The Internet and the successive technologies have made paper resumes a thing of the past. These nearly extinct resumes printed on parchment or other types of paper meant to impress are still accepted, but there are newer formats that are more viable and that can be used in place of these paper resumes. The following are the three most common types of formatting to get your resume into the electronic age. Without them, you may be behind all of the competition who is probably getting their resumes to the company much quicker than you are.
Word Processor Based Resume
– Whichever word processor you use, you need to have all of your resumes saved in this format. While you are searching the Internet for job listings, you maformaty be asked to email your resume in. Many require a document that has a ‘.doc’ file type. This is a Word document and most word processors are going to allow you to same them in this format. Simply attach the file when prompted and you have applied for this position.
Portable Document Format
– This is also known as a PDF document and is a compressed file that is only readable and cannot be changed unless you have a PDF editor. This also means that those who are receiving this file can not edit or delete any information you are providing on accident. Another plus to this type of read only document is that you can save your format and the person who receives your document does not need to have the specific program in order to view the formatting.
The PDF document is quickly becoming one of the most popular types of files for electronically sending out resumes. Adobe offers a program for writing and saving PDF files. They also have widgets that work with Microsoft word for saving Word documents in the PDF format without having the PDF maker.
Text File
– This is a basic file that contains the text that you are using along with the basic formatting. If you are using graphics, they are not going to be saved but bullets and numbering is going to be. This is a great resource for submitting resumes to head hunting websites and other areas where attachments are not allowed. Simply save your resume in .txt format using whatever word processing program that you choose. Then you can use it to cut and past the information into online forms without having to retype it all.
It is important for job seekers to come into the technological age if they want to compete for work. Many companies are now moving to online applications and the days of walking into the office with resume in hand are becoming scarce. If you want to compete, make sure you have your resume written in all three formats so you can be prepared for any situation that may arise. You can still keep your paper resumes around, but you are going to find that you are not sending them out as often as you are going to send out your electronic ones.
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