The ASCII Resume
Posted by ayeshawrites4u on August 13, 2009
For any serious job seeker, an ASCII resume is a necessary part of your job searching arsenal. An ASCII resume, which is pronounced (as-KEE), stands for American Standard Code Information Interchange. This is the unformatted version of your resume that you can post onto job searching sites, send into e-mails, and onto job forms that require you to cut and paste your resume.
It is also referred to as a plain-text resume, text only, scannable resume, internet resume, and electronic resume. If an employer asks you to send either of these documents, he is referring to the ASCII resume.
ASCII resumes are preferred over formatted because the special symbols and tabs used in formatted resumes will alter the flow and be incapable of passing through any applicant tracking system. Also, regardless of the employers computer capabilities, all computers can download and read ASCII resumes.
Even when you are sending your resume by fax, you should use the ASCII resume. Why? Because some fax machines cannot handle all of the special characters used on a formatted resume and may not be able to print the document correctly – making it messy and too much of a hassle for an employer to sift through.
So how do you create an ASCII resume?
Most word processing programs allow you to convert your document to text (.txt) or rich text format (.rtf) format. When you recreate the resume using this format, it will eliminate all of the headers, tabs, and special formatting used within your original resume. However, before sending out your document, you must ensure the following:
- Special Characters have not been altered into unreadable WingDing formats that will look funny and distract an employer. Instead, opt for eliminating the special characters or replacing with an asterix (*) or dash (-).
- Tabs have been replaced by space bars.
- Wrapped text makes sense and has not altered the format.
- Each line has no more than 65 characters for both letters and characters.
- The format has absolutely no indentations, shading, borders, italics, or bold.
- Font is sans-serif, such as Arial or Courier.
After creating your ASCII resume, you must ensure that every time you cut and paste it onto a job board or an e-mail that you have fully proofread it and that it has pasted properly onto the website.
As always, good luck with your job search.
Ayesha Long
Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services
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