Potential advantages for e-mail resume transmission
E-mail can often be addressed specifically to the hiring manager. This is a benefit over faxed and printed resumes, which are more likely to go to an administrative assistant who may screen out your resume.
E-mail is possibly the speediest way to get a resume in front of a decision maker. Faxed resumes could be as fast, but often fax machines are bombarded with incoming documents, and there are also delays for internal routing, sorting, and distribution.
E-mailed resumes can easily be forwarded by the recipient to others in the company, even those in distant cities.
E-mailed resumes can easily be stored to a disk or database, making it searchable against future employment needs.
Tips for e-mail transmission
Send your resume in a plain text format (ASCII) as opposed to enclosing the resume in a word processor, PostScript, or other (PDF, HTML) format. If you choose to send the resume as an enclosure in a formatted version, be sure to also send the plain text version as part of the message. This will allow the receiver to view your qualifications without going through a converting or decoding procedure.
If you e-mail an enclosed copy of your resume, use a file name that will remind the recipient that it is your resume. Use jonesres.doc, instead of resume.doc.
Left justify all text. This alignment travels across various platforms, operating systems, and e-mail programs with the least amount of distortion. Centering, indentations and tables may not look the same on the receiving end.
Web page resumes
Some individuals have been putting a copy of their resume on the World Wide Web as one of their personal web pages. This allows you to present the resume in an attractive way. When applying for a position, a resume should be submitted in plain text format via e-mail and then refer the recipient to the web page for a more attractive formatted version.
Web page resumes are not a good idea for individuals who want privacy. Some web site administrators, however, are able to password protect certain pages upon request. This would allow you to refer someone to your web based resume and provide them with a password for viewing.
E-mail Accounts
Employers are saving resumes into databases and pulling them up months or even years later. Therefore, you might consider getting a permanent e-mail address from a service like www.hotmail.com, www.excite.com, or www.rocketmail.com. These web based e-mail accounts can survive a change of employment or cancellation of an on-line service account (eg: Bigpond, Ozemail, etc.).
An additional advantage for the job seeker is that they provide a private mailbox
(rather than a mailbox on your employer's computer) and you can access these
e-mail accounts from any web browser.
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