Hey, that resume of yours looks pretty nice.

You’ve got it all tricked it out in Microsoft word, with the custom headers and footers, the carefully staggered paragraph alignments, and the tables goin’ on (or columns, if you’re a columns kind of person - personally, I like the tables better).

It looks great when you print it, and it stands out from the pack when it’s compared to the dozens of other hard-copy resumes a hiring manager sees.

That’s all well and good, until you try to send it via email. In the body, not as an attachment, because companies are trying to protect themselves from spammers and virus spreaders galore.

Paste the content of your Word doc into your email - when it’s an HTML-formatted email program like Microsoft Outlook offers, it’ll look almost exactly the same.

But it often doesn’t come out that way on the other end. Companies have their email servers set to strip out HTML and convert those email to plain text. And things like bullets, special characters, paragraph formatting and more all get stripped out.

It makes your resume safe for their reading, but not necessarily safe for your reputation - or for winning you an interview, according to this article by Max Messmer of Robert Half International.

If you want to see an example of what happens to resumes stripped of their formatting - plus other tips about how to make your resume email shine, give that article a close read.

Of course, you may not want to do all the work of emailing out your resumes - in which case, let us do the work for you. Check out ResumeMachine.com’s distribution service to recruiters, headhunters, companies, and venture capital firms today.

We now interrupt this blog for an important message.

If you’ve been surfing the same executive, professional, and management job websites, and sending out your resumes, and not getting results, it may be time to broaden your horizons.

On this blog, we do our best to give you useful information to help your job search - everything from resumes to salary, benefits to career education, interviewing to networking, and more. But the ultimate goal is to see you land the executive position you know you deserve.

Unfortunately, you may not know that job even exists, if you’re looking for it in the same places over and over again. That’s kind of like the definition of insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results.

That’s why I’m happy to be blogging on behalf of ResumeMachine. I’ve had long conversations with the people involved in the service, and used the service personally last year. Their philosophy is dead-on:

Understand that a resume’s job is not to get you a job. A resume’s job is to get you a phone call inviting you in for an interview. If your resume defines your skills and accomplishments, is sent to the correct companies, and if there’s an opening for someone with your credentials, you will get responses.

The advantage of our service – compared to others on the Internet – is that the contacts that you purchase have designated to us that they want to receive resumes from people just like you. We don’t use a “shotgun” approach and send the resume of a pharmaceutical industry candidate to an IT recruiter… that’s a waste of their time and your money!

Their database is ridiculously huge, and they update it every single day. There’s a VERY good chance they can put you in touch with people and positions you had no idea were out there. Please, check out their service today.

I’d heard about online scams before - Nigerian princes needing my bank account info, and so on. But the broader term for scams like these is “phishing,” and if you’re putting your resume out on the web anyplace, you need to get familiar with phishing fast.

Here’s the brief explanation of phishing, from Yahoo! Tech:

Phishing is a one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes, according to the FBI, and one that costs consumers millions of dollars each year. These scams have one purpose: to get as much personal information from a user as possible. This includes login information, Social Security numbers, date of birth, and other identifiable information that can help scammers open up bogus accounts under your name or steal from your existing ones.

Checking out the Yahoo! Tech post above, and the “How to Spot a Phishing Scam” follow-up, would be a very wise thing to do if you’ve used Monster, Career Builder, Yahoo! Hot Jobs, or other online job boards.

As Annys Shin writes, some people have started creating fake company websites and emails, solely for the purpose of stealing personal information from job seekers. Here’s an excerpt from her blog on the Washington Post website:

Job seekers who posted their resumes on Monster, Career Builder and Yahoo received e-mails from either USA Voice or Instant Human Resources, telling them that based on the their resumes they qualified for a promising sounding position. Those who didn’t smell a scam right away filled out online applications, in the process disclosing personal information.

Some get as far as entering a Social Security number. Many only get to name and address before backing out. At that point, job offers don’t come pouring in, but spam does.

The job sites have gotten wise to these schemes and, for the past several years, have been posting warnings on their Web sites in an effort to educate users before it’s too late. They also pre-screen job postings and monitor them daily. But it seems inevitable that scams will get through.

Here’s the good news: Not only can you help protect yourself from phishing scams like this, it’s as easy as what you already do in your job search. Research the company first - before you decide to fill out anything, find out as much as you can about them.

In a regular job search, you might find the company isn’t one you’d want to work for in the first place, so isn’t it great that you saved yourself the time of applying? And if they’re phishers, then you just saved yourself from being scammed.

It’s cheaper and faster than snail mail, saves you paper and ink, and works just as well, all things being equal. It’s the emailed resume, and though it’s easy, it’s also easy to commit a few errors if your not careful.
Here are six simple steps to follow to keep your resume emailing on the right track.
1. Don’t send to the “jobs@company.com” email address, if possible. Make a couple of calls and ask to whom you could send your resume directly. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword: On the one hand, you’re applying for a management position, which means you shouldn’t have to be dug out of the entry level resumes coming in ten times more often. On the other hand, hiring managers delegate the screening of resumes to administrators, junior folks, and HR staff, so you might hit a brick wall there. Try it, and if it’s no dice, just follow their procedure.

2. Send from a regularly-named (not a funnily-named) email address. Home email addresses are just fine, but don’t send from an address like “FancyPantsLineDancer@aol.com.” Use a variation on your name, like allen.butler@aol.com, abutler@aol.com, etc. And make sure it includes your full last name, for ease of the receiver’s reference.

3. Be crystal clear in your subject line. Between spam filters and overloaded resume screeners, you want to make things as easy as possible. Reference the position, your name, and the fact that you’re sending a resume – i.e., “Allen Butler’s resume for the VP, Consumer Packaged Goods opening.”

4. Paste your resume straight into the email. Virus scanners are just as aggressive as spam filters, so just don’t do it unless you’re asked to. And if you’ve got some special formatting in the MS Word version of your resume, do a Google search on re-formatting for resumes to help you present your resume professionally via text-based email, regardless of formatting.

5. Don’t write your resume email as fast as you would a regular email. No need to be stiltedly formal with your language. Just take as much care with the writing of your email as you would with your resume and cover letter. Re-read, out loud, and check for spelling errors before sending.

6. Don’t let it end when you click “Send.” Whoever your contact was from step 1, give them a call in a few days to confirm their receipt, and make it easy for them to take the next step with you – giving you the interview.

Of course, using a resume distribution service like Resume Machine takes a lot of the wrinkles out of the process. But if you find a place on your own that you want to approach, this guide should help you get off on the right foot.

I just had a “you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!” moment.

Resume education. That’s what this blog (and others like it) often focus on - but when have we ever blatantly suggested that part of your resume updating process should be to updating your resume writing skills?

Okay, not the most amazing epiphany. I’ve written about updating your resumes in the past, but that was simply to remind you to keep current on your milestones, and make sure you document them while they’re fresh in your mind.

I’ve also written about continuing education - heck, there’s a whole category for it.

But they definitely cross-pollinate. If you’re not updating your resume writing skills, then it’s entirely possible that the way you write up even the most impressive of achievements will fall flat in resume form.

So before you start typing, take some time to read through some resume writing articles (in addition to the blog, you’ll find more resume writing articles here) to enhance your resume writing skills.

And - even better - this process offers some great side benefits.

1. Improve your performance review performance. The more time you work on best describing your service and achievements for your current employer, the better you’ll be able to communicate those positive qualities at an annual review – and on an interview for a new management position.

2. Improve your inner game right alongside the outer game. From a mindset perspective, focusing more frequently on your achievements is a great to reinforce your value in your own mind. So when you’re in a position to speak about (or defend) your contributions, you can do it with confidence.

So, ‘fess up – when’s the last time you updated your resume? If the answer’s more than three months, then make some time to do it in the next week, please! Your career will thank you for it.

There are still some things that apply to all resumes - research your target employer, triple-check your spelling, and so forth. But resume writing these days is breaking into sub-specialties, including resume tips designed specifically for:

• Victims of layoffs
• Job seekers with disabilities
• Mothers returning to the workforce while still raising kids
• Empty nesters returning to the workforce
• Military veterans seeking private sector employment after discharge
• College grads with lots of education and little real-world experience
• Fresh-out-of-high-school students
• Executives looking to jump not only out of a company, but an entire industry

The last group is a prime audience of ResumeMachine.com, and the recruiters and headhunters who screen resumes coming through our distribution service will be able to do their job better - that is, get YOU a job - if you give them the right kind of resume.
And it’s not the standard, reverse-chronological kind. The functional resume is best if you’re planing to explore an entirely new industry. Rather than focus on a specific job or industry, it puts the focus on your skills and results.

When you pitch yourself to recruiters and headhunters this way, it gives them the chance to see clearly how you could fit well with positions they have in other industries. Remember, they’re scanning through hundreds of resumes a day, and balancing that with the knowledge of dozens of positions they have to fill.

By focusing your mid-career change resume on your transferable skills and achievements, you make it much easier for your target audience - those recruiters and headhunters - to make the link between you and the jobs they have to fill, and get them working eagerly on your behalf.

Now, I’ve heard resumes compared to sales pitches, to marketing touchpoints, to personal ads, and a host of other things, to try to get the point of them across. But for me, I now think of resumes like life insurance.

You never worry about life insurance when you’re with a company that offers it as a $5 deduction from your paycheck. You just do it. But when you have to take care of it on your own, you put it off endlessly. I know a few financial planners who confirm this about their life insurance prospects.

Just like resumes. When you have a job, you don’t even think about it. And when it’s time to handle your resume, you put it off. Both present so many options, it can be overwhelming just trying to learn about them all, let alone make a decision. Let alone feeling confident about the decision.

And both of them have a tremendous effect on the course of your financial future. If you die early and without life insurance in place, you leave your family not just without the steady income, but without a lump sum to make up for it.

If you never work on a resume, you’ll be forced to settle for incremental raises in income due to cost of living adjustments, budgeted raises, and the occasional promotion. How much more are you sacrificing by not looking to make a bigger leap with a job change – and by putting off writing the resume you need to get the ball rolling?

If you’ve been procrastinating, if you been letting yourself get overwhelmed, if you’ve been writing and re-writing the same section without moving further forward – now’s the time to get your act together. Get help from a service like Career-Resumes.com® if you need it. But whatever you do, start today. Make an investment in your financial future.

And call your life insurance agent while you’re at it.

I’ve been asked if there’s ever one time that’s better than another for a career change, and the simplest answer I have is, “When you’re ready for it.” There’s never one time that’s better than another. Too many variables for too many individual situations make it impossible to pick just one moment.

Now, before you’re ready for it, I’ll then add, get your executive resume in order. Because when you decide you’re ready for that job search, if you don’t have your resume up to speed, you’ll be adding a delay to your desire to change - and that’s universally frustrating.
Resumes are inescapable. Even if 94% of executive positions are filled through networking contacts, each and every one of them had to hand in a resume at some point in the process - to a recruiter, a headhunter, or the hiring manager.
Take a step back and look at your resume with these three things in mind:

• Your resume is your sales pitch. You may not like the broad concept of “selling yourself,” but that’s about what’s happening here. Put yourself in a recruiter’s position and ask yourself, “Is this guy or gal worth my time?”
• Your resume isn’t just a rehash of your history. If it were, there wouldn’t be an entire industry built up around resume writing. You have to be interesting and stand out from the increasingly large pack.
• Your resume must demonstrate the value you can bring to the company. No one wants to read between the lines anymore - not when there’s a stack of resumes waiting for a quick scan behind yours. Hit ‘em over the head with how much better you can make their company - in simple numbers, not in wild boasting.

Need help? Would a little kick-start prime your resume writing engine? Check out the ResumeMachine.com website for other resume articles written by resume experts, and find out what works for your ultimate resume success.

Before you place your order with a resume distribution service (even this one), have you made sure you’ll actually get the attention of a recruiter, headhunter, or other employment professional with your resume?

Richard H. Beatty, writing “These Resume Gaffes Do Immediate Damage” for CareerJournal.com, has some advice for you. Consider that these recruiters, receiving emails from distribution services by the hundreds, must have a system for sorting through the masses. Beatty gives you the scoop on what some of their “knockout factors” are:

During the initial screening, the employment professional is alert for factors that will immediately eliminate a candidate from further consideration. These knockout factors invariably mean sure death to a person’s candidacy. They typically include:

1. An objective that doesn’t match current openings.
2. Inappropriate or insufficient educational credentials.
3. Incompatible salary requirements.
4. Poorly organized, sloppy or hard-to-read content.
5. Geographic restrictions incompatible with current openings.
6. A long list of employers in a short period of time.
7. Too much information.
8. A lack of U.S. citizen or permanent-resident status.

Maybe you’ve got the U.S. citizen thing covered, but are you putting too much information in your resume? If you’re not sure, or if you’ve been trying out your resume for a while with no good results, you might want to think about a critique from a professional resume writer to get you on the right track.

From lying on your resume to interview killers, stopping to listen your heart and speeding up your job search time, we present to you a selection of recently published, career-related articles.

Before you start polishing up that resume for distribution - or even if you have one out there already - click through to a few of the articles that interest you, and see what you can bring to your resume from them.

(Your resume will thank you for it - and so will the recruiters and headhunters who get that resume from you.)

6FigureJobs.com
Do You Want to Accelerate Your Job Search? Here’s a Simple Strategy That Helps You Get The Jobs You Really Want
Not Generating Interviews From Your Resume?
Cut Your Job Search In Half – Part 1

Monster.com
Overcome Language Barriers
Follow Your Bliss: What Education Choices Would You Change?
Improve Your Job Search this Year

Yahoo!
The 10 Biggest Interview Killers
The Ultra-Honest Resume
When to Grow, When to Go
Should I ‘Fess Up to Lying on My Résumé?
 

CareerJournal.com
Learning From Mistakes Of Your Past Bosses