Online Resume Formats
The most common formats for online resumes are ASCII (text only), html (the markup language used to build web pages) and PDF (Adobe’s Portable Document Format).
ASCII Online Resume
ASCII is a text-only format without any kind of formatting. It’s the sort of document you can create with Notepad.ASCII is your best option for an online resume when you are sure that your resume will only be “read” by a computer.
If your online resume will be loaded into a resume database or an online job-board (such as Monster) you should create an ASCII resume. All the formatting you painstakingly added to your resume must be removed before it’s fed to a computer: while the formatting is a welcome “eye-candy” for a human reader, it becomes confusing noise to a computer database.
Checklist for ASCII online resumes
If you are using our resume builder, EasyJob, you can easily create ascii resumes by clicking on the “Save as ASCII text…” menu, and it will take care of all the grunt work. Feel free to skip this part if you are using EasyJob, or to download the free demo if not.
-
Open your resume with MS Word and save it as “Text Only”. Unlike EasyJob, MS Word will seriously mess the layout of your resume while saving as text-only. You will have to fix this manually.
-
Close MS Word and open up your resume with Notepad.
-
Rearrange the layout of your resume by doing a line-by-line review. Make sure there are no odd-looking line-breaks, extra spaces or words squeezed together. You may have to insert extra lines or commas between text that was in a table, as all tables and formatting is now gone.
-
Insert some standard symbol, such as *, - or + where there used to be a bullet.
-
Curly quotes might also have disappeared, so make sure all text that should be quoted uses standard, strait quotes.
-
Limit the length of your lines to a maximum of 75 characters per line. Longer lines might be truncated by some software applications.
When should you use an ASCII Online Resume?
Use a text-only ASCII format is you want to post your resume to a job board unless the job board specifically instructs otherwise.
HTML Online Resume
HTML is the best option if you want to upload your resume to your webpage or blog and want google to easily index it.
If your resume will be indexed by google, make sure you describe your skills, achievements and experience with the right keywords, so potential employers might find you.
If you are using our resume builder, EasyJob, just click on the “Save as HTML…” menu and you are done.
<screenshot>
Otherwise, feel free to download the free demo or follow these steps:
-
Open your resume with MS Word and save it as “as web page”. Make sure it’s not saved as “single file web page”.
-
Unfortunately, MS Word introduces many incompatible characters and “features” when saving a document as HTML. This will make your resume look terrible or even illiterate to someone viewing it on a Mac or Linux PC. If you believe there’s the slightest possibility of your resume being viewed on a non-Windows system, there’s one last hoop to jump through: the “demoroniser”(sic). The “demoroniser” is a script written by John Walker from www.fourmilab.ch and according to the author: “(…) corrects numerous errors and incompatibilities in HTML generated by, or edited with, Microsoft applications. The demoroniser keeps you from looking dumber than a bag of dirt when your Web page is viewed by a user on a non-Microsoft platform.”
PDF Online Resume
PDF documents represent the opposite philosophy of the ASCII format. They are hard to process by a computer, but will keep the formatting unchanged no matter what computer the reader uses. Your PDF resume will look the same on a Windows PC, Linux PC or a Mac.
A PDF resume is the best option when your resume will be read by a person and not a computer. Use it if you need to send your resume by email and you are sure it won’t be scanned.
It’s also a good option if you want to upload it to your blog or website and want to keep the formatting unchanged.
In order to create a PDF resume, you need special and expensive software, such as Adobe Acrobat (the free and widely available Adobe Acrobat Reader allows you to view PDF documents, but not to create them).
Our resume builder, EasyJob, lets you create a PDF online resume with a single click and is probably one of the most affordable applications to create PDF documents. EasyJob can also create a PDF resume and email it in a single simple step. Check it out NOW for FREE!
Related Links:
Bookmark this page:
|
