Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In [PC Pro]

Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In [PC Pro]
COMPANY: David Allen PRICE: $70
RATING: ISSUE: 122 DATE: Dec 04

Verdict: Its sheer simplicity and convenience makes this an essential purchase for email junkies.

Although FranklinCovey's time-management system may be the most popular around, David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) has a growing following. Rather than attempting to plan everything around 'big rocks' - long-term goals and values - this system tries to reflect the reality of modern life, where a lot of the way we work is reactive. Instead of attempting to control every aspect of your life, GTD focuses on managing all the tasks and information that gets thrown at you on a day-to-day basis.
It's a system that's ideally suited for people who use computers as an integral part of their work, especially in an organisation where email is the main method of communication. The basic principles are simple: any information you receive should be dealt with immediately, either by delegating it, assigning it an action, deferring it to another time, or filing it. Given that email is the main way information flows on a daily basis, it's email that requires the most management.
This is where the snappily titled Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In comes in. The product is an Outlook plug-in that adds a row of buttons to your taskbar, with buttons for delegating, deferring, actioning, snoozing, filing, and 'someday' allowing


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you to perform these tasks on each email you receive.
What this means in practice is that dealing with any kind of actionable item via email is extremely simple: even if you don't intend to follow the principles of the GTD system to the letter, it makes handling and filing email a much cleaner and easier process. During this review, we went from having more than 400 emails in our inbox to none, filing and actioning everything that's been sitting around for months.
If you decide to use the GTD system to the fullest degree, this is an excellent tool for making it even more simple. As well as handling email, the product allows you to create folders for different projects, placing processed emails into the correct project folder as well as either creating a task or appointment for it.
One of the most compelling things about this product is its simplicity. Even if you're the kind of person who never reads manuals, you can be up and running with it in less than a minute, and because it integrates directly with Outlook it's surrounded by an application that's very familiar.
There are no complexities to learn - you just highlight emails, press a button, and that's virtually all there is to it. Of course, there's actually nothing here that you couldn't really do just by dragging mails around in Outlook itself, but the simple interface makes it much easier.
Overall, this is a nice little product. The price - just under $70 for a downloaded version - is exactly right, and the support available on the company's website is excellent. However, bear in mind, if you're still on an old system, that it needs Outlook 2000 (with SR-1 installed) or later. If you use Outlook and you're a regular user of the GTD system - or even if you fancy giving it a go - this is an essential purchase.
By Ian Betteridge
SPECIFICATIONS:
10MB hard disk space; Windows 98 onwards; Microsoft Outlook 2000 onwards.

China provides UK tourism boost

The UK has been granted Approved Destination Status (ADS) by China, in a move that is likely to benefit UK tourism firms with a new revenue stream.

Until now, the Chinese government allowed only business and study trips to the UK. Chinese tourists booking through selected travel agencies will benefit from simplified procedures to apply for UK tourist visas.

ADS simplifies the exit procedures for Chinese tourists - they are able to use ordinary passports and apply for tourist visas when wanting to visit an ADS country.
The World Tourism Organisation estimates that the number of tourists leaving China has risen by a million every year since 1998.

Forecasts suggest that by 2020 there will be 100 million Chinese travelling overseas - four times the total number of overseas visitors who currently come to Britain each year.

Tom Wright, VisitBritain chief executive, said: "Granting ADS to Britain is good news for China and the UK. We look forward, in time, to welcoming more Chinese tourists to Britain.

"As other European countries already have ADS agreements in place, VisitBritain will face strong competition from other countries. We will work closely with the travel trade and the press to market Britain as a distinctive destination within Europe."

Source: Copyright BusinessEurope.com 2005

Make Your Email Resume Stand Out

Make Your Email Resume Stand Out

By: Accountemps

July 2004 — More and more people are sending their resumes electronically. In a recent survey, executives said 56 percent of the resumes they receive are submitted by email -- a 22 percent increase from when the question was asked three years earlier.

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With a good strategy, job seekers can use email to conduct an ambitious, highly targeted search that vastly increases their odds of finding a position. Resumes should be easy-to-read and tailored to the opportunity. The closer a resume matches the qualifications an employer is seeking, the greater the chances of getting an interview.

Following are some tips for ensuring your emailed resume stands out:

• Target your resume. Don't broadcast it indiscriminately. Select positions that fit with your credentials, and customize it accordingly. 
  
  
• Make it computer-friendly. Format your resume in plain text so that nearly every computer can read it. Many employers use software programs that scan resumes for key words, including specific technical and managerial skills; incorporate words that are used in the job description, as appropriate.
  
  
• Send it in the correct format. While some businesses have online application processes, others do not. Companies with firewalls and anti-virus software usually discourage e-mail attachments. Paste the text of your document in the body of the email instead. 
  
  
• Use the subject line wisely. Make your intentions clear to the recruiter or hiring manager by including the title of the position in the subject line of your email.
  
  
• Prompt the recipient to continue reading. Include an introductory message that briefly describes your skills and experience, and the reasons you feel you are right for the position.

Resume Writing Tips How to Write a Resume from Resumes_com

RESUME WRITING TIPS

Your first impression is your last impression; you don't have a second chance. Invest time in your resume to write it well. Your resume can make you stand above the crowd if written well and organized properly. Millions of dollars are spent on advertisements, our resumes are our advertisements. Your resume should represent your best abilities truthfully. Employers do not have the luxury to spend more than a minute of their time reading your resume. It must be eye-catching, short and brief. The purpose of your resume is to get you in the door. Your interview gets you further ahead in getting the job you desire. Your resume should reflect what your capabilities are and what you can do. Reverse Chronological Format Resume Commonly used by people with job specific titles and experience with no major gaps, chronologically listing you most recent job first. This resume format is appropriate when you have specific job related experience and background. Generally people with professional experience in their field of specialization are comfortable using this resume format. Functional Format Resume This resume format is more commonly used where the experience and education may not have a steady continuation, or long history of experience, which makes it impractical to be listed chronologically. Summarizing the education, experience and skills make this resume format attractive. Listing your education and experience briefly can be compensated in the summary. Combination Format Resume This resume format utilizes the best features of both the chronological and functional format resumes. Commonly used when there is a lack of or not enough job specific experience and qualifications. New graduates can use this resume format comfortably since it has more flexibility to adapt many variable backgrounds and experience. Some guidelines in writing a professional resume: Keep your objective brief, to the point and in line with your education and experience. Never exaggerate your qualifications, skills or lie on your resume. This will make your job search more efficient and help recruiters find you. It's quite likely that your exaggerations will be exposed during a background check or an interview. Not only will you be risking immediate removal from the job pool, but it might taint your reputation in the industry. You should prioritize your accomplishments and skills on your resume according to impressiveness, uniqueness and relevance to the prospective position. Don't bury the skill or job experience that would be most likely to impress a recruiter. Resumes are scanned quickly, so a recruiter may move on to the next resume if you lead with an irrelevant skill. Do not over write your resume with out of place big words and endless text; leave spaces and lines between each section. You should use bulleted sentences, not paragraphs, to describe your work experience in your resume. Resumes are read quickly, and bulleted sentences are much easier for a recruiter to read than long paragraphs. The bulleted sentences in your resume should also begin with action words, such as "developed," "initiated," or "managed." Action words add strength to your resume. Stay focused in your field. Summarize your qualifications and experience related to your field, do not list odd jobs, trainings and courses. Be sure to proofread your resume before submitting it to a prospective employer. Use your word processing software's grammar and spell-checker to find any obvious mistakes. Ask a friend or colleague look over your resume and give you their opinion on its structure or style. Make and save a text (.txt) format copy of your resume. This is useful to copy and paste online and elsewhere. You should avoid sending your resume as an email attachment to employers unless you are invited to do so — which is often the case. Some potential employers may not have the software (or version of the software) that is needed to open the resume attachment, and many employers are very concerned about viruses in email attachments. By pasting your resume within the body of your email, you will avoid these issues and make it easier for the recruiter to scan your resume. Try to use specific key words in your resume related to your field. This allows employers and recruiters to easily find you when searching for your talents, skills, expertise and education. Avoid mentioning hobbies and interests when writing your resume. Hobbies and interests often aren't relevant to the position you're applying for. Concentrate on describing your key experience and skills. Do not use fancy or colored paper. Use the brightest white paper, and stay away from cheap quality papers.

Prepare Your Resume for Emailing

The Internet-Ready Resume

Resume Versions to Prepare || Why Plain Text? || What about HTML?

Many people still think the resume you put online is not the same document that you created to print out and mail to prospective employers or hand to interviewers. This is untrue. You do not need a different resume, you only need to alter the format of your resume to make it easy for you to post, copy and paste, or email it to employers.

When done correctly, your well-written, well-prepared resume will contain all of the necessary keywords to attract attention whether it is being scanned into a resume system, indexed and searched online, or read on paper by a real human.

Resume Versions to Prepare

Job search experts recommend you keep duplicates of your resume in each of these versions or formats.

1. A Print Version, designed with bulleted lists, italicized text, and other highlights, ready to print and mail or hand to potential contacts and interviewers.
2. A Scannable Version, a less-designed version without the fancy design highlights. Bulleted lists are fine, but that's about the limit.
3. A Plain Text Version, a plain text file ready to copy and paste into online forms or post in online resume databases. This is also referred to as an ASCII copy.
4. An E-mail Version, another plain text copy, but this one is specifically formatted for the length-of-line restrictions in e-mail. This is also an ASCII copy.

This is the same document presented in four ways, each formatted for a specific delivery purpose.

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Why Plain Text?

You could just use the forms most databases provide to build your resume in their system, but resume experts like Susan Ireland don't recommend you do this for several reasons.

1. They don't let you spell-check. Preparing your resume in advance using your own word processing program allows you to spell-check your resume and revise it as needed until you are happy with it.
2. They force you to use their resume format. Most online forms and builders insist on a chronological resume, which focuses on work history. Career changers who would prefer a functional resume with its emphasis on skills will be at a disadvantage.
3. They don't let you save your work and use it again. If you build it in their database using their form, you've done a lot of work for only one site, which means you will have to repeat your effort for every database you encounter. Prepare it in advance on your own computer and you have it to use as much as you like.

What About an HTML Version?

Many job seekers are creating "webbed" resumes in the hopes of being discovered or as a place to refer an employer who might want to see more than what is usually found in a resume. An HTML version of your resume works particularly well for persons in a visual arts field, but it could serve anyone, provided it is done right and for the right reasons.

• Doing it right means starting with a basic HTML version of your designed resume, not an overloaded page of Shockwave and Java effects, huge graphics, and audio files that takes more than 2 minutes to download over a 56K modem.
• Doing it for the right reasons means turning your resume into a portfolio, complete with links to former employers or projects already publicly available online. Be sure you are not violating any copyright or confidentiality clauses by putting information online without prior approval.

The biggest problem with HTML resumes is TMI - "too much information". Many people make their resumes part of their personal web site, loading it where there is all kinds of information an employer does not need to know before you are hired, including your marital status, ethnic background, religious affiliations, personal interests, past or present health problems, and much more. Allowing an employer to learn so much about you can lead to potential discrimination problems that you may never be aware of for the way you look, your political or religious beliefs or any number of other reasons.

I know some career management professionals advocate the use of photos plus personal biographies for executive clients, stating this is the same information you would find in an executive bio released by the company for publicity purposes. However, I still urge job seekers to be both conservative and conscientious about what you are telling prospective employers before you actually get called into an interview.

Always remember, your resume presents the image you want employers to see. For this reason, it is important that you keep your presence entirely professional, never linking your resume to any personal information. If you decide to add an HTML resume to your campaign, post it in a location separate from your personal web site, and do not link between the two.

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Preparing A Perfect Plain Text Resume

This section covers resumes for posting as well as emailing.

This information in this section is copyrighted by Susan Ireland and appears here with her permission. Requests for permission to further distribute the information in this section of the page in any format and for any purpose must be directed to her at www.susanireland.com. Requests for permission to copy and distribute this entire page must be directed to both authors.

Preparing your resume for e-mail is really an easy process. Anyone creating a resume should take the extra few minutes needed to generate a plain text version while still at the computer. Most word processors and resume-writing programs will let you save a file to plain text. The next step, altering the format, is simple.

Susan Ireland, a professional resume writer and author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Perfect Resume, has come up with very simple instructions for taking you through the formatting process step-by-step. Following these will not only create that perfect plain text resume but will also help you prepare a second one for e-mail's specific formatting problems. I have excerpted these instructions here with her permission, but you'll find the complete instructions along with much more information at www.susanireland.com.

Please note that these instructions assume that your resume is in MS Word for Windows, including Windows XP. If your resume is in another word processing application or on a different computer platform like Macintosh, you may need to consult your word processing manual for specific instructions. If you have specific questions or problems about this process, please contact Susan. She really does want to hear from you!

Step 1: Save Your Resume as a Text Only document. A Text Only (called Plain Text in Windows XP) document works best for an electronic resume because you can adjust the margins and formatting to suit the database or E-mail system in which you are working. To convert your MS Word resume to Text Only/Plain Text, do the following:

1. Open the MS Word document that contains your resume.
2. Click File in your tool bar and select Save As.
3. Type in a new name for this document in File Name, such as "ResTextOnly."
4. Under this is the Save As Type pull-down menu. From this list, select "Text Only (*.txt). If you're on a Windows XP computer, select "Plain Text" from the pull-down menu.
5. Click Save to perform the conversion.
6. Now close the document but stay in MS Word.
7. Reopen the document you just closed by going to File in the tool bar, click Open, select the file named "ResTextOnly.txt," and click Open. Warning: If you exit MS Word and then open the resume document by clicking on its icon in the directory, it will be opened in Notepad -- not what you want if you intend to use this version to prepare an e-mailable resume

After converting your resume to Text Only, what appears in your document window is your resume stripped of any fancy formatting. You are now ready to make a few final adjustments before posting it online:

Step 2: Check keywords. Make sure you have all the keywords that define your job qualifications.

Step 3: Delete any references to "page two," "Continued," or your name or head on page 2. You are making your resume appear as one continuous electronic document.

Step 4: Use all CAPS for words that need special emphasis. For the best overall effect, use all caps sparingly and judiciously, highlighting only what you really want to have stand out.

Step 5: Replace each bullet point with a standard keyboard symbol. Suggested replacements are:

Dashes (-)
Plus signs (+)
Single or Double Asterisks (*) (**)

Use the Space Bar, not the Tab Key, to place a single space immediately after each symbol (and before the words). Allow the lines to wrap naturally at the end of a line. Don't put a forced return (don't push the Return or Enter key) if it's not the end of the statement and don't indent the second line of a statement with the Space Bar.

Step 6: Use straight quotes in place of curly quotes. To do this, select the text that includes the quotes you want to change. Click Format in your tool bar and select AutoFormat. Click the Options button, and make sure Replace Straight Quotes With Smart Quotes is not selected under both the AutoFormat and AutoFormat As You Type tabs. Then click OK to exit the AutoFormat box, and your curly quotes will be changed to straight quotes.

Step 7: Rearrange text if necessary. Do a line-by-line review of your document to make sure there are no odd-looking line wraps, extra spaces, or words scrunched together in the body, making adjustments accordingly. This may require inserting commas between items that were once in columns and are now in paragraph format because tabs and tables disappeared when the document was converted to Text Only.

Now that you have the Plain Text Resume for Posting, it takes just a few more steps to create a perfect Plain Text Resume for E-mailing. Again, if you take the time to do this now, you will save yourself a lot of time later.

Step 8. Limit line lengths. Because each e-mail software has its own the length of lines, your message may not look as good when it is read by a potential employer. To avoid this problem, limit each line to no more than 65 characters, including spaces. To do this:

1. Open MS Word, click Open, select the file named "ResTextOnly.txt," and click Open. Warning: If you open the resume document by clicking on its icon in the directory, it will be opened in Notepad -- not what you want right now.
2. Select the entire document and change the font to Courier, 12 pt.
3. Go to Format in your toolbar; select Page Setup (Windows XP users will find Page Setup under File in their toolbars); set the left margin at 1 inch and your right margin at 1.75 inch. (Yahoo! email users set your right margin at 2.5.)
4. Select the entire document and change the font to Times, Arial, or some other standard font you like.

With the font, size of font, and side margins set, each line of your document will be no more than 65 characters and spaces. Don't worry about whether you want the employer to see your resume in Courier font - his or her e-mail software will convert it to the font set on his or her system.

Step 9: Save as Text Only with Line Breaks. To save changes you made in Step 8, you must convert your Text Only document one more time by doing the following:

• With your Text Only resume document open, click File in your tool bar and select Save As.
• Type in a new name for this document in File Name, such as "ResTextBreak."
• Directly under this is the Save As Type pull-down menu. From this list, select "Text Only with Line Breaks (*.txt)." Click Save to perform the conversion. If you're a Windows XP user, save your document as Plain Text. When the File Conversion window appears on your screen, click "Insert line breaks" under Options; then click OK.
• Now close the document and exit MS Word.
• Reopen the resume document (ResTextBreak.txt) by clicking on its icon in the directory. That will open it as a Notepad document.

Step 10: Copy the entire text in your ResTextBreak.txt document that you've opened in Notepad, and paste it in the body of the email message.

Before sending your resume to an employer, run a test by sending it to yourself and to a friend to see how it looks after going through the Internet. This will help you identify any additional formatting problems you need to correct before you start sending it out to possible employers.

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Rules for Responding Online

The fastest way to respond to Internet job listings is to e-mail your cover letter and resume to the person or organization indicated. However, there are some simple rules to follow before hitting the "send" key.

Look at it this way. You have 15 or 20 seconds to get someone's attention using email. In that time, you must convince the recipient to

• open your email
• read your message
• not delete your email

Do it wrong, get into the wrong mail box, or make someone's job harder, and the best resume in the world from the most qualified person in the world will be trashed.

Getting your email opened, read, and actually considered really comes down to some simple rules.

1. Use the right Subject. If you are responding to an advertisement, use the job title or job code cited in the advertisement to make it easy for your e-mail to be recognized and routed to the appropriate person. If you are "cold calling" an employer, put a few words stating your objective in the Subject line. "Seeking employment" is not an acceptable subject.

2. Include a cover letter in your email and address it to the recipient. Whether or not you are responding to an advertised opening, the cover letter will introduce you, specify how you meet the needs of the employer, and will encourage the recipient to read your full resume. "Here's my resume, please tell me if you have any jobs I might fill" is not a cover letter and does not encourage anyone to look at your resume.

3. Always send your resume in the body of the e-mail message, not as an attachment. Put that resume right in the message so the recipient will see it as soon as he or she opens the message. This technique also helps you get through e-mail systems that reject all attachments in this day of rampant computer viruses. Force someone to open an attachment just to get to know you and your 20 seconds are over before they even start.

4. Make sure your resume is properly formatted for e-mail. Take the time to make sure it will look as good on all computers and in all email systems as it does on your screen. This means shorter text lines, spacing between sections, and text-based highlights. Plain text resumes not formatted for email can be unreadable, and unreadable resumes will most likely be deleted.

5. If responding to an advertisement, read the application instructions and follow them. They might specify an email address and job code to use. They might even actually ask you to send your resume as a Word attachment. Whatever they want, you do. Failing to follow application instructions not only delays your resume, it labels you as someone who doesn't take direction well. It's the Trash bin for you.

Always remember: It only takes a second for someone to delete an e-mail message. Don't give them a reason to trash you! Think before you respond!

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Posting your Resume: Placement vs. Privacy

Staying Cyber-Safe

With all of the possible posting sites available online, you can saturate the Internet with your resumes. Is this a good thing? There are two issues to consider when posting your resume online.

1. Placement: where should you post it?
2. Privacy: how public do you want it to be?

What's the problem? The more exposure you get, the better, right? Not necessarily.

Recruiters get tired of finding the same resumes for the same people in every database they search. If you get labeled a "resume spammer," you won't be considered for job openings they are working to fill. Also, the farther your resume spreads, the less control you have over it and the more likely it is to be discovered by someone you had hoped wouldn't see it, like your current employer. And yes, people do get fired.

Some problems can be avoided by merely limiting where you post your resume (Placement), others by limiting the information in your posted resume (Privacy), but the two issues must be addressed hand-in-hand. It is possible to be visible but private online, but how visible you want to be vs. how comfortable you are in public is a question only you can answer.

Staying Cyber-Safe

Limiting your posting is a good way to protect your privacy, but it is also important to select those few sites with care. Susan Joyce, author of Job-Hunt.org, encourages job seekers to carefully evaluate the job sites used and to be aware of the information presented in the resume. The following tips include information excerpted from her articles on Choosing a Job Site and Your Cyber-Safe Resume. This information was used with her permission. I highly recommend a visit to her site to read the full articles.

1. Limit where you post. Post your resume in the databases of only one or two large popular job sites. At the same time, post it in the databases of one or two smaller job sites targeted to your specific industry, occupational group, or geographic location. This will give you both "maximum exposure" (many employers crossing industries and regions) and "targeted exposure" (employers looking for a smaller yet more highly qualified candidate pool.)

2. Read Privacy Policies. Note what personal or "individually identifiable" information they will collect, how it may be handled, and whether or not they reserve the right to sell it. Some sites are good and promise to never sell your info, but others reserve the right to sell your personally identifiable information to third parties.

3. Avoid sites that force you to register a full profile (i.e., your resume) before you can do any search of the job database. You should be allowed to evaluate a site to make sure it's a good fit to you before adding your information to their database.

4. Avoid sites that offer to "blast" your resume. Such wide distribution may offer little, if any, control on where a copy of your resume could end up.

5. Limit access to your personal contact information. Options range from blocking access to just the contact information to keeping your resume completely out of the database searched by employers. Choose the option that works best for you. Remember that if you go for full confidentiality, it may be up to you to remember to delete contact info from your resume. Many job seekers trip up here because they fill out a form with their contact info, then cut and paste the whole resume into the box, forgetting about the contact info here. The database's protection of your contact info only refers to what you put in the form, not in the box.

6. Modify the contact information you put on your resume. Remove all standard "contact information" -- name, address, phone numbers -- and replace your personal e-mail address with an e-mail address set up specifically for your job search. This is where those services like Yahoo! email come into play. Make sure you use an appropriate e-mail name like MEngineer@Yahoo.com. Names like "JustLooking@Yahoo.com" or "DumbBlond@HotMail.com" are not good names for serious job seekers.

7. Modify your employment history. Remove all dates from your resume. Then, remove the names of all employers and replace them with accurate but generic descriptions. "Nuts n' Bolts Distributors, Inc." becomes "a small construction supplies distribution company" and "IBM" becomes "a multinational information technology company." If your job title is unique, replace it with an accurate but generic title, so "New England Regional Gadget Marketing Director" becomes "multi-state marketing manager of gadget-class products."

8. Don't let your resume sit there. Since many databases sort resumes by date of submission with the newest first, renew your resume every 14 days. If you don't get any response to your resume within 45 days of posting, remove it from that location and post it elsewhere. It could be that employers are not looking for people with your skills in this particular database, but it could also be that there is too much competition between candidates with the same skills and your resume is not rising to the top.

9. When your job search is over, delete all resumes out there. Do not continue to "dangle the hook" and see what offers may come up. Your new employer may find you still fishing and demand an explanation. Some people are adding a "posted DATE" on the bottom of resumes they register online, but you will still have a tremendous amount of explaining to do if your resume is found to still be circulating. Whether or not you were planning a fast exit, you may find yourself on the way out the door.

Always remember that most job sites make their money by selling access to the resume database! Many want you to post your resume in their database, but few really work for you. When it comes to posting your resume, You Rule. Be choosy.

Electronic Resumes

Electronic Resumes

The Internet has changed how employers manage and identify qualified applicants. Before you send a resume to a potential employer, you should discover what the employer does with your resume once it is received. Some employers will scan your resume into a computer database and then destroy your paper resume. Your resume will then be held in the employer?s candidate database and a computer program will be used to electronically search the database to locate the resumes of the best candidates. This type of employer should receive a scannable resume.

Some employers will have a staff member read your resume, ascertain your critical skills and experience, and then input only those essential elements into a computer database. This type of employer should receive a scannable resume with a keyword section which will then focus the employer on your skills that you believe are important.

Other employers show a preference to applicants who complete online applications that are on the employer?s web site or for applicants who send their resumes via e-mail to a designated recruiter. Online applications and email resumes differ significantly in content and layout from traditional resumes. Candidates who use these methods may be a step ahead of candidates who use mail services to deliver a traditional resume. But, job candidates who use technology to get their resumes into the hands of employers must be sure that they make the necessary adjustments to their job search process and correspondence. The next sections will describe how to effectively prepare job correspondence, searches and resumes using the most common electronic methods: online applications, scannable resumes, and email resumes.

Online applications

Online applications provide the most secure transmission to the employer?s candidate database. Like a traditional resume, online applications must be free of grammatical and spelling errors. It is advisable for another person to review your online application before you submit it to the employer?s homepage. Another consideration when using online applications is how to make your application distinctive from the many other applications filed online. To draw attention to your application, special skills and qualities that match the employer?s needs must be located in the content of the online application. You can quickly customize your online application by having available a copy of your traditional resume, your self assessment lists of traits, skills, and achievements, and documentation of occupational research on the employer. These lists will quickly provide ideas for nouns and phrases to include in your online application. On average, your online application should have 20 keywords or phrases that match the employer?s needs and preferences.

Scannable resumes

This type of resume is used when an employer uses technology to scan paper resumes into a database for retention and further screening. Scannable resumes differ from traditional resumes in both content and format because of the limitations of technology in reading and storing a resume. The hardware and software used in scanning can "read" your resume when the print is distinct and background color is absent. For these reasons, you must use laser quality print for your scannable resume and white or near white resume paper. Blue, gray, or tan paper is not advised. The next step in succeeding with a scanning system is to change the linguistics of your resume. Scannable resumes are retrieved from an employer?s job bank by the use of a search. The search process uses nouns or phrases as keywords for the software to locate the best resumes in the database. Also follow these points when developing your scannable resume:

1.       Use a font in the 10-14 point range. Use common fonts like Courier New, Times Roman or Palatino.

2.       No horizontal or vertical lines.

3.       No tables or columns.

4.       Avoid boldface, italicizing, script, shadowing, graphics, borders, and underlines.

5.       Place the name on the first line after your 1 inch margin and begin the street address on line two.

6.       Use caps to highlight major headings such as OBJECTIVE and use the * to highlight important lines.

7.       Develop a keywords section to follow your address.

8.       Don?t fold or staple

9.       Don?t use abbreviations or acronyms unless they are highly common in the industry.

E-mail Resumes

Email resumes are similar to scannable resumes in layout and content, but they have their differences. The most significant is that email resumes use the Internet for transmission (as opposed to snail mail). Email resumes are very efficient at avoiding the resume traps often found with snail mail. An email resume can be sent to the decision-maker if you know the person?s email address thereby avoiding a pre-screener who limits the number of resumes reviewed by the decision maker. Further, an email resume can arrive at a decision-maker?s computer within minutes of a request for your resume. That is more effective than a few days to a week that a decision-maker could wait for a resume using snail mail!

The draw back of email resumes is that the Internet has limitations in transmitting your resume. Like scanning systems that read scannable resumes, the Internet has difficulty transmitting many formatting codes, fonts, and graphics. Another limitation of email resumes is that the receiver may not have compatible software for opening up your email resume if it is sent as an attachment. These limitations are easily overcome and you can quickly begin sending email resumes to your targeted employers by following these simple pointers:

1.       Before typing the content of your email resume, set the margins in your page format so that there are no more than 70 characters are on one line. This usually results in about a 2 inch right margin.

2.       Left justify your text and continue with a 12 point sans serif font like Times Roman or Helvetica.

3.       Put your name on the first line and your address on the second and third lines. Phone numbers would be on the fourth line and email address on the fifth line.

4.       Use the space bar to create white space between text on a line. DO NOT use tabs to indent information.

5.       Always put a line or two after each job description.

6.       Make sure that the asterisk which highlights a line of text is followed by 1?2 spaces before beginning text.

7.       Use keywords and nouns in the content of your resume.

8.       Avoid slashes like "design/develop."

9.       Prepare a cover letter for email using similar rules as the email resume.

10.   Save both your cover letter and email resume as a text only (plain text) file or in ASCII format.  These choices are found in the ?Save As Type? field in the ?Save As? dialogue box.

Converting a Resume to ASCII format for E-mail Transmission

Step 1 - Create and save traditional resume using MS Word as a word document.

Step 2 - Open the resume using MS Word. Eliminate bold, underline, centering, italicizing, bullets, indents, or special formatting commands. Replace bullets with asterisks or dashes. Select a non-proportional, sans serif font in 12 point size.

Step 3 - Use the "save as" command to save the file under a different name and save as a "text only" file.

Step 4 - Put blank line between headings and paragraphs to make skill headings distinguishable.

Step 5 - Close the email resume file until you are ready to test its? transmission abilities. It automatically saves the file as a .txt (text file). When you are ready to test your email resume or to send it, open the file and block highlight all the text. Using your edit function, copy the email resume file.

Step 6 - To e-mail, open a new e-mail message. Put cursor in the body of the e-mail message and use the "paste" function in the edit key on your toolbar to bring in the copied email resume file. Check again to make sure that extra spaces, word wrapping, spelling, formatting, etc. are not problems. Put 10 xxxxxxxxxxx between your email cover letter and the email resume. Double check the email address for accuracy and then send.

Electronic Resume Formats

 

Though the content of your resume remains the same, whether you send it by e-mail, by fax, over the Web or by snail mail, you will need to put your resume into several distinct formats:

1. A fully-formatted text resume (created in word-processing software, such as Microsoft Word). Most people start by creating a fully-formatted resume and then convert that resume to the other two electronic formats.
2. A plain-text resume, (also know as an ASCII resume) when applying for jobs by e-mail or submitting your resume via a form on the Web.
3. A scannable resume, printed on paper, in a format that can be easily scanned into a computer database. (NOTE: scannable resumes are rarely needed these days. See below.)

Plain-text resume

Also known as an "ASCII" resume (pronounced "ASK-ee"), this is the plainly formatted, unadorned resume you send over the Internet.

Use a plain-text resume for the following situations:

1. When you are applying for a job through an e-mail link (or when an employer has asked you to e-mail them a resume). You place your plain-text resume in the body of the e-mail message, preceded by your cover letter. Never send a resume as an attachment to your e-mail, unless an employer specifically instructs you to do so.
2. When entering a resume onto most resume databases on the Web. (A few job sites, such as Net-Temps and JobOptions.com, allow you to upload your Microsoft Word resume to their database.)

Click here for instructions on converting your Microsoft Word resume to e-mail format.

Scannable resume

This is a paper resume that an employer can physically scan into a resume database, to be retrieved later by computer. Scannable resumes contain no extra formatting - no bullets, no italics, no bold, no underlining, no fancy fonts and no tabbed columns.

Few employers go to the trouble and expense of scanning paper resumes into a computer database. When an employer requests that you send a resume through the postal system, ask if they would prefer a fully-formatted resume or a scannable resume. If you do not know the answer, you may want to send both types, and add the words "Scannable Resume" at the bottom of that resume.

 

A scannable resume is a paper resume that will be scanned onto a computer database using Optical Character Recognition software. In order for the employer's computer to recognize your text, it must be simple and unadorned.

Keywords

Resumes are retrieved from databases using keyword searches, so your scannable resume should contain a keyword section just below your objective. For more information on keywords, click here.

Fonts and characters

1. Avoid boldface, italicizing, script, shading, graphics, borders, and underlining.
2. Don't use any special characters, such as bullets (use asterisks or hyphens, if you wish, but make sure they are separated from any words by a space).
3. Use 10-14 point common sans serif fonts such as Helvetica, or use clean popular serif fonts like Times Roman or Palatino as a second choice.
4. Avoid slashes ("design/develop").
5. Avoid compressing spaces between letters.
6. Don't put parentheses around an area code, as some scanners have trouble reading them correctly. (NOTE - when creating an e-mail resume, you should use parentheses around area codes.)

Spacing, lines, and section headings

1. Your name should be the first line of your resume. Category headings ("EDUCATION," "EXPERIENCE," etc.) should also occupy their own line.
2. If your scannable resume is longer than one page, put your name at the top of the second page on a separate line.
3. Each line of your address should occupy a separate line.
4. If you are listing two addresses (such as "College Address" and "Permanent Address"), list one below the other, rather than one address on the left and one on the right (text is read by a computer across the page). If you need to conserve space on your scannable resume, you can list one entire address on one line, though some scanning systems may have trouble with this.
5. You may use capitals to set off a section, such as EDUCATION.
6. Always put a line or two of space after the end of each job description.
7. Do not use horizontal or vertical lines. Computers will try to read lines and may blur them into characters. Vertical lines may be confused with the letter "I."
8. Avoid complex layouts, tables or columns.
9. If you are unsure whether an employer prefers a scannable resume or a fully-formatted text resume, send both and add the words "Scannable resume" at the bottom of that resume.

Printing and paper

1. Print your resume on a laser printer (avoid dot-matrix printers--this applies to any resume).
2. White, ivory or off-white paper is acceptable.
3. Don't fold a scannable resume - send it flat and without staples (use a paper clip to hold it together).
4. If you fax your resume, turn on the fine print feature on your fax machine.