E-mailing your resume to apply for jobs can be incredibly convenient and frustrating.
While it's easy to send your resume to hundreds of employers and recruiters with the push of a button, how can you be sure it was ever read at all?
Here are four ways to make sure your e-mailed resume gets into the right hands -- and gets read.
1. Attach and paste it
When e-mailing your resume, it's not enough to send it as a Word attachment because attachments can get scrambled during transmission, making them illegible.
You should also copy and paste the text of your resume into the body of your e-mail.
In your word processor, simply highlight the text of your resume and copy it into the clipboard (short-term memory). Then, switch over to your e-mail program and paste the text into your message.
Test and verify that you've done this correctly by e-mailing copies to friends.
2. Include a cover letter
Cover letters aren't just for printing or faxing -- send them with e-mailed resumes, too.
When a company posts an opening online, it might receive 100 or more e-mailed resumes within hours. To stand out and prove you're serious about a job, you must include a cover letter.
One recruiter I found puts it this way: "I give more consideration to resumes that are e-mailed with a cover letter than to simple cut-and-paste submissions.
"As the single recruiter in my department, I don't have the ability to carefully screen 80 resumes for an Internet job posting. Serious candidates usually take the time to prepare [and include] a cover letter."
3. Send it offline, too
Just as NASA builds in a backup to any mission-critical system, you should also fax or snail mail your resume to employers as a backup to your e-mailed submission.
You can include a line at the top of your cover letter that says "Sent via fax and e-mail" or something similar.
4. Finally, follow up
Remember that technology should assist -- and never replace -- human contact. The best way to make sure your e-mailed resume got there and got read is to follow up personally.
If you don't hear anything within 24-48 hours, contact the employer to see if the position is still open. Be polite when you call, fax, e-mail or write a paper letter, and offer to send your resume again if the hiring manager didn't get it the first time. This will always increase your response rate.
Best of luck to you!
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Kevin Donlin owns Edina, Minn.-based Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1995, his firm has provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in 48 states and 23 countries.
Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, WCCO Radio, WLTE Radio and KMSP TV, among others. His articles have appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly, Home Office Computing magazine, Twin Cities Employment Weekly, the cnet online magazine and others.
Kevin can be reached through his Web site Guaranteed Resumes.
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