Guest Author - Kristen Welcome

If you’ve been involved in a serious job search in the past few years, you’ve probably encountered potential employers who will only accept online applications for positions. Many larger companies have an extensive application process in which applicants respond to a litany of questions via the internet, and then must paste their resume into an online window. Some smaller companies insist that resumes be emailed, but to reduce their concerns about computer viruses, some request that your resume be pasted into the body of an email message rather than attached as a Word document. If you have attempted to submit a resume using either of these options, you may have noticed that the formatting of your resume is lost in translation, and some portions of your resume may even become illegible.

Since everyone else is submitting their resume using the same system, the human resources department for your potential employer doubtless sees many resumes with formatting difficulties. In and of itself, these formatting issues may not necessarily eliminate a candidate from consideration. However, remember that many applicants find it simpler and less time-consuming to fill out online applications than to send hard copy resumes to potential employers. For this reason, potential employers utilizing online applications are likely to receive far more applications than the potential employers who only accept hard copy applications. If you’re going to submit your resume through an online application, it’s a good idea to make sure that the resume the hiring manager receives through the online system is as legible and free of formatting problems as possible, to help you stand out from the crowd.

Of course, you can go through your resume every time you have to paste it into an online window, and search for formatting problems to correct. It’s far easier and less time-consuming, however, to have a text version of your resume standing by to use in online applications that has already been double-checked for mistakes and problems.

To transform your resume in a Word document into a text version that can be used in online applications, begin by re-saving your Word document resume as a .txt document. While the resume is open in MS Word, click Save As, and then in the drop down box by “Save as Type,” select Plain Text, then click Save. You will then receive the option to save as “Windows (Default),” “MS DOS,” or other. I have not personally found much difference between these options when creating a text resume, but I have been advised by those in the know that the MS DOS option is the best option for the fewest errors.

After saving your resume as a plain text document, close MS Word and open Notepad (or other text-based program offered on your computer system). Open your resume in Notepad and examine it. Chances are, it is riddled with formatting problems and many question marks in places where they don’t belong. This is what the hiring manager would see if you were to simply upload your resume straight from Word into an online submission system. Clearly, uploading a Word document straight into the online system is not the best way to put your best foot forward.

After opening your resume in Notepad, go through for major formatting and spacing problems, concentrating specifically on any items that are centered in your Word resume, or flush with the right side of the page. Centered titles, your name, and dates that are normally on the far right of the page may be strangely positioned in a text document. It is best to find a way to re-position these items to sit flush with the left side of the page, since centering and right-sided justification will not be visible after a resume has been through an online submission system. If you used tabs at any point in your resume, the spaces representing those tabs will also need to be adjusted.

Next, check section headings and any separation lines you may have placed in your Word resume. The lines have probably disappeared, and the section headings may not be easily distinguishable from other text because the formatting has disappeared. The separation lines, if truly necessary, can be replaced by a series of symbols like asterisks or hyphens. The section headings can be made to look more like section headings by making sure they are in all caps, and by ensuring that at least one line of white space is visible above and below the heading. If you still believe that a section heading may not appear as such, you can set it apart even further by adding a small symbol before and after the heading, like this: ~QUALIFICATIONS~.

Next, go through each line with a fine-toothed comb, looking for small-scale formatting problems. In particular, many forms of punctuation can easily turn into question marks when transitioning to a text format. This is especially common with apostrophes, quotation marks, and bullet points. These should all be corrected.

After making sure that the text version of your resume is as perfect as it can be, save it in Notepad. Whenever you are required to paste your resume into an online system, or include it in the body of an email message, you will have a pristine, problem-free text version of your resume that you can be proud to send to potential employers.



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