Community Employment Resource
Centre
The Community Employment Resource Centre
(CERC) brings you this weekly column as an extension of our on-line
service. We provide referrals to other
agencies, advice on job search issues, as well as dates and / or information
pertaining to upcoming job fairs. We
invite you to use this service by dropping into or calling either office
(Cobourg: The Fleming Building,
905-372-9372; Port Hope:
Lakeland Place, 74L Queen St. (beside Town Hall), 905-885-2372) or through our website:
www.cercnorthumberland.com.
As a new job seeker with minimal computer skills, I am
becoming increasingly stressed in finding employment. Many of the job postings I am interested in applying for are requesting
that the resume be emailed. How do I do
this?
Your best bet for sending your resume is as the
actual text message of the email (only use attachments if the posting
specifically requests that you do).
Assuming you have an email account and a computer file of your resume,
here are the steps you need:
§
Open your
email account, create a new message and fill in the required information - be
sure to include the position you are applying for on the subject line and use
your full name
§
You will
still need a brief “cover letter” to indicate how you found the posting, make a
match/connection between you and the position/organization, and offer your best
sales pitch
§
Leaving your
email open, access your resume
§
Save your resume
as a Text only document - click on File, Save As…, and choose “Text only” for
the “Save as Type” line
§
Click on Yes
to continue when prompted by the message regarding loss of formatting
§
Close your
resume
§
Access your
text resume through the My Computer icon on your desktop, double click on the
drive where you saved your resume (A drive for a disk, C drive for My
Documents) and double click on the file (icon looks like a steno pad)
§
Check for
spacing errors. Note: bolding has been replaced by capitals, lines
removed, font is different – ensures message can be “read” by receiver
§
Select the
entire document
§
Copy the
document (right click anywhere on top of the typing, click on copy)
§
Go back to your email (you should have a
button on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen indicating your email – click
on it)
§
Access a
clean line after your opening paragraph(s)
§
Paste by
right clicking on this blank line, click on paste
§
Check for
spacing errors. Take into consideration
readability – i.e. all dates lined up on the right side
§
Type your
contact information (name, address, phone numbers, email address) at both top
and bottom of the message for easy reference by reader.
Prior to sending your resume to the
potential employer, you can do a test run by sending it to yourself to see how
it looks on screen and on paper by printing it.