that’s a good question, actually. now, me, i’m such a fossilized old net.fart that i only send plain-text emails, but even i’ve had to accept that that’s puritanical now. the main problem i see with links in email is, what if your web hoster goes down or chews your site just at the crucial moment that prospective employer wants to check it out? i think it’d be nice if the application email could be as self-sufficient as possible, for the convenience of whoever you’re applying to.

You have convinced me, Nomen. Future jobhunting emails will include both plain text links to the files on my server (to prove my google-fu) and attached copies of my resume in Word 95. Word 94/2K/XP, Rich Text Format, OASIS OpenOffice, PDF (both the current version and in Acrobat 3 (i.e. PDF 1.2), because 3 makes for a much more compact file), HTML, Wordprefect, WordStar, and of course plain text.

Thanks for the feedback.

if you reject me in favour of somebody with worse qualifications but a prettier resume then I don’t want to work for you

I’m not saying that. I am saying that a résumé is what gets you in the door. If you have 35 candidates for one job, those that stand out get in.

I’m not sure I’d put “I’m good at wasting company time looking at fark and slashdot” on a resume, myself.

Now that’s funny.

I’m not sure how I’d word web-savviness either

I’m not sure I’d put “I’m good at wasting company time looking at fark and slashdot” on a resume, myself. Maybe that goes in the cover letter? If it’s a requirement, I’d say I was a “netinja”.

I thought that you were a number cruncher.

These are great tips, though.

The 12,000,000 illegal aliens aren’t the only ones who need to start using our native language.

or if you just want PDFs, there are “print-to-file” PDF-maker printer drivers out there. i use one called PrimoPDF. not really sure if it’s the best one, though, or just a convenient one — i run Windows only very seldom.

Also, I include a link to my website right under my name, email, and address.

And I’m a big fan of saving typing whenever possible: Alt-130 works gives you an é with one fewer keystroke than the Alt-0233 “vérsion.” Also worth noting that you have to use the numbers on the number pad. Using the numbers above the QWERTY won’t work.

Regardless, the meat of the resume belongs on page 1. Supporting information belongs on pages 2 and 3.

My dictionary includes r’esum’e and resume.

It shouldn’t be necessary to even say this. But here in the real world…

If they don’t care, I try to go with something that matches the position. Web design meets with HTML (since every modern computer can deal with that without any further installation), for example.

But most of them ask for “Microsoft Word”, and don’t even specify the subtype.

I couldn’t get my resume under one page since I was twenty-five. Just writing the locations and contact info for places I’ve worked fills a page, nevermind trying to explain exactly what “Systems Administrator/Designer” for a rapid product development firm does (hint: a little bit of everything).

And googling my real name gives you nothing related to me… thank for pen names.

Good luck dealing with the resume work, Saysuncle.

Let me clarify, in my original email I have the direct link to my PDF resume. That’s not good enough?

that’s a good question, actually. now, me, i’m such a fossilized old net.fart that i only send plain-text emails, but even i’ve had to accept that that’s puritanical now. the main problem i see with links in email is, what if your web hoster goes down or chews your site just at the crucial moment that prospective employer wants to check it out? i think it’d be nice if the application email could be as self-sufficient as possible, for the convenience of whoever you’re applying to.

but i could be weird about that. is there a consensus on the matter out there?

I use an email like this:

term-of-art@firstname-lastname.com

Sometimes, since I run my own email server, I’ll put companyname@robballen.com so I can accurately kill it when a particular email starts getting spam.

Seriously, though, if you are looking for a computer person, check out Joel’s excellent site:
http://jobs.joelonsoftware.com/

Yeah, i noticed that before.

Ah, that’s where I got it. If it’s any better, when I control the presentation, I always use the French spelling. So that hardcopy I have with me when I walk in for the face-to-face interview always have those little thingys looking that way.

then you’re lucky i’m not in a position to hire you, for i’d drop the email unread. use your PDF version. PDF is a much better format than word-anything.

Thanks for your comment, I feel the same way. However 90% of the time when they ask for a preference, it’s for it to be in MS Word format. The extra 10% is just asking for plain text pasted into the email message. When I say I have it as a PDF, but I could convert it, 50% of the time the PDF is OK.

Let me clarify, in my original email I have the direct link to my PDF resume. That’s not good enough?

I use OpenOffice too, and I’m always afraid that when I save it down to MS Word format, something will get screwed-up, but that’s what the people ask for.

And, really, are you qualified for the job you’re applying for? Just asking.

seriously, I’ve seen people ask for the fucking moon and the stars in an interview. Hell, I’ve even blogged about it. The interview person was impressed I googled the company before the interview, was quite impressed with my knowledge of Word and other MS programs, was quite impressed with my customer service experience, management experience, and then proceeded to tell me that I’d need none of those skills that they requested if I was hired.

Also, this whole post is quite a coincidence, as I just moments ago got a call to set up for a job interview.

I send my resume as a Word 95 attachment.

then you’re lucky i’m not in a position to hire you, for i’d drop the email unread. use your PDF version. PDF is a much better format than word-anything.

(PDF can be read by multiple different programs on pretty much any operating system out there. word can basically only be read by MS software, and by a few others who care enough to reverse engineer MS software, such as OpenOffice.org. added bonus: PDF was made to describe printed pages such that a correctly-made PDF should always print out the same, everywhere; word may achieve something similar, but that was never its main goal.)

Note the text in the trackback from Nashville is Stalking. Now note the “search engine friendly URL” for this post in Wordpress.

but the phrase Proficient in the Internet just doesn’t sound right.

Tube-meister?

google-fu?

term-of-art@firstname-lastname.com

I could use firstname@firstname-lastname.com, but I would just drown in spam. I always hope the person I interview will understand and ask me about the “term of art”/jargon, but so far no one has.

I send my resume as a Word 95 attachment. What does everyone think of that? I’m hoping whatever the interview-person uses, that it can at least open that format. Just in case, I note in my email that I have a copy of my resume in both Word and PDF formats available on my website.

I use resume. I’m afraid that you might have your mailer program mis-configured and you will get all the cool accents mangled

I’ve always hated hiring in this job. I reject 5 resumes and I get told I’m being too picky, and I have to bring one in for an interview. So I pick the least awful of the bunch. Too many empire building managers are more eager to fill their head count allotments than they are to be careful about hiring and get the right people. Needless to say, we’ve hired some real losers. The few truly good people we’ve found have been through existing employee referrals rather than off the street.

I do agree about explaining gaps in the interview, not trying to explain every two month period where you were looking for work on your resume. Uncle is correct about the KISS principle stuff…

It’s spelled résumé

in French, most assuredly. in English, i could argue that we may anglicize its spelling as a now-adopted loan word to “resume”, since this language is not too hot on accents and umlauts. (indeed, that’s how i spell it on mine.) using only a single one of them is being wishy-washy and wrong in any language.

and keeping resumes short without leaving apparent holes in any of education background, work history, or the skills list (and thus getting passed up for interviews because the damn thing has suspicious holes in it) is mindlessly hard. i’ve managed to keep mine to two pages so far, but it’s a struggle.

finally, being qualified for a job isn’t that cut and dried in my field. i’ve never done .net programming (for instance), but i’ve done enough other programming to know i could pick that platform up relatively easily too. yet i likely wouldn’t apply for a .net job, because i know folks who make themselves MS-only shops usually love to tick off check-box lists and don’t always stop to think about core skills and basics, so they’d be likely to reject me for not having the silly box ticked. could i do the job? did that falling tree make a sound?

Of course, most accurate Googling of me will result in gun stuff, so I’m starting to understand why my last interview has resulted in silence Luckily, I didn’t need the job as I have one already.

Need a .Net programmer that can work from Florida?