Your Picture Perfect Resume

As someone who has hired many people, I am always amazed to discover the very unprofessional resumes that would cross my desk. I have received ones with coffee stains, that reek of cigarette smoke, or that are crumpled beyond belief.

I have also received resumes scrawled in chicken scratch handwriting from paper that has been torn from a spiral bound notebook.

I have received resumes with blatant typos, missing phone numbers (of the potential employee, no less!) and handwritten notes for missing information (including entire jobs!)

Even if these candidates were perfect in every other way, the total lack of professionalism in her resume cast a shadow on her entire application.

When you are creating your own resume, for online or offline job searches, it must be professional, right down to a heavier bond paper you print it on.

There are many books currently available with resume samples and step-by-step instructions on how to make the perfect resume.

• The Resume Handbook: How to Write Outstanding Resumes and Cover Letters for Every Situation (3rd Ed)
  
• Resume Magic : Trade Secrets of a Professional Resume Writer
• Resume Pro : The Professional's Guide
  

Of course, if you just want to hand the job over to a professional who can tailor a resume to you (and even to the job you are applying for), there are many businesses online and their turnaround time is usually phenomenal. You can choose for your resume to be sent to you via attachment, or as a hardcopy that is mailed to you.

• ResumeEdge.com
• E-Resume.net

You will want to have your resume available in several different formats, so you can immediately send it to a potential employer at a drop of the hat. The most commonly requested formats are:

• A print version. This is the one you can print on your printer and present in person, or mail.
• A faxable/scannable resume. This is one that you can fax to an employer. This should be strictly black ink without any fancy formatting or shadow text. It should be printed on plain white paper. Colored paper and text do not fax well.
• Plain text / ASCII format. This is a plain text version, without any fancy formatting at all. This can be posted to message boards, or to plain text resume submit sites.
• Plain text email format. Similar to the plain text / ASCII format, this one should also be formatted to a maximum of 65 characters per line.
• HTML format. This is strictly in html format, and you can cut and paste the html code into online job sites and html-capable message boards.

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