Top 25 Tips for using the Internet in your Job Search

1. When typing your resume out with the intent of emailing, make sure it is in an ASCII format.
2. Use keywords heavily in the introduction of the resume, not at the end.
3. Keywords are almost always nouns, related to skills, such as financial analysis, marketing, accounting, or Web design.
4. When sending your resume via email in an ASCII format, attach (if you can) a nicely formatted one in case it does go through and the reader would like to see your creativity and preferred layout. If you do attach it, use a common program like MS Word.
5. Don’t focus on an objective in the introduction of the resume, but rather accomplishments, using keywords to describe them.
6. Don’t post your resume to your own Web site unless it is a very slick page. A poorly executed Web page is more damaging than none at all.
7. Before you email your resume, experiment sending it to yourself and to a friend as a test drive.
8. Look up the Web site of the company you are targeting to get recent news information about new products, etc., and look for their job posting for new information.
9. Before your interview or verbal contact, research the company’s Web site.
10. Use a font size between 10 and 14 point, make it all the same for an ASCII format resume, and don’t create your resume for emailing with lines exceeding 65 characters.
11. In case your resume may be scanned, use white paper with no borders and no creative fonts.
12. Include your email address on your resume and cover letter.
13. Don’t email from your current employer’s IP network.
14. Don’t circulate your work email address for job search purposes.
15. In the “subject” of your email (just below the “address to” part), put something more creative than “Resume Enclosed.” Try “Resume showing 8 years in telecommunications industry” (if that is your chosen industry), for example.
16. For additional sources of online job searching, do a “search” on the Web for job searching, your company, and your specific discipline for additional information.
17. Be careful of your spelling on the Internet. You will notice more spelling errors on email exchanges than you will ever see in mailed letter exchanges.
18. Try to make sure your resume is scannable. This means it has a simple font, no borders, no creative lining, no bold face, no underlining, no italics, and limited if any columning. Though the practice of scanning is overestimated, it should still be a consideration.
19. Purchase or check out of a library an Internet directory listing the many links to job opportunities out there. There are thousands.
20. If you are using the email as your cover letter, keep it brief. If the reader is reading on screen, their tolerance for reading long information is reduced dramatically.
21. Always back up what you can on a disk.
22. If you post your resume to a newsgroup, first make sure that this is acceptable to avoid any problems with other participants.
23. Remember that tabs and spaces are the only formatting you can do in ASCII.
24. Make sure you check your email every day. If you are communicating via the Internet, people may expect a prompt return.
25. Don’t send multiple emails to ensure that one gets through. Try to send it with a confirmation of receipt, or keep a look out for a notice from you ISP that the message didn’t go through.

career finder test, career search engines, what career is right for me