When we work with resume clients, we provide them with a plain text version of their finished resume.  Regardless of whether you hire a professional or write your own resume, it is useful to have a plain text version on hand during your job application process.

Most medium to large companies now use online application systems for their job openings.  Some job seekers blow through these application systems, even writing things like “see resume” in the blanks asking for your previous job responsibilities.  This is a bad idea!  Many companies never look at applicants’ attached resumes until they’ve used specific keywords to screen the online applications.  Although employers generally look at things like education level or years of experience, they are also searching for specific things within your past job responsibilities.  Therefore, leaving those sections of an online job application blank can kill your chances of ever being forwarded through the hiring process.

Now, obviously typing your entire employment history into an online system is a very time-consuming process.  Cutting and pasting from your sleekly formatted resume will save you some time, but it will still take some work to go through and delete things like bullets and section dividers that don’t make sense inside the text box of an online application.  This is where having a plain text version of your resume can save you a tremendous amount of time.  By having your previous job accomplishments written out without any extra formatting, you can cut and paste quickly into the sections of an online system without having to spend much time editing.

Remember, no matter how frustrating the process can be, you simply have to complete the online application in a hiring system as thoroughly as possible.  The company may never see your impressive resume unless their application system recognizes you as the outstanding candidate that you are!

Author:  Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, and presenter.

Author Website: http://www.greatresumesfast.com

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

A friend of mine recently left his position at our former company to start his own business.  He has 15 years of excellent work experience, including 10 years of managing others, and an MBA.  His former job is now advertised online, and over the weekend I met a woman who had applied for it.  This woman was unhappy with her current company and had noticed that my friend’s former position paid really well.  Interestingly, she failed to notice much else about it.More...

"The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." - Jon Hammond

Believe it or not, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. The sad part is, I've been working for 30 years so you'd think I'd know by now, but it is never too late. Like most people, I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my career, and after trying five or six different things I'm still not sure. A career is like a long winding highway with many forks in the road on the way.More...

Companies will be able to attract top talent more effectively by leveraging social media using four key strategies. Though many companies are keen to explore social media, there is an underlying wariness as policies are trying to control the flow of information. This article provides an overview of social media and the potential application to attract top talent.

Underneath the iceberg of vacant jobs being advertised on job boards and newspapers, a strong invisible current of talent is ingeniously using social media to identify and strategize their next career moves. Prior to the popular rise and rise of social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, the talent sourcing process was limited to a linear process – where a vacancy is filled in transactional fashion, embedded in a perpetual recruitment environment of sourcing in new talent.

The advent of job boards have resulted in a significant shift away from print media, but compounded the overload of thousands of job boards, with job aggregator sites promising candidates to identify vacant roles. Though the cost of recruitment has been reduced, the process remained reactive.More...

Writing a CV is not an easy task. Both a beginner and a mature resume authors may find some discrepancy und mistakes in their works.

To avoid misunderstanding you should pay utmost attention to the following rules:More...