There isn’t anything that can’t be found on the Internet these days; from eyeglasses to groceries, the Internet holds nearly everything you could want or need – including your next job.
In order to land a job from the Internet, though, you need to consider if your resume is web 2.0 ready or if the age of technology is going to leave you behind.
credit: simon stratford
Having a resume that is Internet approved means your resume is versatile enough to be posted online at various job sites, can be sent through email, and is posted on your personal website. As a job applicant, you not only need knowledge of your field, but you also need to be somewhat Internet savvy. An Internet ready resume can be exactly the proof needed to show you’re the complete package.
In order to have an Internet friendly resume, you need to format it differently than a traditional, printed resume. You’ll want to have Word Processing software, and possibly web page publishing software, in order to accomplish the formatting changes.
Text Format
Not every email program is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get); you can’t always send a message with graphics, colors or images. Plain text format is just that; text. If you’re only using a plain text email format, then you need to be mindful that much of the formatting can be lost for the recipient. Make necessary formatting changes to ensure what you send is easy to read when received.
Since plain text emails don’t allow for bolding, underlining, or italics, you can rely on some of the keyboard keys to dress up a very plain resume to make headings or descriptions stand out. For instance, using the asterisk symbol is great to make bullet points while the hyphen symbol can pose as a sub bullet. Your Caps key can outline job titles or places of employment. And, don’t be afraid to utilize the equal sign to give additional weight to a name or title when needed.
Html Format
You are likely using html formatting without even realizing it. Any document you create, including a printable resume, uses html to show off or highlight words. Web pages, including online job boards, blogs and some kinds of email programs, use html. If you want to display your resume on an Internet job board or web page, knowing how to input html codes is very helpful. By using html codes, you can insert hyperlinks that will route users to another destination you have determined, such as a social networking page or even to your email address, when users click on them.
Some web pages automatically insert any html you are already using when you copy and paste your resume into a text box while others require you to insert the proper coding for each word you want emphasized. This is where web design software, such as Photoshop, Publisher and Dreamweaver, comes in handy as each of these programs can help you design the kind of page you want including the coding.
When putting your resume online for display, think about how it will appear and what kind of formatting should be used. Most websites designed for uploading and pasting a resume have instructions to help you complete the process, so even if you don’t have a lot of html knowledge, you can still successful create an Internet ready resume.
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This is a good topic! Also, when publishing your resume online using Dreamweaver or other html formats, you may want to include a separate CSS stylesheet for printing, so any background colors, images, and navigation from your website will be left out. See this advanced article on using print stylesheets for web pages at A List Apart: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/goingtoprint/