Online Resumes

Things to Consider When Posting/Sending Your Resume

• The best sites allow you to post your resume and select the type of employer you want to view it.
• Be careful – some of these sites will charge to update the resume, or will not allow you to edit your resume, which results in an old one hanging around on the internet.
• Always remember to remove your resume from these sites once you have found a job, so you can keep track of where your resume is.
• Date your resume so that employers can tell if it is up to date.
• If you send a resume via e-mail in a format that has not been requested (Word attachment, HTML, .pdf), it is considered rude by employers.

The E-mail Resume

• In this form the resume is copied and pasted into the body of an e-mail.
• Currently, it is the most common form of electronic resume with employers and the form in which all electronic resumes should be sent, unless otherwise specified by the employer.
• Do not use italics, bold, underlining, or bullets because most e-mail programs won't recognize them.
• You can use plus signs (+), dashes (-), and asterisks (*).
• Use capitalization to draw attention to certain things such as title, education, and name of employer.
• In this type of resume EVERYTHING should be left justified so that it is fully visible and so that it can be read by all types of electronic systems.
• Check for changes in formating - margins, font, tabs, returns - once you have copied and pasted your resume.
• A cover letter and resume should be sent together, seperated by the words "Begin resume" and "End resume".
• Keep in mind that resumes that are sent by e-mail may be sent through scanners (see below).

The E-form Resume

• Identical to the e-mail resume (see above), except that instead of sending the resume in an e-mail, the resume is posted by copying and pasting information into the employer's, or job listing site's forms.

The E-mail Attachment Resume

• This form of resume submission is the least popular among employers.
• Do NOT send your resume as an attachment unless you are explicitly instructed to.
• Try to avoid using Microsoft Word.  Although Word is popular, it is very vulnerable to Macro viruses, and your future employer won't be happy if you spread a virus in their office.  Many companies have firewalls (virus protection programs) that will simply remove the attachment without you knowing.
• Use a text editor, such as Word Pad, Notepad (otherwise known as ASCII text with the ending .txt), or Simple Text (on Macs) instead.
• If you are using a Mac and the employer is using a PC, or vice versa, there may be problems with conversion.
• Always scan your files for viruses before sending them to an employer.

PDF Resumes

• PDF is rapidly becoming one of the most common forms of posting resumes (replacing HTML and e-mail attachments).
• PDF files can be created easily from Word documents, text files, and many other formats.
• PDF resumes are already used by many major job listing/resume posting sites.
• PDF resumes look out much nicer when printed out because they retain your original formatting.
• PDF resumes cannot be altered or easily pasted into databases (for mailing lists) and are therefore very secure.
• PDF resumes do not contain viruses, therefore employers love them.
• To create a .pdf file, you need Adobe Acrobat (not just Adobe Acrobat Reader) or a program/website that utilizes Adobe Acrobat.
• Employers and job listing sites that want you to use .pdf resumes will often have Acrobat incorporated into their sites.  If this is the case, all you need to do is convert your resume by uploading it from your hard drive or a disk.
• To read a .pdf file, you need Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Click here to download Acrobat Reader for FREE.

HTML Resumes

• HTML can be used to make very creative and beautiful resumes.
• Many IT (information technology), dot.coms, and start-ups will request HTML resumes.
• HTML should be avoided in the body of an e-mail unless specifically requested.
• Use simple HTML to keep the page clean and professional-looking.
• Put an invisible hit counter on the page so you can keep track of how many people are viewing your resume.
• Use a light background or none at all – some companies do print out these resumes and scan them.
• Although web resumes look nice, it is hard to print a "clean copy" so offer a link to a printable page.

The Scannable Resume

• Do not use italics, bold, and underlining because scanners won't always pick them up.
• Use a commonly used font, such as Times New Roman, Courier, Helvetica.
• Scanners look for keywords, especially nouns (i.e. management, field work, intern, research, etc.)
• Do NOT use a background image or marbled paper on your resume – scanners get confused by this.
• Use capitalization to draw attention to certain things such as title, education, and name of employer.
• Try to avoid abbreviation and jargon, both of which the scanners are not programmed to recognize.
• The more graphics (such as bullets) you have, the less the scanner will pick up.
• Don't use centering, tabs, indenting, or other fancy formatting - because it could result in part of your resume not appearing on the screen.
• The best format is for everything to be left justified so that it is fully visible and so that it can be read by all types of electronic systems.