Re: Advice on Resumes

[Linda Sherman <linsherm -at- GTE -dot- NET>]

stark vision wrote:
>
> When sending a resume electronically (via email) do I send it as an attachment, in the body, as a pdf, a word file, frame file, or all of the above.

>From personal experience, I advise creating a specially formatted resume
in plain ASCII text, keeping your columns less than 60 characters wide,
and pasting it into the body of your message.

I used to send my resume as a Word 97 file attached to the document. I'd
say that about a third of the time, the other party either did not have
the software to read it, did not know how to read it, or had some rule
requiring e-mailed resumes to be in text format.

So I created a plain text resume and started sending THAT as an
attachment, and I still had people saying they couldn't read it.

So now I just paste it into the body of the message. Nobody has
complained or asked me to send it in a different format. Just in case, I
always add to the message that I would be happy to fax them a copy of my
"hardcopy resume". Nobody has requested it yet.

> Are there any pitfalls to avoid when sending a resume to a potential employer?
> For example, is parallel construction in a resume important? Should a resume be one page only?

I believe in keeping it short and simple, especially if you're emailing
it. If the employer or client wants more information, tell them you'll
be happy to answer any questions they may have in the interview. If
you'd like, create a more detailed and nicer-looking hardcopy version
that you can offer to fax or mail to them.

Remember, the purpose of a resume is to GET THE INTERVIEW, not to tell
your life story. Keep that in mind, and you'll figure out the best
format for your resume and the right information to put into it.

Lin
--
Linda K. Sherman <linsherm -at- gte -dot- net>
Computer programming, technical writing, web development
phone: 1-727-842-6756  fax: 1-727-842-6853


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=