Having a great resume is the first critical step in a successful job search. Unfortunately, most people don’t know the best ways to get that resume noticed. In today’s job market, where you are competing with hundreds of other resumes, knowing the right way to distribute your resume can make all the difference.
First of all you need to get organized and stay organized. When you get that call from the 200 resumes you sent out, you need to make sure you are ready to show that you know all about the company that’s calling. So keep a log detailing the name of the company, the position advertised and the dates you contacted them along with any notes. (Readers may request a free log by emailing ).
Next post your resume on the job boards. Note that the job boards are not the most effective way to get a job with most of them having an effectiveness rate of less than 3%. Nonetheless, they should be a part of your strategy. Put your resume on the large job boards and be sure to find the job boards that are specific to your profession as many employers are skipping the expensive giants and focusing their search. You can find a lot of niche job boards by going to our Career Resources link.
To post your resume, you’ll need an electronic (or ASCII) version of your resume. You can do this by opening your resume in MS Word, hitting File-Save As and choosing Text Only. This will create a version of your resume. Close the file, reopen it and edit out any stray characters left over from your bullets and other graphics characters. This file will now cut and paste into web sites and e-mails and automatically format itself. When you post to the job boards, remember to setup search agents that automatically tell you about a new job posting. This will let you be one of the first ones to apply.