Your traditional printed resume must be supplemented now with a 21st century version that is compatible with e-mail and with Internet and database search technologies.

• Changing the content of your resume - small but very important changes
  
  
  • Cyber-safe resume - protect your privacy, your identity, and your job (current, if any, and future). Don't skip this step!
    
    
  • Keywords in your resume - tips to increase the probability that your resume will be included in the serach results when employers search through resume databases, like those used in big-company applicant tracking systems and most web job sites.
    
    
• Changing the format of your resume - a couple of short cuts for emergencies plus:
  
  
  • Converting a Word document to ASCII text - compatible with the Internet technologies, safely transits e-mail systems (see Using Your ASCII Resume, below).
    
    
    • Polishing your ASCII text resume - it doesn't have to be boring. You can jazz it up (a little).
      
      
    • Sample ASCII text resume - cyber-safe, with keywords added, and polished to look more interesting
      
      
  • Personal Resume Web Page -- Add simple HTML tags to your ASCII resume, and do some "search engines optimization" so your resume will be found.
    
    
    • Basic HTML tags will get you started, and here's help viewing your Web Page as you work on it.
      
      
    • Some final touches will make your Personal Resume Web Page more employer-friendly and optimized for the search engines.
      
      
    • Adding META tags should help with some of the search engines.
      
      
• Using your ASCII text resume - now that you have an Internet Resume, use it!
  
  
  • E-mailing a resume - usually the fastest way to respond and generally preferred by recruiters and employers, but not as easy to do well as you might think...
    
    
  • Keeping Your E-Mail Out of the Spam Filters - a new complication to the resume e-mail process.
    
    
  • Cutting-and-pasting your resume into Web job site resume and profile forms makes things move more quickly and, hopefully, minimizes the extra spelling and gramatical errors that can happen when you are typing text directly into a resume/profile form.
    

You do still need your traditional printed resume:

• when you have developed a relationship with a specific potential employer or a trusted recruiter who has requested your complete resume.
• when you respond to an employer's ad or an off-line opportunity through the USPS (or "snail mail") system.

It's a good idea to include a plain, scannable version of your resume with your printed resume when you are responding via regular mail. Then, if you are the "right" candidate for the opportunity, you resume may be scanned, particularly by companies with more than 500 employees that may have an internal applicant tracking system.

[See protecting your privacy for information on evaluating Web site privacy policies, and other issues related to your personal privacy. See Choosing a Job Site for help picking web job sites.]

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About the author...

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

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