The Online Job
Search,
Online Résumés, and Webfolios for The Job Search
Michael Day
Northern Illinois
University
Advantages to searching
and
applying online
-
It's becoming very popular these days
among
employers
-
You can cover a wider geographic area
-
You can reach more prospective
employers
-
It's fast and almost free
-
Electronic résumés can
be searched
electronically by keywords
-
You look up-to-date and ready to use
online
and computer-based tools and resources
Some types of electronic
résumés
-
ASCII text, sent in an e-mail message
or uploaded
to a database (flush left, no special formatting)
-
Formatted, and sent as e-mail
attachment (be
sure the recipient can receive and open attachments)
-
Scannable (avoid special formatting,
use wide
margins, sans-serif typeface and include keywords)
-
Web-based (can make use of web
formatting,
linking, and "chunking")
-
Hypertext (chunked)
-
Printable HTML
-
Printable PDF (Adobe Acrobat Reader)
-
CD-ROM (avoids problems of privacy and
confidentiality,
can be both a webfolio and résumé)
Some potential pitfalls
to electronic résumés
-
Formatting, including spacing,
underlining,
tabs, and margins may not transmit
-
The recepient may not be able to open
your
attachment
-
The Webbed résumé may
not look
the same on the recipient's browser
-
Documents submitted to public
databases may
not be confidential: your information may be open for the whole world
to
see/misuse
-
Links to personal information or
photos may
compromise the job application process
-
References may not be listed without
permission
on the web or in open databases
Helpful Links for more
information (for history's sake: most links are now dead)
This page was created for the Northern
Illinois
University Society for Technical Communication chapter's workshop on
résumés
and cover letters, February 14, 2001. Rather than any sort of
concise
guide, it is merely a set of links to helpful resources. As of April
21st, 2008, it is online for historical purposes.
Last update March 27, 2002
Last comment on April 21, 2008
By Michael
Day
E-mail me!