FAQs About e-Resumes: Part 1

By Sandra Lim, CPRW, CCM, CECC

Part 1 of this article will answer your questions about e-résumés and discuss the technology implications of using them in your job search. Part 2 will deal with confidentiality and privacy issues, offer a brief discussion on Web résumés, and include links to e-résumé resources.

Due to space limitations, step-by-step instructions on creating an e-résumé have not been included, but I have provided a link to a chat transcript (www.abetterimpression.com), on coaching a client to convert a Word résumé to an e-résumé from my Web Portfolio.

Q: What is an e-résumé?

A: An electronic résumé, or e-résumé, most commonly refers to a plain text (also called text-only) résumé. A common mistake is to refer to an e-résumé as an ASCII résumé. ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Most people are not aware that ASCII does not just refer to plain text résumés, which are identified by the file extension .txt, but also to rich text résumés (identified by the .rtf file extension), and hypertext résumés (identified by the file extensions .html or htm). Part 1 of this article will focus on plain text e-résumés, and Part 2 will touch on hypertext (Web) résumés.

You may be wondering where scannable résumés fit in. As early as September 1998, an article in the Canadian HR Reporter’s Guide to Recruitment & Staffing stated that “Scanning is… becoming obsolete quickly as more and more résumés are sent electronically.”

As more and more résumés are being sent electronically, plain text e-résumés are becoming an essential tool every job seeker’s arsenal. E-résumés are pasted into the body of emails sent to potential employers, and are also used to copy and paste into e-forms when posting your résumé to Internet job boards.

To create a plain text e-résumé, you need to have a word processing program and a text editor. Notepad is the text editor that comes bundled with Windows, and SimpleText is the text editor for Macintosh systems. Refer to the link above for step-by-step instructions.

Q: Why do I need an e-résumé?

A: In the electronic age, the regular résumés that we are all used to are called “presentation résumés”— they have fancy formatting such as underlining, bold, and italics, which make them visually appealing. There is still a place for presentation résumés in your job search, such as for networking or to present in person at an interview. However, with the proliferation of electronic résumé databases, and at a time where email communication between job seekers and potential employers is becoming more and more common, it is more likely that your résumé will be viewed by an electronic eye before being viewed by a human eye. The plain text e-résumé is the preferred format for submitting résumés electronically because, although not pretty to look at, they are universally readable across all platforms, whether the recipient is using a PC or Mac; Word or WordPerfect.

Furthermore, using a plain text e-résumé pasted into the body of an email eliminates the chance that employers may delete emails with attachments due to a fear of viruses. This concern became common after the “Killer Résumé Virus” was unleashed in 2000 – the virus was hidden in an email attachment with the subject line “Résumé – Janet Simmons.” Since then, we have all heard of, or been victimized by, many new viruses. It’s no wonder that employers are wary about opening attachments.

Q: What are the differences between regular résumés and e-résumés?

A: A plain text e-résumé is loaded with keywords, usually in a Keyword Summary immediately after the job seeker’s contact information. Keywords make a résumé retrievable in an electronic database. Keywords are nouns and buzzwords, rather than the action verbs we are used to hearing about. Appropriate keywords to use in your e-résumé can be derived from examining both your own experience and newspaper and Internet job postings matching your job target. Keywords can include hard skills, soft skills, licences, professional development, and academic qualifications. Here is an example for a fictional Webmaster job candidate (the italicized square brackets only serve the purpose of delineating for the reader the various keyword categories used, and would not actually appear in an e-résumé keyword summary):

Keyword Summary:

[hard skills] Webmaster, Web programming, coding, HTML, Java, SQL Server, MS FrontPage, SQL database management, Web server troubleshooting, [soft skills] creative, detail-oriented, team player, [academic qualifications] Computer Programming, Database & Internet Solutions Developer Diploma, Bachelor of Commerce.

Q: What happens to my e-résumé after I email it to an employer or post it on an Internet job board?

A: Whether you send your e-résumé to an employer or post it on an Internet job board, your e-résumé is automatically transformed into electronic data and entered into an electronic database to be later retrieved through a keyword search. Whether your résumé is being viewed by a human eye or an electronic eye, the objective is still the same: to secure an interview. The right keywords in your e-résumé will get you noticed. The focus is on content, not appearance.

Most job boards require you to copy and paste your résumé into an e-form, and if you do this with a presentation résumé (i.e., a résumé created in Word), in many cases, it will automatically be converted to plain text. That means that some strange characters may appear, such as question marks where bullets used to be – this is because bullets are not supported in plain text. Only the characters you can see on your keyboard are recognized in plain text.

It is advantageous to have a plain text e-résumé already prepared, which will make copying and pasting into e-forms effortless. In addition, sometimes there is a specific field for keywords – this is where you should enter the keywords from your keyword summary.

Once you or your clients start using e-résumés, questions may arise about confidentiality and privacy issues – these will be discussed in Part 2.

Sandra Lim, CPRW, CCM, CECC is a Certified Electronic Career Coach (CECC), and her Web Portfolio can be viewed at www.mylifecalling.com. Through her company, A Better Impression, she provides résumé and career counselling services to help her clients create a better impression. She can be reached by email at newcareer@abetterimpression.com.