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e-resume
To apply for a job the fastest way these
days is to submit an resume via email, but who knows what
your resume ends up looks like on the other end. Read through
our guide of preparing your e-resume that will win your next
interview.
Use ASCII Format.
ASCII is the lowest form of electronic text; every Web browser
or e-mail program can read it. To create an ASCII résumé,
save it as a text file in a word-processing program. Copy
it into the body of an e-mail when you apply for a job. Otherwise,
you risk having your résumé come out jumbled and unreadable.
Never submit a résumé as an attachment. Although it
may seem easiest to attach your résumé, doing so is like leaving
a stack of money on a train: you're never going to see it
- or hear about it - again. Recruiters don't read attached
résumés because they can be infected with a virus that'll
destroy their computer. It's a risk they don't want to take
- so attaching a résumé is a risk you don't want to take.
Limit each line in your résumé to 72 characters.
Most e-mail programs wrap text around at 72 characters.
That means any line longer than 72 characters is going to
be cut off and dropped down to the next line, making your
résumé look like it was hit by a chainsaw. Avoiding that 73rd
character will help format the document so it stays organized
and easy to read.
Showcase your strong points first.
Newspaper articles include the most important information
at the front of the article; the best parts of your résumé
should be up front, too. Don't make the recruiter scroll down
through loads of information before getting to the good stuff.
Run the spell check.
Errors in any type of written correspondence can get you dinged.
Don't let the seeming informality of the electronic résumé
allow you to omit this key step. But don't let your faith
in technology make you complacent, either; spell checkers
give all sorts of mistakes the green light. After you do the
spell check, proofread it the old-fashioned way several times.
Then get a friend or two to do it again.
Take your e-résumé out for a test drive.
E-mail your résumé to yourself, because you'd much rather
it be you who catches technical problems and errors and not
a recruiter. Make sure the text looks right on the screen
and prints out correctly. You might also try e-mailing yourself
at different accounts. E-mail accounts have different ways
of reading things, and you don't want to take any chances
that when it reaches the recruiter's account it will look
messy.
Include a cover letter.
It sounds like a no-brainer, but many applicants for Internet
jobs don't include letters with their résumés. Cover letters
that accompany e-résumés should be brief and concise. Keep
in mind that recruiters want you to introduce yourself, they
want to see how you write, and they want to see you make a
case for why the position they need to fill is the one you're
right for. Be sure to indicate which position you're applying
for, what your qualifications are, and what you can contribute
to the company.
Make a backup.
Save a copy of your résumé on a disk and on your hard drive
so you don't lose it. Also make hard copies on good paper
stock. You want to make sure that if your résumé gets lost,
you can reproduce it quickly. You also want to be sure that
when you're called in to interview, you've got a paper copy
that looks good to bring with you. Recruiters love to misplace
paper once they've called candidates in to interview, and
if you show up prepared with some back-ups, that's a detail
that will count in your favor when it comes to decision-making
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