How To Use Email To Deliver Your Resume

When submitting your resume to a company for employment consideration, it’s become almost a rule to do so over the Internet. Many companies use software and other electronic methods to evaluate some resumes, and as such they’ll refuse resumes received via any other method.

So now that you know that you will very likely continue to be required to submit your resume online, it’s a good idea to learn how to do so the right way. Here are a few tips to consider:

Attachments

There is a little bit of a debate going on about whether you should add the resume as an attachment when submitting it or placing it in the body of the e-mail. Some experts don’t like attachments, as they could potentially carry viruses and they may be a nuisance for an employers that are trying to save space in their inboxes. It’s also worthwhile to consider that a company’s email security might block the message, or the hiring manager might avoid the message altogether if he doesn’t want to take the time to open it.

On the other hand, depending on what e-mail program you’re using (and the employer is using) cutting and pasting your resume into the body of an email could look ill-formatted. Spacing could be weird – and worse, the fonts you worked so hard to choose could change. It is for this reason that many pros suggest doing both. This way, you can please those who don’t like looking at attachments, as well as those who can’t stand strange formatting. Another good idea is to use a PDF format when sending the resume, as it always looks clear and clean and it doesn’t allow anyone to change your resume (other than you).

If You Are Cutting and Pasting …

If you’ve decided that you want go ahead and paste your resume into the body of an e-mail, it’s good to consider a few rules of cutting and pasting. First, remember to add a brief introduction of yourself, something that would do the job of a cover letter. Secondly, the introduction of your resume needs to be limited to 2 paragraphs, and only two or three lines per paragraph to make it concise and effective.

Third, use text for the e-mail instead of HTML. As mentioned previously, formatting can cause a lot of problems when copying and pasting into e-mails – especially from word processing programs like Microsoft Word. If you can’t figure out how to change the e-mail to text, you could also copy your resume into a text-only program like Notepad first then paste it into the e-mail. Unfortunately, you won’t have the ability to use bold or italics in your resume with plain text, so you’ll have to use a bit of creativity to set different sections apart from one another–try using special characters around words, or using your capitalization (“RESUME INTRODUCTION”, etc).

Avoiding Spam Folders

As mentioned previously, your resume can sometimes get lost in a company’s security efforts. So to help you avoid spam folders and other issues, you could consider keeping punctuation (especially exclamation marks) out of the subject line and avoiding any other words that might be misinterpreted as something inappropriate by spam folders.

The last thing that you want is to create the perfect resume only to not have it reach its destination appropriately. It doesn’t make sense to spend hours and hours on your resume, only to submit it incorrectly via email and ruin your chances of getting a job, so be sure to consider the above tips before clicking that send button.

6 Tips To Help You Write A Perfect Executive Resume

It’s easier said than done to create a great resume when you’re under pressure to get it done. If you’ve had a longer career and you’ve spent a lot of time working your way up, this can be especially true, as it’s often difficult to focus your resume in a way that shows your success.

But, of course, ultimately there’s no excuse for having a subpar executive resume. If you’re looking for new ways to gain some inspiration for your resume, here’s a few tips to set you on the right track.

Define a Clear Target

One of the first things you want to do when organizing your executive resume is to define a clear target. You should know the mission of the company you’re applying with, as well as what would be expected of you in the position you want. This way, you can very clearly speak to what it is about you that makes you perfect for the job.

Make Sure to Brand Yourself

At this point, you should be known for contributing something to your field. It doesn’t matter what field you work in, it simply matters that your name is directly associated with your positive accomplishments and expert abilities. To prove that you’re a potentially valuable investment, you want to show this branding of yourself in your executive resume. Show why you’re a good leader, and how you’re a unique executive–highlight why you’re perfect for the job, something that the other applicants couldn’t possibly bring to the table.

Include a Success Story or Two

Again, at your level, you should be known for having accomplished a lot. You want your successes to shine through in your resume. Showing how you’d overcome various obstacles to achieve those successes can also be immensely impressive and beneficial to your chances of getting a job.

Leave Room for White Space

When writing an executive resume, it’s often difficult to find a balance between including the right amount of information and leaving enough white space so that BlackBerry email cruisers won’t be overwhelmed with information. Avoiding longer sentences and focusing on your word choice can result in a better balance for mobile devices, and will make an executive resume sound stronger if the statements are on topic and contain valuable information. Employers will appreciate an approach that’s easy to read, yet still filled with important information.

Edit and Re-edit

There is absolutely no excuse for having misspelled words or grammatical errors in your resume at the executive level. If you’re not the best speller or grammar buff, you most definitely should have everyone you can think of edit your resume to avoid the embarrassment of being overlooked for something so elementary.

Avoid Too Many Pages

You may have a lot of information you’d like to include in your resume due to your extensive experience; however, as you know, managers are busy people with little time to read pages of accomplishments. Don’t write five pages of extensive detail; instead, cut your resume down to a few pages with essential branding and information that markets your abilities and successes as a strong investment.

Hopefully these tips (and your short breather) have helped to give you some focus as you write your executive resume. Now it’s time to write the best resume you’ve ever laid eyes on.