Sending Resume through e-mail

 

 

Don't get flustered when a career consultant asks you to send an electronic resume. Get this right. It is only a resume in a format that can be sent over E-mail or the Internet. No faxing or mailing is necessary. If your resume is stored in a computer or a floppy diskette, it is already in an electronic format. But the key question to remember: is that the most useful format? While most E-mail systems can accommodate document attachments - be they in Word, WordPerfect, Quark or otherwise - not every person or organisation is willing or able to receive such attachments. Sometimes, companies delete all E-mail with attachments to safeguard against viruses. So it is better not to take the attachment route while sending resumes. For the same risk of transmitting viruses, don’t send any other online document as an attachment

To make your electronic resume welcome everywhere, follow these steps:

USE STANDARD WORD PROCESSOR ELEMENTS

Plain text (also called ASCII Text or MS-DOS Text and recognised by its three-letter file extension: .txt) is universally accessible and, in many cases, required.

BUT WHAT IS ASCII TEXT?

ASCII is a standard, common text language which allows different word processing applications (such as Microsoft Word, ClarisWorks and WriteNow) on various computer platforms (a Macintosh computer or a PC) to read and display the same text information. So convert your resume to an ASCII file.

WHILE Avoid using special characters such as mathematical symbols as these do not get accurately transferred in the text save.

Use the spacebar instead of tabs.

The default for ASCII is to make everything left aligned. So use the spacebar for indenting a sentence or centring anything.

Note that plain text format is very basic—it does not recognise formatting such as bullets, bold facing or italicised text. Fonts will become whatever a computer uses as its default face and size. Bold face, italics and various sizes will not appear in the ASCII copy.

Consider using asterisks (*), plus symbols (+) and capital letters to achieve similar effects. Use a 12-point font such as Courier.

LOOKS ARE NOT IMPORTANT

Companies take the electronic resume option more for getting the basic facts about the applicant rather than forming the last impression. So while you should try to make your resume look as appealing as possible, pay more attention to presenting key details and facts in a precise and direct manner. Forget the aesthetics part of it.

MAKE CONTENT LEGIBLE

Even in the absence of formatting features, your resume should look legible. If the word processing application permits, set your margins at 0 and 65 characters (in other words, your longest line, including spaces, takes 65 characters before wrapping to a new line). This makes your resume easier to read and, just as importantly, safe to print.

Using the "Save" command (or, if you're converting a document from another format, the "Save As..." command), save your document as an ASCII or MS-DOS Text document. Remember to append the .txt extension on to the file name, e.g. "resume.txt"

WHILE E-MAILING A RESUME, REMEMBER TO:

Include a cover letter and mention where you found the ad.

Send the resume and cover letter in one file. You can do this by writing or pasting your cover letter in the space before your resume.

Use the job title and/or job reference number as the subject of your message. Mention any relevant job numbers noted in the ad.