You can respond instantly to an opportunity via e-mail, but, if not done properly, your e-mailed resume can become electronic junk mail or be deleted before it's even read.

Do not attach your resume to an e-mail message:

• It may, or may not, get through to the addressee because of the different networks to be transited.
• E-mail messages with attachments may be deleted without being opened.
  • Attachments may contain viruses, particularly if they are Microsoft Word documents.
  • In large companies, internal systems may stop e-mail attachments from entering the company network to protect against virus infestations.
  • Some recruiters are reluctant to take the time to open an attachment.

So, what does work? Copying your resume into the body of your e-mail message works. See the step-by-step process below.

NOTE: Before you e-mail your resume to a potential employer, test it by sending it to as many friends and family as you can, particularly those using an ISP different from the one you use. Have the recipients forward the entire message back to you. Check to be sure that it comes through cleanly and readably.

Step-by-step process to e-mail your resume:

• Open up your ASCII resume file (see Creating an ASCII Resume and Polishing Your ASCII Resume if you haven't already converted your "pretty" resume).
  
  

  Note: this resume may not need to be "cyber-safe" if you are responding directly to a potential employer, but use your cyber-safe version if you are responding to a recruiting company or a blind ad that doesn't tell you who the employer is.

  
  
• Open up your e-mail software or go to the web site you are using for e-mail (e.g. HotMail.com, Yahoo.com, etc.), and click on the "new message" or "create message" button.
  
  

  Hint: Leave the "To:" field empty (or put in your own e-mail address) until you are ready to send the message. Keeps you from embarrassing yourself by sending the message to the employer/recruiter before you are ready. When your message is ready, put the appropriate addressee in the "To:" field of your unsent message, and hit the SEND button.

  
  
• Make the message Subject interesting! You need to quickly capture the attention of someone who is probably looking at a full e-mail inbox, seeing only the date, subject line, and sender of each message. If they don't know you (and assume that they don't, even if you have spoken with them), they won't automatically read your message. (If you do speak with a hiring manager or HR rep, ask them what you should put in the subject line so that they will recognize your message.)
  
  

  Hint: "My Resume" isn't going to grab the attention of a busy person. Make the subject relevant to the person who will be looking at it, e.g. "Help Desk Representative with 3 years of consumer products experience," "Job # [use the position identifier from the posting or headline from the ad] Applicant," etc.

  
  
• Create a "cover letter" message just as you would in print (don't be long-winded).
• If you have created a Personal Resume Web Page that is available on the web, you can point to it (use the complete URL, including the "http://" at the beginning and most e-mail software will interpret it as a clickable link).
• Type your "signature" at the bottom of your "cover letter."
• After your signature, add a couple of blank lines and the text notation
  ========= Resume Text Below ==========
  
• Add 2 more blank lines, and then start your resume.
  
• Cut and paste the text from your ASCII resume into the body of your e-mail message next, making sure that each line is no more than 60 characters long
  • To help with the measurement, make one line 60 (or 50 or 45) characters long by typing an X 60 (or 55, etc.) times.
  • Don't let any lines of your resume be longer than that line of X's.
  • Use spaces not tabs for indenting.
  • Use capitalization and lines of equal signs (see above) or dashes to add some "underlining" for emphasis
  • Don't try to center or justify the text.
  • Be sure to delete the line of X's before you send your message.
  This should keep the margins and indenting of your resume neat.
• Don't accidentally add contact information (your name, address, phone numbers, and "real" e-mail address).

Test Before You Send to an Employer

Test your resume by sending your resume to yourself, first, after you have gone through the steps above. Then, send it to friends who hopefully use a different Internet Service Provider and e-mail software to thoroughly test your resume. Particularly if you use AOL, test your ASCII resume by sending it to someone outside of AOL..

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