Glencoe Keyboarding with Computer Applications

Electronic Resumes

Introduction
Learn about applying for jobs through the Internet.

Directions
Read the information below and apply what you learn to answer the questions. Key your answers into the spaces below. After you finish keying, check your work carefully and click Submit.

E-Resume Strategy
The Internet is rapidly changing the face of traditional job searching. A Web-based job search has a different audience with different rules.

E-Resume Guidelines Since electronic resumes are mainly sent and seen over the Internet or by e-mail, a smart e-resume requires a different strategy than a paper resume. For example, employers might use a keyword search to quickly find specific experience or skills in an applicant’s resume. Below are some guidelines you might follow:

• Use significant keywords, buzzwords, or descriptions that employers will look for. Put the most important keywords toward the beginning of the resume, since some search engines will only scan a small amount of items per document, and usually at the top.
• Use nouns as opposed to verbs. For example, use “Supervisor” instead of “Supervised”, because the noun will more likely be used in a keyword search.
• Use smaller line margins. This helps to avoid line breaks in different e-mail programs with different margins.
• Avoid a “dense” format. Computers like white space and obvious breaks, which they recognize as topic separators.
• Add spaces between bullets or numbering and the text, so that the bullets and numbering do not interfere with a keyword search.
• Avoid abbreviations that a computer may not recognize.

Distributing the Resume The most common method for distributing an electronic resume is to attach the e-resume as a file in an e-mail to an employer. If your e-mail software does not allow you to attach a file, such as a free online e-mail service, you can always paste the entire document into the message area of your e-mail. Beware that this will often cause formatting changes, so be sure to correct line breaks and formatting once you have pasted the text.

Another method of distributing an electronic resume is to post it on an Internet job search Web site or bulletin board. Here, resumes are made available to everyone who would like to read them, most often employers and job recruiters. Posting a resume is usually quite simple—just follow each individual site’s posting instructions, taking care not to include your personal information, except your e-mail address.

Personal Information Do not to reveal too much personal information in a public forum. For instance, many choose not to include a personal address or home phone number on their posted resumes. Instead, they might include an e-mail address that they can check regularly.

Also, make a list of the places where you have posted your resume. This way, once your job search is completed, you can return and remove all of your posted information.

1			How are electronic resumes primarily sent and seen?
2			Why is it not a good idea to use verbs as keywords on an electronic resume?
3			What are three formatting issues to avoid in an electronic resume?
4			What are two ways to distribute an electronic resume?
5			What is the benefit of keeping a list of places where you have posted a resume?