Sending resume's on-line?

[Farmer17]

Been looking at my career options lately and have tried to send out a few resumes. I sure wish companies would still use fax machines because on-line applications and uploading resumes with most large corporations or the government is a royal pain in the butt! I'm no whiz kid on the computer but I can usually get things done, but there are several times that I've spent hours just trying to send a resume to one company and couldn't get the job application to go through. One message was that my resume was over 100,000 bytes(it was 2 pages) so I shortened it. Then it said I needed to reformat it to HTML,TXT, or DOC which I tried all three and it kept saying the same message. Just wondering if there is some trick that I'm missing, and I've even had a couple of friends help who are pretty sharp IT people with Excel and Power Point and still no luck. Any suggestions?

 

[BarbC]

This is what I would do:

Create your resume in Word or whatever your word processing program is. If it's already in a .doc format, great.

Use Create Adobe® PDF Online: Easily convert and create PDF documents to convert it to a pdf file.

Save it to your computer.

Email it or upload it when you need it.

If you've already scanned your resume and saved it as a pdf, you should be set.

The pdf file should be compact enough to easily attach and send.

 

[Jst1mr]

I have been told that it is a good idea to keep your resume within the text of your email. That way it may still be read by folks who are unwilling to open an attachment from an unknown source for fear of being exposed to a virus.

 

[TNDixieGirl]

I'd have to disagree with that. Including it as text in your e-mail leaves it very unformatted and unprofessional looking. Most businesses want them all in the same type layout/format.

Powerpoint and Excel are not resume programs, so don't try those. Word or Pdf, as suggested, are the two most common programs to use. Most businesses are not scared to open attachements when they're asking for resumes.

 

[Ogandydancer]

I have never had any luck with any of the online resumes I have sent out or any other job process I have looked at online including monster. com and carrier builder. As far as I can see they are all useless.

 

[Beemer-mark]

Almost all major corporations now force you to submit your resume online - even if the posting is in house. Usually you have to enter all your pertinent data into individual boxes, then load the resume in again. The web sites rarely work correctly (I think the sites were put together by Taliban hackers). I think HR goes out of thier way to discourage people from applying. Think about it, it makes their job a lot easier if they only have to sort thru 5 or 6 applications.

 

[godlessgael]

Applying to any formal posting is your first mistake, "it's not what you know, it's who you know." Or so I have been told .

 

[m1gunner]

Applying to any formal posting is your first mistake, "it's not what you know, it's who you know." Or so I have been told .

Absolutamundo!

 

[blastfact]

If a co. does not want to make it easy. Just think what kind of mess you will be in if they hire you.

Also watch who you send it to. Many will sell them to head hunters to try and buy there way out of fee's if they use a head hunter. I did some online apps. and such a few years ago and have been bothered by head hunters ever since. I think I get them beat back. And wham,,, they are calling, e-mailing and trying to contact me at my current employer.

 

[HOUSTON RICK]

I have to agree with the ladies on this one. Big companies do not care about viruses on resumes. Keep your resume in MS word and cut and paste it in as needed. Large companies currently are doing most of the hiring, and if you want a job, you conform and put up with whatever disadvantages accrue. The only resumes that are read by humans are the ones that contain all the "buzzwords" that the employer programs the software to look for. Include as many key words describing skills in your field as possible. Good luck.

 

[DWinter]

Good recommendations above. I recently submitted my resume and cover letter online to Bass Pro Shops and after a single interview was hired as the Tracker Marine Service Manager. The submission process I think is made intentionally difficult to weed out less motivated applicants. I may be wrong about that but you know how opinions are. Also, do not overlook the importance of the cover letter. That's your one time shot to get more to the personal side of the process and make the employer see you as a person instead of just a document. Trust me, it was worth every minute I spent proofreading and changing grammer and spacing and going thru the App process.

 

[cowart]

The only resumes that are read by humans are the ones that contain all the "buzzwords" that the employer programs the software to look for.

That's actually an understatement. The most popular resume scanning program is RSUMIX. If you google on that word, you will find that there are numerous companies out there that do nothing but write RESUMIX compatible resumes for applicants, for a fee.

 

[cmort666]

Been looking at my career options lately and have tried to send out a few resumes. I sure wish companies would still use fax machines because on-line applications and uploading resumes with most large corporations or the government is a royal pain in the butt! I'm no whiz kid on the computer but I can usually get things done, but there are several times that I've spent hours just trying to send a resume to one company and couldn't get the job application to go through. One message was that my resume was over 100,000 bytes(it was 2 pages) so I shortened it. Then it said I needed to reformat it to HTML,TXT, or DOC which I tried all three and it kept saying the same message. Just wondering if there is some trick that I'm missing, and I've even had a couple of friends help who are pretty sharp IT people with Excel and Power Point and still no luck. Any suggestions?

How did you "reformat" it? Just changing the file extension doesn't do that.

I saved my resume in Word format using Word Perfect X3. If you can't afford or don't want MS Office, you can download Open Office for free, which can save in Word format.

One way to remove non-text formatting where somebody wants an absolutely bare metal plain text file is to copy and past it into Windows Notepad. It'll strip all non-text formatting out. It may convert things like bullets into other characters like dollar signs. You can do a global search and replace substituting dashes or something else for the unwanted characters.

The biggest pain in the behind I've found is USAJobs, which can't make a resume searchable unless you go through their cumbersome process. I outsmarted them by copying and pasting sections of my resume for their page by page resume creation process.