Converting Your Resume For Email

A FEW IMPORTANT NOTES

• Keywords - Resumes that are sent by e-mail or that are entered onto a form on the Web may end up on a resume database. When recruiters seek resumes from these databases, they try to match certain keywords appropriate to a particular career field. Click here to learn more about keywords.
• Never attach a resume or cover letter to your e-mail unless specifically requested. Some employers automatically delete e-mails with attached resumes. Always put your cover letter and resume as text within the body of your e-mail message.
• Scannable resumes are printed on paper, in a format that can be easily scanned into a computer database.

 

FORMATTING TEXT AND LINES

1. Open your resume in Microsoft Word. From the File menu, select Save As. Change the name of your document (so you're not re-writing over your original), select "Word document" from the "Save As Type" menu, then click on the "Save" button.
2. Your name should occupy a line all by itself, as should category headings ("EDUCATION," "EXPERIENCE," etc.).
3. 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 prefer, you can list one entire address on one line.
4. You may use capitals to set off a section, such as EDUCATION.
5. Avoid slashes ("design/develop").
6. DO put parentheses around your area codes (this is in contrast to a scannable paper resume, where you should not put parentheses around area codes).
7. Always put a line or two of space after the end of each job description.

CONVERSION INSTRUCTIONS

1. Open your resume in Microsoft Word; highlight all the text, and Copy it.
2. Open the NotePad application (Start menu - Programs - Accessories - Notepad), or any other text editor that you can cut and paste information into. Paste your copied resume into this application. (On a Macintosh, use SimpleText.)
3. Notepad will convert your resume to ASCII text - that is, it will change any characters that are not readable by some e-mail systems. For example, if you have used bullets in your resume, each will be changed to a lower-case "o". Notepad will also eliminate any unusual margin settings you may have created in your original document.
4. Change any characters that you don't like - for example, you should change those lower-case "o's" (that Notepad has substituted for your bullets) into asterisks or hyphens. Place parentheses around the area codes in your phone or fax numbers.
5. Use all capitals to highlight your name and category headings.
6. Copy your entire Notepad document; open a NEW Microsoft Word document, and Paste.
7. In this new Word document, set your left and right margins to one inch. (Go to File - Page Setup. On a Macintosh, you will then click on the Margins button.)
8. Highlight your entire Word document and change your font to Courier, 12-point. This should set your document at 65 characters per line, which will accommodate most e-mail programs. DESELECT (un-highlight) your document.
9. Click on the ¶ symbol in the upper-right-hand corner of your Microsoft Word window. This will show the "invisible elements" in your document - the tabs, the spaces, the paragraph returns, etc. FIRST, remove all your tabs and any places where you have more than one space (this will align all your text lines flush left)..
10. NEXT (here's the tricky part), you will need a paragraph return ( ¶ ) at the end of each line. Some of your lines already have one. For any line that doesn't, place your cursor at the end of the line, a few spaces past the last character, then press the Enter (or Return) key. Check your document to make sure each line has a paragraph return ( ¶ ) at the end of each line.
11. Copy and Paste your entire document into a test e-mail message.
12. Repeat these steps with a brief cover letter, and paste it into your e-mail message before your resume. Do not send your cover letter as an e-mail attachment.
13. Send a copy of this test e-mail message to yourself and to a friend who uses a different e-mail program. If the test works okay, go ahead and send your cover letter and resume by e-mail to the recruiter.