July - August 2001  

Publishing an Effective Résumé on the Web

by Teri Roberts

Before you post your résumé on a web page, you need to consider several factors:

• Style
• Content
• Organization
• Navigation

By following a few simple guidelines, you will increase the appeal of your résumé and likely generate more contact from potential employers.

Style: Personalize, But Don't Overdo

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with web résumés, a little goes a long way. When choosing styles, keep these tips in mind.

Font

The type style and size you choose may be among the most critical of design element considerations. Think balance; the font must be readable both on the screen and on paper. Choose a font that can be recognized by most printers and is commonly found in most popular word processing packages. Times New Roman and Lucida Bright are widely available. As for size, balance the length of your résumé with text readability. Résumés should be short. If a larger font size doubles the length of your résumé, consider using a smaller font or size.

Background

Simple is better, so choose a sedate background. The color and pattern should appeal to you and make a subtle suggestion about who you are or what you do. Keep the focus of your résumé page on your qualifications, not the background. Subtle patterns will provide rich texture but won't interfere with your text. For a selection of free backgrounds, visit www.free-backgrounds.com.

Photographs

When including photographs, remember, smaller is better. Large photos take considerable time to download and not everyone has a high-speed Internet connection. Use a small, professionally produced cameo head shot. Be sure to scan and store your photo in .jpg or .gif formats, since most web browsers recognize them.

Content: The Meat of Your Page

Skills, Experience, Employment, Education

Express your skills in general, abstract terms. Describe your experience is terms of they way you've used skills within an event or project setting. Use verb phrases to begin activity descriptions; your résumé will be more interesting to read. Your employment section will translate your employment job history. Include job titles held for each employment period. If you were not assigned a specific title, create one that reflects the nature of the job you performed. Finally, your education section should describe your formal course of study, as well as on-the-job training or professional courses and seminars that helped you acquire new skills.

Hits by Search Engines

Job placement specialists and human resources staffs use the web often to search for potential employees. Search engines scour the Internet to capture terms of interest and catalog the corresponding URLs. If you have experience with particular technologies, products or services, include identifying terms in your résumé. Think about different ways to express your skills and experience in both general and specific terms, and include both sets of terms when possible. Doing this will increase your potential for generating hits. For example, you may have experience with object-oriented (OO) analysis, design and programming languages (the general concept terms), and also know how to use Rational Rose, Together C++, and Visual Works (specific OO tool names).

Organization: Different Approaches for Different Uses

You can organize your résumé in a number of ways. Depending on the impact you want to make, you may use one format for your entire résumé or you may mix and match approaches.

Chronological Approach

A chronological listing is, by far, the most common organizational approach for résumés. It is hard to make this approach very interesting, but it works well for listing employment experience, especially for employers who prefer this traditional format.

Non-Chronological Approach

Non-chronological organization lends itself well to generating interest and illustrating your creativity. Consider these headings in a non-chronological section:

• Skill and Experience, using both generic and specific descriptive terms
• Employment and Education, using internal cross links to the chronologically organized section
• Affiliations, using links to the related organization web pages
• Reference Request, using an email message link for searchers to contact you easily

Experience by Skill Category Approach

You can also use a listing of experience by skill categories. This technique works well when you use a general skill term heading followed by specific experience examples. This is a good place to be descriptive about specific projects that are rich in search engine "hit" terms.

Navigation: Keep Readers Close, But Let Them Explore

With three ways to organize résumé content, the length of your on-line résumé will grow quickly. It is critical for readers to be able to move quickly between the different sections. Consider incorporating links that lead readers from section to section and back again. Internal links will keep readers inside the same page. They allow readers to explore and print information and navigate quickly around your page, but you don't risk losing them to an "outside link." On the other hand, you might consider providing external links to former employers' and universities' sites, but use these links sparingly. When your reader wanders away from your page, you no longer are the focus.

A well-constructed web résumé will generate more traffic to your page. This increased visibility will give you more contact with prospective employers. As with print résumés, keep your résumé updated and available at all times; you never know when you might need it.

Teri Roberts is a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Her web page can be found at http://www.rt66.com/~troberts/tresume.html.