You highly increase your possibilities if you use the possibilities of the world-wide-web to post your resume in Job databases located on commercial online services, bulletin boards, newsgroups, or mailing lists. In our dot com world, almost each company has a recruitment page and you know probably quite a few of these companies offering positions in your particular field. A more straightforward tactic is the use of all-in-one Job databases where you can post direclty your resume online to the recruiting company or organization. Check out our comprehensive Job Search Boards with local job openings from 14 countries.  

Before starting to prepare your electronic resume, you should prepare as a basis a well-crafted hardcopy resume and cover letter. We provide you in the following with some basic orientation for Resume and Cover Letter Writing when going online. Find more detailed information in the literature (resume and cover letter books) or hire a professional resume writer if you need help creating your hardcopy resume and cover letter.

Format of online Resumes

If you go to these different sites you will recognize that the format to present your resume varies from page to page. As a general recommendation, you should prepare a  resume in a format that is easy to copy and paste without having trouble with the format (for instance Text-only format). 

In the following an example how you might format a resume written in MS-Word into a Text document without loosing completely the esthetical aspect.  

The Resume of Farley Suber, written in MS-Word format, is only presented partially* 

Farley Suber 345 Fenwick Street Elton Park, CO 79403 (750) 555-4212 Objective: Seeking an entry-level position in sales or marketing Education: Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Public Relations) May 2002 Minor: Business/Liberal Arts University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Cumulative GPA: 3.10 out of 4.00 Experience: LONS Computing Systems Sales and Marketing Representative January-June 2002 Applied marketing skills to increase sales of Macintosh G3 computers Cultivated client relationships, increasing customer satisfaction and repeat sales Placed advertising in magazines including Men's Health, GQ, and Wired Wrote press releases on new computer products Broadway Master Theatre Marketing Assistant May-September 2001 Assisted with the planning, creation and distribution of theatrical press releases Wrote radio advertisements Tracked attendance based on information from reservationists and box office attendants Handled photo releases mailings to be distributed to the media sources

The same resume reformatted in a Text-only format:

Farley Suber 345 Fenwick Street Elton Park, CO 79403 (750) 555-4212     Objective:   Seeking an entry-level position in sales or marketing       Education: Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Public Relations) May 2002 Minor: Business/Liberal Arts University of Chicago, Chicago, IL Cumulative GPA: 3.10 out of 4.00     Experience:   LONS Computing Systems Sales and Marketing Representative January-June 2002 *   Applied marketing skills to increase sales of Macintosh G3 computers *   Cultivated client relationships, increasing customer satisfaction and repeat sales *   Placed advertising in magazines including Men's Health, GQ, and Wired *   Wrote press releases on new computer products       Broadway Master Theatre Marketing Assistant May-September 2001 *   Assisted with the planning, creation and distribution of theatrical press releases *   Wrote radio advertisements *   Tracked attendance based on information from reservationists and box office attendants *   Handled photo releases mailings to be distributed to the media sources

 

As you see, we replaced all bold text by all capitalized letters to draw attention to important words, phrases, and headings. In the case of underlines or italics you can do the same. As the simple text format does not consider neither tabs nor bullet points, we used the space bar to reformat the listings and asterisks to replace the bullet points. This simplified e-resume can now be copied without problem into the appropriate fields on the resume websites. 

 

Keywords

 

In order to improve the probability to get discovered and appear on employers’ computer screens you need to optimize the key-words you are using in your resume. All search programs depend on keywords and these need to reflect the job description, experience and skills the employer is seeking. It is essential to use the right key-words in your application in order to get found by the right persons. It might be even recommendable to create a “Keywords” section, along with Experience and Education. An other possibility is the incorporation of the keywords into the statements in your resume text, for instance in the Qualification Statements or under logical headings.

 

In the following some general keyword guidelines:

• The number of keywords used for an e-resume typically is in the range of 25 to 50.

• Use in first place keywords used in the job ads.

• List your keywords as nouns, not verbs (creation instead of created).

• You can also use combinations like Marketing Representative, Business Administration, Group Facilitation, etc.

 

Keywords in the Text

 

Incorporate as much as possible of your keywords into the statements in your resume text. Look for opportunities to list your keywords under logical headings or in the Summary of Qualification statements.

Here's the list of proposed keywords for the resume of Farley Suber:

 

Sales marketing advertising Bachelor of Arts B.A. Business administration Public Relations Marketing Representative Sales Representative

Promotion Marketing skills client relationships client relations customer satisfaction Customer relations Internet Microsoft Word Powerpoint

Microsoft Excel Macintosh Computer Products creation distribution writing skills communication skills award planning

chairman leads analysis business plan product development business development Product launch Development Achievement

Privacy

 

Do not post your resume or personal information without carefully reading the Privacy Statement of the Company.  Protect your identity and your existing job, if you are employed, by limiting access to your contact information (name, address, and phone number). You never can exclude that your boss is searching their employees' resumes in the job site resume/applicant database and/or the search engines. And what will happen if he really finds your online posted CV and he had no idea that you are looking for a new job?

Sources

• AspirationsResume - Free resume evaluations.

  Most trusted resume writing and editing service. Provide very useful information on resume and cover letter writing.

• Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters: 400 Unconventional Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Landing Your Dream Job, by Jay Conrad Levinson, David Perry

• Monster Careers: How to Land the Job of Your Life, by Jeffrey Taylor, Douglas Hardy

• Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer (Resume Magic: Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer), by Susan Britton Whitcomb;

• The Elements Of Resume Style: Essential Rules And Eye-opening Advice For Writing Resumes And Cover Letters That Work, by Scott Bennett

• Human Resource Approved Job Interviews & Resumes: Successful Secrets from the Hiring Side of the Desk, by Michael Schell

• Texas State University Career Service Job Search Guide, San Marcos 2005.

• ^* provided by Vault.com

   

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