All you wanted to know about e- resumes

* HAVE often noted that people send their resumes to prospective employers and then forget all about it in a month's time. You must remember to update your resume every three months and to mention the date of the resume. This is one of the pitfalls of posting resumes all over the web.

Effective electronic resumes

ITo be effective in electronic marketing, your resume must have the keywords that cause your resume to be selected when database resumes are sorted. It must have a strong content that grabs the employers and makes him call you for an interview.

* Always send a test copy of your email resume to yourself or someone else and check the formatting.

* Begin your email message with your covering letter, just as you would if you were sending a resume by mail.

* In your covering letter include any job numbers and job titles that describe the job or jobs you wish to apply for. Be sure to include your email address on both your resume and your covering letter along with your phone number.

* Follow any online instructions the employer may provide on transmitting your electronic resume. Many employers dislike having the resume sent as an attachment and prefer having it appear after your covering letter. Take care of details like sending the resume only in text/ word or only text format if so mentioned.

* Don't use all lower case letters. Spelling counts on the Internet too.

Online resume formats

* Many Internet resume banks and employers provide on-line resume forms to input up to 600 words in a block, to describe your career goals and qualifications.

* Print such online forms from each resume bank or employer site and study them. If some information that is requested is not in your resume text file, then create a second file and add these sections. Save and keep this new version to complete online resume forms.

* Once you've put your resume information into the form be sure to print and preview it before submitting it to the employer or a resume data bank.

Home page resumes

* Many employers and recruiters will not spend the time it takes to use search engines to find your home page resume or a personal web site. With millions of websites and thousands of resumes on the web, you need to identify employers you are most interested in. Then go to employers's web site and post your resume into their online resume bank or email your resume to them. If you wish to showcase your ability to create a web page resume than be sure to provide them with your URL or the Internet address.

* Be sure you include your email address and URL in the emails you send.

* Keywords again are important which will help you be sorted and selected from the Internet. Make sure the content motivates the potential employer to interview you.

* Remember the employer or recruiter may want to import your resume into their databases. As an option to employers or recruiters, create an additional page/ link that includes a plain text version of your resume with all HTML coding removed that you can transmit via email or which employers can copy and paste into their database.

* When you design your homepage, break it into different pages. Then use hyperlinks to let the employer jump from one 'page or section' of your resume to the next page or section.

* Put your resume into one page and create anchors that serve as hyperlinks to jump the employer to each section of your resume - rather than the employer having to scroll through your resume.

* Employers and recruiters scan online homepage resumes just as quickly, if not more, than a paper resume. To maximise the impact of your resume, be sure that the information at the top of each screen is the most important.

* For example, the employer should see your name which you might follow with a skill heading like the example below:

Anant G Wadkar, Web Marketing Professional

Street # 1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad-500 017resume URL: http://a- wadkar.tripod.com/iCv.htm

* Use keywords as hyperlinks that will grab an employer's attention and make them click on your hyperlink and go to that section of your resume.

* If you are considering creating a home page resume, browse through several home page resumes first. Analyse the design, content and keywords of each resume. Go easy on the graphics.

* Announce your availability on all resume-posting sites but link to one primary URL. This way you can make changes only in one resume rather than umpteen times at each resume-posting site.

* Don't share any personal viewpoints or unrelated personal information on your web home page/site that employers could find offensive or which makes you appear unprofessional.

ANANT G WADKAR

anant@careermosaicindia.com