new resume for the new millennium: How to write an electronic resume, The

Black Collegian, Oct 1996 by Krannich, Ronald L

How to write an electronic resume.

Resumes have undergone a curious transformation during the past three years, one all job seekers need to be aware of in today's new job market. Only a few years ago career counselors were advising job hunters to write functional and combination resumes rather than traditional chronological resumes, or use networking strategies in lieu of writing conventional resumes. Today resumes have once again taken center stage in the job search. But this time, employers and career counselors are talking about a different type of resume designed for a new job market, the electronic resume. This type of resume has important implications for those conducting an effective job search, from identifying and responding to job vacancies to communicating qualifications to employers.

Let's look at this new resume in reference to other types of resumes as well as in relation to today's changing job market. In doing so, you should be able to decide what type of resume is most appropriate for your career and how you can best distribute your resume to prospective employers.

The Conventional Resume

Until about three years ago, the art of writing outstanding resumes followed a very well-defined set of principles. Resumes were first classified into three major types: chronological, functional, and combination. Each of these types, along with a few hybrid types, was appropriate for a particular type of job seeker who demonstrated different experience and skill levels. Chronological resumes, for example, emphasized employers and employment dates and were appropriate for people with a great deal of progressive work experience in the same career field. Functional resumes were appropriate for people with little work experience or for those seeking to make major career changes. Combination resumes seem to fit most types of job seekers who had some work experience and who did not want to make radical job changes. Job seekers were instructed to use action verbs for stating objectives and describing experiences and accomplishments. Additional advice covered everything from the color of paper (gray and beige in the 1980s and back to basic white in the 1990s) and the length of the resume (1-2 pages) and folding methods (keep it flat in an 9" x 12" envelope). Because the structure of the job market was highly decentralized and chaotic, job seekers were advised to distribute these resumes through a variety of channels using different methods. Mailing them through the U.S. Postal Service or with a special delivery service (UPS, Federal Express, Emery) and hand delivering them were the major distribution methods and channels. Around 1990 renewed emphasis was placed on the importance of cover letters (they could be more important than your resume), and accordingly a great deal of advice was given on how to write outstanding cover letters for enhancing the conventional resume and the conventional job search. All things considered, the advice was sound, appropriate for the job markets of the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s.

New Resumes for Today's New Job Market

But some very important developments took place in the job market in the early to mid-1990s. The most important changes included the following:

Downsizing of major corporations and government and the subsequent restructuring of organizations and work, especially the shrinking of middle management positions.

The application of new technology to both the workplace and the job search.

The emergence of part-time employment as a major employment arena.

The emphasis on computer and high-tech jobs as the fastest growing employment sector.

The continuing high costs of recruiting through traditional print media channels and executive search firms and maintaining costly in-house human resource development personnel for screening candidates.

The development of new software for scanning resumes and the emergence of the Internet as a cost-effective communication channel for linking employers and candidates.

Of these major changes, the convergence of new technology and the demand for candidates with computer and high-tech skills have truly driven the transformation of the job market in the past three years. Companies that used to spend thousands of dollars in personnel time to screen hundreds of resumes, for example, now spend only a few dollars using optical scanning technology to screen the same number of resumes within a few hours. For employers, this means saving an enormous amount of time and money. In some cases it justifies downsizing human resource development or personnel departments that may appear overstaffed as the new technology is increasingly applied to recruitment functions. For job seekers, it means writing a different type of resume, an electronic resume appropriate for the application of this scanning technology. It means writing a conventional resume to be used along with the electronic resume.

Key Words and Phrases On Your Resume

The electronic resume follows a different set of principles from the conventional resume. The two most important contrasting principles include the following: