By Deepa Arora
Illustration by Malcolm Garris/PhotoDisc
May 5, 1998

Now that you have composed a dynamic resume, how can you send it to potential employers?

Most jobs advertised today list a fax number or an e-mail address in addition to a mailing address. By using these avenues of access, you get a resume in to the employer's office faster than someone who uses conventional mail. You also demonstrate how savvy you are about today's technology.

But keep in mind, the new technology has pros and cons.

FAX

If you are sending your resume by fax, always, always follow it up with a back-up copy in the mail. Not everyone has a plain paper fax machine.

Machines that use thermal paper often do not provide optimal print quality and make the resume hard to read. In addition, the print copy can be an insurance against technical problems. "When our fax machine broke down right after we put an ad in, we lost quite a few resumes," says Mary Marczyk, RN, MSN, recruiter for Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.

ELECTRONIC RESUMES – LESS IS MORE

In a print resume, the quality and color of paper and link and the typefaces play a big part in its final appearance. In electronic resumes, all of that is eliminated. Your "page" is the computer screen. Impressing a computer is a little different than impressing a person. To make the maximum impact, you need to control how the resume looks on the monitor. For instance, a resume that covers every square inch of space with words, or is too cluttered, can be hard to read. So experts advise: Stick with conventional typefaces, no more than 80 characters per line maximum, and make all subheads left-aligned.

The big advantage of electronic resumes is that they don't have to fit on one page like the conventional resume. One page of type does not fit on a computer screen, so your resume can spill over to four or five screens – but no more than that.

ASCII

Electronic resumes must be sent in a computer language called ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It's a language in which computer software programs communicate with each other. You don't need to master it - simply understand its limitations. ASCII is a text-only file and therefore does not provide access to the use of special graphics, or fonts, or formats. "When typing your resume in ASCII, you will need to space painstakingly everything as you type it, and then save it – if you don't, when you upload your resume to send it, it will not look as professional as a properly formatted resume," say Fred Jandt and Mary Nemich in their book Using the Internet in Your Job Search.

SCANNERS

A growing number of resumes are entered into hospital database computers by scanners. The scanner acts as a photocopy machine that gives you a picture of the resume but not usable text. Optical recognition software then converts this picture into ASCII text so that the resume can be sent from one system or person to another. For job banks that scan resumes into their database, always send an unfolded original copy, preferably printed on printing grade paper – easily available at the neighborhood copy shop.

If you fax your resume, it will be hard to scan. Since most organizations don't have someone retype it, it will either be sent back to you or scanned in its unreadable form.

Scanners work best with simple resumes, so experts suggest avoiding the use of underline, italics, columns, or unusual typefaces. You can use bold text, but restrict it to subheads.

KEYWORDS

Once your resume is in a database, it can be accessed by employers, who can search for qualified employees through the use of keywords. There are two kinds of keywords.

One type of keyword describes positions, such as clinical supervisor, nurse manager, director of nursing; the second type refers to concepts and trends in the industry that you work in. For instance, home health regulations, cost containment, general nursing, intensive care. When the keywords in a resume match the computer's search instruction, the resume is picked out of its electronic file and sent to the person in charge of hiring.

If you are unsure of the keywords that describe jobs in your field of specialization, scan ads in the newspaper or professional journals for clues. Jot down phrases and verbs that summarize your skills and achievements and use them in your resume.

In addition, experts recommend putting a keyword summary—such as thumbnail sketch of your skills, experience, and education—at the top of the resume.