How To Post Your Resume Onto The Internet
Now that you have your resume you will probably
be sending it to an agency or applying for jobs via
the internet. Many employers/agencies will
ask you to submit your resume
electronically.
Here you are with a beautifully laid out resume and the
employer/agency wants you to submit it into the body of an
email or submit it to an online recruitment service or
job bank. This means all the hard work of
designing it, so it is visually attractive, will be lost.
In order to comply with the employer's request you will
need to convert your resume into an electronic resume
using plain text,
which has formatting limitations.
.
Many jobseekers will have to
submit an electronic resume at some time.
If the statistics quoted by
some job hunting sites are correct, 80% of employer's in
the USA are recruiting by this method. This certainly
isn't the case in Australia, nevertheless the time has
come when jobseekers need to consider a second
resume - an electronic resume.
Therefore you need to know what an electronic resume is and how
to
prepare
one for emailing or posting on the Internet to
employers, or
online
employment services
such as Seek and Monster. These services are often
called job banks.
How your resume is going to be handled at the
other end
Your
resume
will
be
handled
by the preferred method stipulated by
an employer or agency. Read the employers directions
clearly and don't ignore instructions on how to send
your resume. If you believe they may be put into a
database ring the employer to check.
If it goes to an
employment agency, they are likely to scan it with an
optical scanner to store into their database. When
a vacancy occurs the agency will feed in keywords
related to a job, in order to select or match applicants
to a job vacancy. So your resume must be designed so
that it has
all relevant keywords
related to your occupation or skills to be matched to appropriate
jobs.
Electronic resume
Is a method of
collecting, sorting and filing resumes into a data base
or electronic filing system.
Electronic
methods of collecting data such as resumes, include
accepting e-mail resumes, posting onto recruitment job
boards, on-line resume forms, or posting a
resume to a website.
So in a nutshell, an
electronic resume is written to be searched by a
computer. An electronic resume is also called a
scannable resume. Technology is so advance that a
scanner can handle ordinary text formatting but not
necessarily fancy fonts.
Scannable resumes
A scannable resume refers to
a resume that can be scanned by
optical scanning system and is placed into a database.
When an employer has a
vacancy they
will input keywords into the database that are
related to the job, in order to retrieve resumes that
match their criteria. So if your resume does not contain
key job related words it may be overlooked. It
is therefore important that your resume is written
to contain keywords related to your occupation or
experience.
Technology is so advanced
now that a scanner can read a document in word.
otherwise would be told to submit your resume in another
format. You cannot be sure as to what the scanners
capabilities are, so it is better not to use any fancy
fonts and submit a professional document without any
fancy fonts etc. The only people who may want to design
a resume is a graphic designer. In which case send
two resumes. A plain one for scanning and your 'fancy
one". But it should still be readable.
What is ASC11
formatted resume?
It is
the American Standard Code for Information Interchange
It is the
same as plain text.
it is used in the body of the email or posting onto
recruitment job boards.
If you ignore the rules for converting
your resume into plain text it may be eliminated before
it even gets to the database. Worse, it may be
automatically converted into plain text by the
receiver's database, as is, without any formatting
whatsoever. It will look a mess. So why not do a plain
text resume in the first place?
Unlike MS Word, a
resume converted to plain text has limited formatting.
You will need to restructure your resume
so it can be converted into plain text and look
as attractive
as possible,
at the same time compatible with scanning devices. If a Word formatted resume is scanned,
some words may be
garbled.
Designing a resume that can
be converted needs to be very specific, with lots of
keywords related to your targeted position.
Keywords usually do not
include verbs such as
"instigated." and "succeeded", Generally it is set to
job classification title such as Project Management,
Accounts Clerk or skills such as accounts receivable and
accounts management.
You will have more chance of
being appropriately matched to a relevant job if
the resume is formatted correctly in the first place.
However, this assumes you
are going for a targeted position and may not always be
picked up in the matching process if your experience is
broad or you are looking for a career change. You
should leave out anything that is not related to the
position you applied for. Sometimes, of course,
this is not possible.
If you
use a job finding online employment service such as
Seek, it is imperative that your online resume
contains all the keywords needed to ensure you will
be matched against the jobs you are applying for.
Plain text resumes that
have no real focus are more difficult to read, whereby a
hard cover resume can create an immediate impression by
the reader if it is set out correctly.
You still need to compete
with others, so your resume must still stand out above
all others. The limited formatting will probably be
the same, but it still has to have a dynamic content on
the front page containing all the job related keywords.
If you
don't want to risk trial and error, and ultimately be
wasting valuable time applying for jobs with a poorly
designed resume, you might consider having
your resume prepared by a professional resume
writer.
When you submit an
electronically prepared resume all the marketing
skills that went into the visual impact of the resume
will be lost.
That is why Pro-Active Human
Resource Management
provides a service to convert your new resume into plain
text or ASC11 resume.
A well
designed resume in Word format can be are electronically
friendly, insofar as they are generally easy to convert
into plain text so that they have a better visual impact- well as good as you can expect a plain text resume to
look. More importantly, the design will focus on the
correct arrangement of keywords.
Email
resumes
As opposed to an email attachment,
your resume needs to be pasted into the body of your
email. If you ignore the instructions to send an email
resume, and send an attachment, your resume is likely to
be deleted or filtered out as spam. If it does get
through you won't create a favourable impression upon
the recruiter.
Converting
your resume into plain text
if you are using Microsoft
Word 3, this is easy. I don't know why some resources
make it sound so hard. This is the way I have always
done it.
1. Simply make a copy of
your Word document.
2. Select or highlight the
entire resume.
3. Do into "format "and then "styles and
formatting" from the toolbar
4. Click "Clear Formatting"
5
Change bullets into astrix's
6. Save it as a plain text
document.
7. Give it a file name -
i.e.
John Smith resume.
Some people skip points 2. 3
and 4 and save as plain text. By doing it my way
you can immediately see the formatting change. and you
can work on the document before saving it.
However by doing it the easy way you will be left with
bullets. This is good as you can now see where each
sentence begins and ends. Just take the text back to the
margin and change bullet with an astrix.
You now have a document that
is an ASCCI document ready for a bit of creative designing, using the limited formatting
available. You cannot use colour, tabs, fancy fonts,
bullets, bolding, lines, italics, borders, text boxes
and underscore.
If your email has an
underscore, for example
mark_lena.bawden@net.com
Try
mark.underscorelena.bawden@net.com.
You may
have to make this clear in a cover letter.
-
What you can use for
lines. ++++++++++ ==========
-
asterisk **can be used
instead of bullets.
-
The use of < is another
handy substitute for bullets.
-
Use a plain font such as
Arial or verdana. No smaller than size 11
-
Still use indents and
centered text.
-
Use only up to 75
characters in width, no more. This is important.
-
Test it by sending to
yourself on another email or to a friend.
Submitting an electronic resume to
an employer
Follow the employer's
instructions. Otherwise ring and find out how they are
going to handle the recruitment process.
Ensure your resume's key words match the key words in
the advertisement.
If attributes are part of
the selection criteria then they may have been factored
into the data base. In which case, if two of the
requirements stated they wanted "good organisation skills and must be highly flexible and cope
with change then you may then play safe and make sure it
appears in your resume even as a descriptive verb. You
may also start your profile with "highly organised and
flexible professional with....Don't put all three into
the profile. You could just have a competency or
outcome that showed the word "organised".
Don't
downgrade your resume with minor points such as the
above if you are highly qualified, your professional
skills will be a match.
Another important point is that your resume may be added to the
data base by a "real person" and they will go through the
resume and submit keywords. If the job is for a Human
Resource Manager with training experience, then training
will be a key word and your resume should be pulled out
of the data base for further investigation. It
stands to reason that the more matches the better.However,
don't use keywords for skills you don't have or only
have a bit of knowledge of.
Generally if you are a Project Manager, for example, you
are bound to have the skills the employer wants. So
primarily they look for keyword such as occupation and
areas of expertise that fall under the occupation.
For example a Human Resource Manager may not have
experience in skills audits or training and development.
Therefore a Human Resource Manager will be too broad for
a keyword search. they may input development and
training and skills audits, for example.
Some occupations such as IT
Specialists will be challenged when it comes
to
highlighting key words.
Where to put keywords
The best place to put your
keywords into the resume is in a profile and this can be
changed without having to alter the body. But the
profile still must be backed up in the body of the
resume.
However, they may be keywords for a lower level of skill
and you have highlighted your key strength areas which
are broader.
Submitting to an
Employment Agency
If your application is for a
specific job the process is the same for submitting your
resume to an employer. However, if you want to
place your resume on file, then you have to be very
specific about what you put in your
keywords.
Don't have keywords on your
resume that do not reflect you skill level or level of
experience. Employer's get annoyed that they have
wasted their time reading your resume to discover you
are not a match. Also you may be matched to a job you do
not like doing or have not targeted. So make keywords
relevant.
Posting to an
online recruitment service - a
resume bank
Most give several
options for receiving resumes.
Uploading of PDF's, Word, html or plain text.
PDF's are very secure - you can lock them except for
printing. However you must have an Adobe Acrobat Writer
to produce them and it is an expensive bit of software.
Proactive Human Resource Management can convert your
document to PDF.
You can also use the job bank's software
to write an online resume. I would advise against
this. Make sure the document you are sending is
the very best, and this takes time to produce.
If you are employed
you have more reasons for ensuring the
privacy of your resume. So do be careful as to where you
post it.
Protecting your privacy
There are a lot of
considerations when using an online employment service
or resume bank. Protecting you private information
is one. Also you need to be sure the Website is
reputable. There is too much identity stealing going on
I addition to the prospect of having your name sold to a
list for spamming purposes.
Responsible online
recruitment services will
have a privacy statement and some give you the option of
how you want your resume distributed. For example, Careersonline.com gives you the option of - "Hide
all my information." "Send it only to the employers I
select.". "Hide my contact information but let employers
view the contents of my resume."
Don't include personal details in your resume.
In most European countries, Australia and USA, equal
employment opportunity legislation or anti
discrimination laws, means you do not have
to provide personal information such as marital status,
age or date of birth, race, disability or any
other information by which you can be discriminated
against. In fact you can put the employer in a difficult
position if you do supply this information and the
decision goes against you. The employer can be taken
before a tribunal to explain why a person did not get
the job. Note: "Identified
positions, that is where ethnicity or race is necessary
to do the job", is not illegal. However, it must be
called an "identified position".
Other personal
information.
Do you include referees
- No. you must talk to your referees about
this. You cannot go posting there names all over
the Internet without their permission.
Not all employers don't like
it when they see "references provided on request".
They think you have something to hide. This attitude is
completely irrational as they wouldn't like their name
going to hundreds of employers. Make it clear why
you are not supplying them. Write at the end of
your resume "due to privacy concerns referees will be
provided upon request" or "at the interview".
Applying for jobs abroad.
If you are applying for a
job in a country that does not have anti discrimination
laws you will be expected to add more personal detail -
down to how many children you have. Most
jobs go through agencies. You can try and get away
without providing personal information, but don't
be surprised if they come back to you and say your
resume is not complete. Tut tut!. Even if the employment
agency is acting for a global employer, who may not want
to know these details, they still might want them
because that is the way they work.
.
HTML - Website resume
You can convert your
existing resume to html (web language) simply by saving
it in HTML format. You may get a message saving
-
This
means your resume will be spread across the entire
screen with margins .01. You can cut and paste it onto a
website and manually adjust the margin. You need to do a
print preview to see how it
really looks. You may need to make some
alterations as some text may have moved. Now this
assumes you will have administration access to a website
using a windows based web design software site, such as
FrontPage.
There are stacks of resources to show you
how to make a web resume. If you are a web
designer or an arts person you may want to make your
resume very visual. However, everyone else
should use the professional resume layout. That
is, the resume you have in hard copy.
Anyone contemplating a web resume should
read some of these resources.
Unsolicited
E-mails are SPAM and it is illegal. Ensure you
have permission to send your resume to an employer.
So cold calling must be done on the phone and you
must ask if you can send your resume. Then make sure
you have all the contact details correct. Agencies
who offer to send your resume to 500 companies will
be probably be spamming and will
probably be blocked.
http://www.proactivehrm.com/resume/YourInvestment.html
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