Web job sites usually have a resume or "profile" section where you can leave a copy of your resume for employers to see (make sure that it's Cyber-Safe first!!) or for your personal use when you find a job that you want to apply for.

In most cases, the job site wants you to use an ASCII format resume (like this one). If they do not specify which format they want, ASCII is usually the safest to use.

Cutting and pasting ASCII text:

You will have a Web browser open (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome) and be viewing a job site's resume or profile page when you start this process. Keep your browser open so you can jump back and forth between the job site and your ASCII resume.

1. Open your computer's simple text editor like Notepad (on the PC, under Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad) or SimpleText (on the Mac)
   
   
2. Pull your resume file into the Notepad (or SimpleText) window by clicking on File >> Open and then finding where (on your computer) you have stored your resume's file, clicking on the file's name when you find it, and then clicking on the "Open" or "OK" button.

Web job site's may offer you the opportunity to copy and paste your resume or portions of it into windows in the site's resume (or "profile") form. You usually have 2 options: moving your complete ASCII resume into one large window of their resume form or moving sections of your ASCII resume into separate windows of their resume form. Both options are described below, step-by-step.

First, we will step through the process for moving your complete resume into one big resume window of the job site's resume form.

3. Highlight all the text (to move the complete resume) in your ASCII file by -
   
   
   1. Clicking on Edit > Select All, (to move the complete resume) or
   2. Using your mouse to run from the top of the file to the bottom, or
   3. On your PC, holding down the Control and the "a" keys simultaneously.
      
      

      Highlight -- You will know that the text is highlighted because the background and letters of highlighted content are in reverse from their normal state (black background with white letters is the highlighted state for normal black letters on a white background). Don't let your mouse "touch down" anywhere in the document's window, or the highlighting will go away, and you will have to start over again.

      
      
4. Copy the highlighted text into your computer's temporary storage (the "Clipboard" in a PC) by -
   
   
   • Clicking on Edit > Copy, or
   • On your PC, press the Control and the "c" keys simultaneously.
     
     
5. Paste the highlighted text into the job site's resume/profile form window -
   
   
   • Click inside the job site window, and then
   • On your PC, press the Control and the "v" keys simultaneously to paste the Clipboard's contents into the job site window.
     
     
6. Delete all contact information you may have pasted into the form, especially if your resume is not Cyber-Safe. In most cases, you will have completed a "top" to the resume where you have already typed in your name and e-mail address.
   
   

   Job seekers frequently sabotage their own privacy by copying the top of their resume (with all of their contact information) into the body of the resume. So, while you may have requested the job site to block access to the contact information you typed into specific labeled fields elsewhere on the resume/profile form, you accidentally reveal the information yourself during this copy-and-paste process.

   
   
7. Click on the "Submit" (or similar name) button, and your resume will be stored at the job site.

Second, the process for moving sections of your resume into separate windows of the resume form is just a variation of the first method, but it will take multiple steps. The job site may want the contents of your resume split up and pasted into different windows of their resume/profile form. These windows will have labels like "objective," "education," "experience," etc. This means that you must do repeated copy-and-paste processes to put the appropriate contents in the appropriate windows.

So, once you have your text resume available to you in your simple text editor (see steps #1 and #2 above):

• Highlight the appropriate section of your resume text (use method #3. b. or #3. c. above) not the whole resume
• Paste that text into the appropriate window (e.g. copy your educational information to paste into the "Education" window of the form on the Web job site).
• Repeat the process for each different window of the form. Copy and paste the objective section of your resume into the form's "Objective" window; then, copy and paste your experience section into the "Experience" window, etc.

(Be sure to read Protecting Your Privacy and Choosing a Job Site for more information.)

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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 salary ompensation 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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