More and more companies are using online recruitment. Online applications have proved to be a popular and exciting development over the last four years.

Notwithstanding, electronic delivery of your resume should meet certain standards, such as being easily and relatively quickly downloadable and easily stored.

When your application is received online recruiters often do not immediately read your resume. In fact, they may never read your resume unless it is picked up in keyword search.

The essential thing to remember is the importance of "keywords." Key skill searches are very popular these days as ever increasing numbers of resumes are received and stored electronically.

If you are sending in an electronic resumes (i.e. your resume over email, or via a online job board or online submission form) it is essential you send your document in ASCII format.

Resume File Name
We suggest that you do not call your email attachment file "my resume" or "Emma's resume". Have you ever tried to save a file with the same name as an existing file on your hard drive? What happens? Yes..."do you wish to overwrite this file?" is the request.

A significant number of applicants will send in a resume file called "my resume." How original...NOT! It really slows the registration process down;

First your resume will have to be renamed, this takes time and will get you off on the wrong foot with the reader.

In re-naming your resume, there is scope for errors to be made; such as spelling mistakes or confusing your first name with surname. Use your last or surname first and your first name last as your file name; this can assist companies to find you later with electronic filing. For example, if your name is "Emma Smith", name your resume "smithemma" or "smith_emma".
Tips

Combine your resume and cover letter into one document, it is quicker to open and read. Again, your application cannot be separated or misfiled.

Use a private email address not your company one; you may change jobs and lose the company email address. Further a private anon email is more confidential. Typically, "hotmail" or "yahoo" accounts are best when job searching.

Make your email address professional; preferably your name, not too long and not controversial like: "the_chosen_one28278@domain.com" or "gods_gift23733@domain.com."

Use the right keywords relevant to your skills: both in your covering letter and your resume.

When writing out an email keep lines to fewer than 60 or 65 characters in order to avoid lines wrap mid word.

Test your resume on different systems. Email it to friends and ask them to open it and see if it opens and reads ok.

When an employer makes a specific request on how to email your resume comply exactly as requested.

DO NOT USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS; this is regarded as very bad manners, the equivalent of shouting in emails.

Do not zip your files, unzipping wastes time, you are actually stopping hiring managers opening your application instantly. Again, not everyone will have the means to unzip files. If you keep your files to under 50kb there is no need to zip your files.

If you have been asked to send samples of your work and these files will be big, why not burn them to CD and post them on?

Avoid using photos, graphics, macros, columns, images, logos, photos or other non-essentials. Avoid elaborate formatting or graphics as these will hamper downloading, storage and searching. Further, when opened they may appear differently on the recipient's computer.

Your resume file should be no larger than 50kb. Some networks may reject larger files.

Run a virus check. If you send files that are infected, it can mean an instant rejection; Microsoft Word files in particular can be a serious virus risk, double check your resume. Try sending your resume in ASCII as an alternative or paste into the email body.
Using rich text format, or as text file, this strips out lots of virus types.

Never send .exe files: it pays to use several virus scanners: double check, why risk your application being deleted. Make sure your virus software is up-to-date.

Save your electronic resume as last name_first name

In order to avoid being overlooked, when using keywords use specific words plus abbreviations particularly with any technical terms that would be the basis of an electronic search.

Be aware that your application should be reviewable by people with a different culture, language or methods without confusion or offence.

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