Resume in the Digital World

(Increasing Your Job Hit Rate by 400%)

Presented at ENG on January 5, 2006

by Robert Chamberlain

Summarized by John Marcus

jmarcus@w9dg.com

Marketing yourself to employers can be enhanced through resume formatting, job board changes and website presence. All this can be done easily, however, providing too much information may lead to personal identity theft.

A resume is a marketing tool, much like a handbill, however, when it is used by recruiters or posted on job boards, you may be quickly eliminated. It is very important to utilize proper text formatting. Although many current recruiter databases are flexible in the text they allow, some of the older recruiter databases still in existence today are limited to 60 characters in width and sometimes place a total character limit at 256 due to database constraints.

First, to convert to text it is important to utilize a package like Microsoft Word to create and spell check your resume. Second, one should copy and paste text from the word processor into Notepad, (not WordPad). It is important to use true, generic text formatting, not Rich Text Format, (RTF). Next, it is important to take off word wrap in notepad. Create a ruler using numbers 1 thru 0 repeated six times, temporarily along the top of the page. Adjust the notepad viewer screen to stop at the 60 th character and enter a carriage return following the 60 th character of each line. (It would probably be best not to break up words though). It is important to save this with a recognizable name searchable by last name. (Example - Chamberlain, Robert_ManagerofEngineering.doc) This type of formatting is allowable and can be recognized easily.

Job boards are very useful but do not fall into the habit of spending all day on job boards. Networking brings in 85% of all successful job leads. Job boards take your resume information and submit it most of the time through emails to the recruiter. Some recruiters utilize databases that offer spreadsheet formatted output. It is critical on job boards to utilize the "Text Only" formatting method. One way of improving job board hits on your resume is to edit your resume and make a change, (even if it is only one character). Be sure to change a character because some recruiters will not receive an update unless there is an actual change. Another way is to do regular searches on jobs. Some recruiters are able to search for potential employees by a lookup on hits on job searches we have made. It is also helpful to rearrange your resume for job board posting so that the first 256 characters contain what would be your elevator speech, just in case the job board database limits the length of your information stored in their database.

Website presence can enhance your professionalism. Having a personal website will allow recruiters and potential employers see your resume while you are on the road and shows that you stay current with the times.

While it is important to provide proper information to potential employers and recruiters, your information is at risk and can be stolen or sold. There is certain information you should not include on a job board or a website. That information would include your address, home phone number, patent number, social security number or student ID.

When preparing your resume for the digital world, be sure to properly utilize text formatting, make weekly changes to resumes posted on job boards, furnish your information on a professional website and be aware of security risks with providing certain personal information.

Copies of the presentation are available at: www.PersonalResume.Net .