Sending Your Resume

August 10, 2011 0 Comments

Due to the electronic age we live in and today’s current job market, the way we submit resumes has (and is) changing. There are four ways to submit a resume and cover letter:

Snail mail – Print your resume and cover letter on white 20lb. paper in a 90 to 96 white brightness. Don’t use wild colors in an attempt to draw attention to your resume and cover letter. It will draw attention, but the type you want – crumpled up and into the trash can.

FAX – If you are going to fax a printed copy, then you don’t need to do anything different except add a header page to your fax. If you are going to fax off of an electronic copy, then use a 65-character-per-line format to keep your text from getting jumbled up and unreadable.

Email – If the company requests you attach your resume to the email, then do so using the document extension they noted in the job posting, which is usually Microsoft Word . If they want the resume posted in the body of the email, then stay with the 65-character-per-line plain-text format. Use the body of the email as your cover letter. Don’t automatically assume you can attach your resume to your email. Some company policies do not allow attachments and your email (and resume/cover letter) would be deleted before anyone even got to read them.

Web-based Submission Systems

More companies, especially larger ones, are going to an electronic based system. Because these systems use a keyword – centric approach, you have to ensure the keywords the resume scanning software is looking for are contained in your resume. Otherwise, your resume will not come up on the shortlist – the list of resume that will get read by a human being.

Companies use scanning software systems to wade through the myriad of resumes – sometimes hundreds for a single job posting. Being it would be impossible to go through each one individually, they use a computer to whittle down the pool to those having certain keywords relevant to the open position.

Keywords

* When you upload your resume to job boards or electronic resume sites and to keep your resume from getting eliminated, you have to first identify what keywords they are looking for and then as naturally as possible insert those keywords both into your cover letter and resume.
* To identify keywords, read through the job posting or the advertisement and look for words relating to types of skills. Make sure these skill keywords appear throughout your Skills Summary section.
* When uploading your resume, be sure to use a standard font, such as Times New Roman, Verdana, in a 10 to 12 point size.
While the snail mail and fax methods are starting to go the way of the mastodon, they are still occasionally used, however, the primary methods are still email and web-based electronic submission.

Research the company having the job you are applying for and be sure which method they use. Follow their directions to the “T” as some companies are very picky and look for anything out of their normal process to eliminate a resume.