If you want to get a job, e-mail your resume first. Obvious advice, perhaps, but recent experience has shown me that even internet professionals don’t know how to go about making a good first impression by giving the recipient – their potential employer – an easy-to-read resume.

Often, an e-mailed resume isn’t even read by an employer, which of course greatly reduces the sender’s chances of getting the job. The most common problem is a simple one – incompatible file formats. Though most people use Microsoft Word, some don’t. Then, there are hardware differences, like the differences between Macs and PCs.

Other obstacles include corporate firewalls and enterprise-wide proprietary e-mail programs. E-mail attachments are iffy at best when sending from your computer to someone at a company. Don’t stake your job prospects on the capability of someone’s e-mail client to decipher a MIME file. All of which is to say, always e-mail your resume in ASCII text only, in the body of the e-mail message. Here are some more pointers:

• Compose or copy your resume into a word processor like MS Word or WordPerfect and spell-check it.
• Set margins so there is one inch on each side.
• Select all the text and put it in 12-point Courier font.
• Remove special characters, like bullets and graphics.
• Save your resume as a “text only” file with line breaks.
• Cut-and-paste this ASCII resume into a text editor, such as SimpleText or Notepad, and review it. Special characters will appear as other, unwanted characters. Remove or replace them.
• Cut-and-paste the resume into your e-mail program. You may want to send it to yourself at another e-mail address, or to a friend who can proofread it for spelling or grammar errors.
• If your resume looks good at this stage, cut-and-paste it into the body of the message you send to the prospective employer.

Here are some bonus tips on sending your resume electronically:

• Write a thoughtful cover letter – it’s as important as the resume. Use it to market yourself without duplicating the resume. Format it as ASCII text and cut-and-paste it into the e-mail message above the resume. (As always, spell-check it.)
• Follow up with a hard copy in the mail to reinforce your original submission. Make it scanner-friendly by using a widely available font and by forgoing fancy graphics. (Many high tech companies scan resumes into a database.)
• Make a follow-up call to see whether both your e-mailed resume and its hard-copy version were received. This gives you another chance to ask for an interview and make a good impression.
• Use keywords relevant to the job you’re seeking in both your cover letter and resume. This is particularly important for scanned resumes, since database searches will hit on those keywords, but it’s also important to show prospective employers your area of expertise.
• For Web-related jobs, send a URL for a webpage resume. Keep it simple (just one page), and provide contact information right at the top.

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