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In the way back days when we submitted our CVs on paper, I always cut mine to a smaller size than letter, in a branded folder. People tend to stack things with the smaller items on top. I don't know if mine actually was on top of the stack, but I can say that I basically always got the contract.

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I used to subtly watermark mine with nerdy silly diagrams, in the hopes that someone noticed the hints of color and gave them a second look. I even ran a plain vs watermark experiment, and the watermark had almost double the response.

Another trick was adding a "Valid until <YEAR> in the cover". It seems counterintuitive that a CV expires, but it made a few companies approach me for an updated CV.

I believe Sears famously used that same move (probably close to 100 years ago) to cause their catalogs to be stacked right on top of the Montgomery Ward one!

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