Wednesday, February 27, 2008
How to Create an E-Mail/ ASCII Resume for Internet Job Openings Requiring Cut and Paste
First, make a copy of your existing resume. Give this new document a different name, then make any needed changes (such as adding your e-mail address or incorporating keywords). Next, use your word processor's SAVE AS function to save the resume as a plain text or text only file. You may get a warning about losing your formatting enhancements, but that's okay - that's what we're trying to do.
After saving it in text format, exit your word processor, then open the document again. In doing this, you'll find that the formatting enhancements have been stripped from the resume. Bolding, italics, ruling lines and such are gone. Some programs will automatically replace bullets with asterisks (*), but if not, you can make these replacements yourself.
It's also a good idea to spell out ampersands and percentage signs (& and %), because some scanners have difficulty interpreting these symbols. This can quickly be accomplished by using your word processor's find and replace function.
Finally, you'll want to clean up any extra spaces or awkward gaps caused by tabs. When you're done, your name should be at the top, flush left, with your address, phone and e-mail address stacked underneath.
Regardless of your original format, your categories should be left flush and the body text directly underneath. You can add one hard return between paragraphs that are not separated, but if you add more returns, they won't "hold" and may cause problems later... so don't doctor things up too much. To check your changes, simply save the document, exit and open again to review the results.
Before e-mailing this resume, it's a good idea to check and see how it holds up. To do this, simply send a copy to yourself, and print it out and see what it looks like. In most cases, some additional "cleanup" work will be needed before it's ready to use.
After saving it in text format, exit your word processor, then open the document again. In doing this, you'll find that the formatting enhancements have been stripped from the resume. Bolding, italics, ruling lines and such are gone. Some programs will automatically replace bullets with asterisks (*), but if not, you can make these replacements yourself.
It's also a good idea to spell out ampersands and percentage signs (& and %), because some scanners have difficulty interpreting these symbols. This can quickly be accomplished by using your word processor's find and replace function.
Finally, you'll want to clean up any extra spaces or awkward gaps caused by tabs. When you're done, your name should be at the top, flush left, with your address, phone and e-mail address stacked underneath.
Regardless of your original format, your categories should be left flush and the body text directly underneath. You can add one hard return between paragraphs that are not separated, but if you add more returns, they won't "hold" and may cause problems later... so don't doctor things up too much. To check your changes, simply save the document, exit and open again to review the results.
Before e-mailing this resume, it's a good idea to check and see how it holds up. To do this, simply send a copy to yourself, and print it out and see what it looks like. In most cases, some additional "cleanup" work will be needed before it's ready to use.
