E-Resume Formats - The 3 Formats You Need For Your E-Resume
- Date: 2010-04-22 - Word Count: 593
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Your e-resume. It's the traditional resume you've come to know (and love?), only formatted for e-delivery. Here are the 3 formats you need for your e-resume.
______
A fistful of pretty resumes won't get you far in today's job search. While you're out schlepping from one company to the next, trying to talk your way past security and secretaries, your competitors are running rings around you electronically. To compete, you need to join them - sending your resume out over the internet, via email and online forms. And to do that, you need to have your electronic resume formatted for such.
E-Resumes - The 3 Most Common Formats
1) Word Document. Ah, the traditional resume. Fully-formatted and embellished with graphics and stylish fonts, the word-processed resume remains a force. Plain text formats have threatened its domination in recent years. But as resume screening software improves and human eyes tire of reading plain text, your fully-formatted resume in MS Word is being embraced in more and more email correspondence.
With this cautionary note. Due to security concerns, many such attachments won't be opened for fear of a virus. Before sending out a Word attachment, call or email the HR department or your corporate contact person to find out the preferred method of getting a resume to their computer screen. Ask simply if you can send your resume as an attachment, in Word for example. If it's impractical to pose the question, or you're responding to an ad with no clear direction, go with plan B - send your resume as both a Word attachment and a plain text version as part of the email itself.
2) ASCII Format. An acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, this is a mouthful of a term which simply means a plain-text file. In our case, a plain-text version of the fully-formatted Word document. Keep it handy. You'll need it for those occasions when email attachments are not allowed, for pasting onto Web forms (for example, on job boards and when applying directly to job listings on corporate websites), and when responding via email to an employer who requests a plain-text resume only. In the latter cases, simply copy and paste your ASCII resume onto the body of your email.
3) PDF Format. Short for "Portable Document Format," the PDF file format from Adobe Systems has become the defacto standard for printable documents on the Web, and is an increasingly common format for email resume attachments. PDF allows the sender to forward a fully-formatted resume (stylized graphics, attractive fonts, etc.) independent of it's application software. Which means the receiving party can open and read the file regardless of whether they have Word on their computer. It's also virtually virus proof, alleviating those security concerns.
You should be able to convert your Word resume to PDF right on your own computer - although depending upon which version of Word you're working with, you might have to download an "add-in" from Microsoft (i.e."Microsoft Save as PDF" for 2007 Microsoft Office Programs). Or, you can bypass that procedure entirely in lieu of Web-based resources. For example, for a free and simple conversion, consider pdfonline. On their home page, click the heading "Free PDF Services" and follow the instructions. You'll basically be uploading your fully-formatted Word or WordPerfect resume, and receiving a PDF version from them, sent to you as an email attachment.
Getting Your E-Resume Ducks In A Row
Prepare these 3 e-resume formats ahead of the need, so you can be ready at a moment's notice to fire one off in response to a job listing - or a nod from a hiring official.
______
A fistful of pretty resumes won't get you far in today's job search. While you're out schlepping from one company to the next, trying to talk your way past security and secretaries, your competitors are running rings around you electronically. To compete, you need to join them - sending your resume out over the internet, via email and online forms. And to do that, you need to have your electronic resume formatted for such.
E-Resumes - The 3 Most Common Formats
1) Word Document. Ah, the traditional resume. Fully-formatted and embellished with graphics and stylish fonts, the word-processed resume remains a force. Plain text formats have threatened its domination in recent years. But as resume screening software improves and human eyes tire of reading plain text, your fully-formatted resume in MS Word is being embraced in more and more email correspondence.
With this cautionary note. Due to security concerns, many such attachments won't be opened for fear of a virus. Before sending out a Word attachment, call or email the HR department or your corporate contact person to find out the preferred method of getting a resume to their computer screen. Ask simply if you can send your resume as an attachment, in Word for example. If it's impractical to pose the question, or you're responding to an ad with no clear direction, go with plan B - send your resume as both a Word attachment and a plain text version as part of the email itself.
2) ASCII Format. An acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, this is a mouthful of a term which simply means a plain-text file. In our case, a plain-text version of the fully-formatted Word document. Keep it handy. You'll need it for those occasions when email attachments are not allowed, for pasting onto Web forms (for example, on job boards and when applying directly to job listings on corporate websites), and when responding via email to an employer who requests a plain-text resume only. In the latter cases, simply copy and paste your ASCII resume onto the body of your email.
3) PDF Format. Short for "Portable Document Format," the PDF file format from Adobe Systems has become the defacto standard for printable documents on the Web, and is an increasingly common format for email resume attachments. PDF allows the sender to forward a fully-formatted resume (stylized graphics, attractive fonts, etc.) independent of it's application software. Which means the receiving party can open and read the file regardless of whether they have Word on their computer. It's also virtually virus proof, alleviating those security concerns.
You should be able to convert your Word resume to PDF right on your own computer - although depending upon which version of Word you're working with, you might have to download an "add-in" from Microsoft (i.e."Microsoft Save as PDF" for 2007 Microsoft Office Programs). Or, you can bypass that procedure entirely in lieu of Web-based resources. For example, for a free and simple conversion, consider pdfonline. On their home page, click the heading "Free PDF Services" and follow the instructions. You'll basically be uploading your fully-formatted Word or WordPerfect resume, and receiving a PDF version from them, sent to you as an email attachment.
Getting Your E-Resume Ducks In A Row
Prepare these 3 e-resume formats ahead of the need, so you can be ready at a moment's notice to fire one off in response to a job listing - or a nod from a hiring official.
David Alan Carter is a former recruiter. Writing for the website http://www.TopResumeServices.com Carter has put together Resume Service Reviews of the Web's most popular writers, reviewing quality, spelling out their pricing, and giving each a star ranking. Note: Carter's top picks offer a guaranteed interview.n
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