one long PDF.

My wife and I have a joint cover letter with a professional (wearing a tie) passport size photo of each of us at the top.

I string all the information required into one long PDF.

First, break your application packet up. The longer your pdf document the more likely your document is to be rejected by the email server, or filtering software. Many servers wont take a file larger then 1-2 MB. When you start adding a cover letter, resume, transcripts, certificates, degrees, photos and passport, etc, your more likely to exceed those limits very quickly.

Your photo should be separate from your letter. When we print your documents out we print them in econo mode on a B&W laser printer, your photo looks like a big black blob. We dont usually print out the photo, recruiters/admins just look at it, and its easier to do in preview from the email then opening up a pdf.

You can use a passport or professional photo. I know of equal numbers of recruiters/admins who prefer both. Personally, I like the passport photo, because its smaller, and loads faster and I can click through a bunch of them without slowing down the computer. What I really HATE is a huge image file thats 5+MB that takes forever to download, and because its in your email, and coming off the mail server it slows down the whole process, especially if im looking for an unrelated email, and I have to wait for your stuff (and everyone elses) to download.