The Internet Resume

The resume that grabs the attention of employers and recruiters today goes far beyond qualified skills and accomplishments. Before being forwarded to the hiring manager for review, resumes are often uploaded from e-mail and electronic forms and scanned into a resume database. Once each resume is in the database it must contain the right keywords to be reviewed for appropriate positions. Here are our strategies for ensuring your resume makes the grade:

Content for Technical Professionals

Packaging your skills to meet the needs of the employer is key in positioning yourself for consideration for the next opportunity. First and foremost you should continually be thinking about what you want your next opportunity to be. Even if you are happy in your current position, you should take notice of the skills that are most in demand in your field, and do what you can to obtain those skills in your present position. If that involves volunteering to participate on projects that are outside of your current group, take advantage of the opportunity. It will pay off in the long term by allowing you to gain exposure to individuals who could be your next boss.

When preparing your resume you should:

• Tailor the resume for the specific opportunity by highlighting technical qualifications that match specific job requirements.
• Honestly summarize the technologies that you are familiar with and how long you have used each one.
• Emphasize any certifications or advanced training in specific software or hardware.
• Highlight your achievements by demonstrating your impact on the bottom line, including ways you improved productivity, reduced costs or increased efficiency.
• Clearly show areas where you have been given increased responsibility for a job well done.
• Include special recognition, awards or participation in relevant trade or professional organizations.
• Proofread for errors. You can be screened out for not being detail oriented.
• Review your resume with your references so that they are up to date on your current accomplishments.
• Update after every position or consulting assignment.

Content for Keyword Searching

When potential employers receive your resume and input it into their database, the question is, Will your resume get lost or be seen by hiring managers or recruiters? The answer depends on whether you have provided a keyword-searchable resume. When a search is conducted, resumes are ranked according to the number of resulting "hits" they receive. How can you create a resume that gets a high level of hits for the positions you are targeting without losing credibility by showing up on every search?

Here are some tips:

• Summarize specific technologies such as programming languages, databases, operating environments and hardware at the top of the resume.
• Also include key word phrases that link to job responsibilities, such as help desk, data modeling and system administration.
• Read the classified listing of a job description to determine the keywords that you will want to use in your resume.
• Key words listed at the top of the resume should be consistently used throughout the resume to increase the number of "hits."

Format for Uploading

Unfortunately you have no way of knowing what kind of system the receiving company/agency of your resume has, so it is critical to format your resume to the lowest common denominator. If at all possible, set your document as text within the e-mail document. Factors to consider when formatting your resume include:

Sending an ASCII version:

• Plain text format with no formatting. This means there should be no bullets, underlines, bold or italics in your copy. Suitable ASCII characters would be dashes (-), asterisks (*) and arrows (>).
• Viewable on PCs, mainframe terminals, UNIX workstations or Macintoshes.
• Convert the text in your resume to 10-point Courier or other fixed-width font and set the page width to 4-3/4".
• Line lengths in excess of 80 characters may wrap the line prematurely.
• Resumes or forms you create on the Web, say at an employers web site, are automatically processed in ASCII.
• If you send your resume as text within an e-mail, this text resume can be scanned.

Sending an RTF version:

This format is sent as an attachment to your e-mail. Before sending, contact the recipient to see what program they use for their word processing. Send your document in the same program if at all possible. (If you do not know, send in ASCII.)

Formats such as bolding and bullets will remain in the document if saved as an RTF file.

Note: When sending an e-mail version of your resume, be sure to include the position of interest in the subject line of your message.

Format for Scanning Resumes

Resume management systems scan your hardcopy resume into their databases for recruiters and hiring managers to search on. Guidelines to follow when sending hardcopy resumes that will be scanned include:

• Mail an original copy without folds or staples. A faxed resume may not scan.
• Left justify the entire document.
• Avoid graphics, italics, underlining, bold and shading.
• Save the file as "Text with Line Breaks," and put a hard return at the end of each line. Avoid Tabs.
• Parenthesis, brackets, horizontal or vertical lines will not scan properly.
• Do not use compressed lines of print.
• Use a sans serif font in size 10-14.

Article courtesy of RHI Consulting. RHI Consulting provides firms with skills IT professionals for projects ranging from multi-platform systems integration to help desk and network support. It has more than 100 locations in North America and Europe, and offers online job search services at www.rhic.com.