E- Resumes: What you Should Know

Electronic resumes are common in today’s job seeking world.  But what is an electronic resume or e- resume for short?  Simple, it is any resume

that is sent via e-mail, submitted to Internet job boards, or posted on someone’s personal web or blog page.

However, like the traditional resumes there are things that job seekers need to know when sending or posting their e- resume.  To make it easy to remember, here is a list of tips before you jump into the new age of technology and transfer your paper resume to an electronic resume.

Job Seekers Must have an e-resume:  Did you know that 80% of employers prefer to receive emails from interested candidates via e-mail.  Also, 80% of Fortune 500 companies put there job availabilities on their web page with links to post their resumes to the application.

E-resume Must have keywords:  Just like your traditional resume it needs to have words that stand out and highlight what you have to offer.  For an e-resume, appropriate keywords will allow your resume to pop up when an employer searches like keywords.

Make sure your e-resume shows accomplishments:  Like #2 this applies to a typical resume but it is even more important to show accomplishments in an e-resume because employers are looking at triple the amount of resumes than they have in the past before e-resumes and web became popular.  You have to stand out in the crowd!

Don’t be afraid, an e-resume is not difficult to create:  Creating your e- resume in Word will probably be the best program because it is widely used.  If you do not have this program when you save it save it so it can be opened in other formats.

E-resumes can be sent anywhere: Post it on many job boards, paste it piece by piece into profile job boards or online applications, paste it in a body of an e-mail, convert into any format, send as an attachment, print it and hand it to an employer.  

Tailor or e-resume for each job board you are posting:  Online job boards gives you many opportunities to apply for jobs.  However, make sure that before applying for a job that you are tailoring your e-resume to the job that your are applying for.  A great time saving idea is to make a few e-resume’s that each relate to jobs that you will possibly be applying for.

Great resources that will help your e-resume process:

e-Resumes: Everything You Need to Know About Using Electronic Resumes to Tap into Today's Hot Job Market, by Susan Britton Whitcomb, Pat Kendall, 

Electronic Resumes & Online Networking, by Rebecca Smith

What do you think?  Are you a job seeker with an e- resume or do you need to create one?  Leave your comments and help out your fellow job seeker.

Carly Sabato