Graduate Careers AustraliaAll About Applications
Electronic RésumésIn some instances, employers will request that you submit an electronic résumé when applying for a position. Often, these electronic résumés are ‘read’ by scanners, essentially 'text readers' in the first instance, rather than by a human being. These scanners are not designed to interpret or distinguish non-standard characters or formats, therefore you should consider submitting your electronic résumé in ASCII format. The key principles needed to make your electronic résumé readable are to:
You should have at least partly prepared your résumé before actively pursuing a job. In many instances you will need to customise your résumé to suit the particular job on offer, so this task will be easier if you keep your résumé up to date and ready to go. A cover letter will need to be prepared each time as it should be tailored to the job on offer; employers will recognise a standard letter and may not be impressed. Remember that the letter is part of your marketing plan to encourage the employer to invite you to an interview, so it should address the company’s selection criteria as well as outline your skills, achievements and attitudes. Whether the information you submit electronically is read by a scanner or gathered in an electronic application form it ends up being stored in a database. A ‘keyword search’ of the database is then undertaken in order to eliminate applications and arrive at a smaller list of candidates for further review and consideration. Therefore, if you are to ‘maximise your hits’ you must ensure that your application contains strong action-oriented language, particularly words that relate to the key skills or qualities that the employer is seeking. You should also always follow the instructions provided by the employer. It should be noted however that some employers, particularly those using third-party suppliers to assist with selection, do go through every application received. In the event that your electronic résumé is not read by a scanner and the employer simply requests this type of application for the sake of speed and convenience, find out in advance what word processing package and version the employer uses so that what you send is compatible. The last thing you want is either for the formatting of your résumé to be compromised when the employer opens it or, worse still, for it to be impossible to actually open or read the document! In creating an electronic résumé there are other issues to consider; if emailing the résumé, sending it as part of the message rather than as an attachment can be helpful. If it is sent as an attachment and saved as a particular application and the recipient doesn’t have that application or has an older version, it may become corrupt or unable to be opened. Saving files in ASCII or RTF format can solve this problem, but sometimes even doing this will not prove faultless.
Some Helpful Websites
Careers Online has a free, but compulsory, registration process. The resumé writing information is most relevant for secondary school students. There is a service called ‘RezWiz’, which requires an annual subscription.
The University of Minnesota’s ‘Resumania’ site helps the job seeker to create a résumé, step-by-step. It is a useful resource, especially as it continually reminds the user that the résumé has to suit personal tastes. This article was taken from the internet job-seeking guide Working The Web. Authors: Col McCowan, Head Careers and Employment, Queensland University of Technology. Email: [email protected] and Mal McKenzie, Manager Careers Service, University of Technology, Sydney Email: [email protected] Additional material was taken from the 2004 edition of Graduate Careers Australia's employer directory Graduate Opportunities
Author: Les Emery, Senior Careers Adviser, University of Western Australia |
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