Trick: How to Use Technology for a Winning Resume

These days, it seems like everything you see now has technology involved. Searching for a job is naturally no exception. Even though the traditional techniques remain important, technological advances make finding applicable job postings much more practical. But beyond actually searching for a job, you can also use technology to your advantage in a number of other ways to enhance your possibilities. Among them are the following:

• Your Resume - Many companies appreciate the convenience and simplicity (not to mention environmental friendliness) of receiving their job applications via email. Because of this popularity, it is important that you make sure that your resume is prepared for the digital world. It should therefore be available in the following formats:

• Traditional Resume Format: This is the standard paper resume, printed out from a computer, properly formatted, professionally written, and eye-catching.

• Plain Text Resume (also known as ASCII): This is a very simplistic version of your resume that can be sent using your computer. Since this resume format is so simplistic, you should place your focus on making its content shine, as opposed to trying to make the resume look flashy. Essentially, the point of this format is readability. Any computer system can read a file in this format. However, this universal ability also takes away your ability to use special formats such as italics, etc.

• Scan-able Resume: Many companies appreciate receiving this kind of resume because it can be read on paper and then easily run through a scanner that has character-recognition functions. This allows companies to read your resume when you submit them, as well as file them in searchable databases in case future positions arise for which you may be qualified. Be sure that you fill this type of resume with keywords so that it's easily searchable within the database.

• Your Personal Resume Website - If you're in an industry where portfolios are a part of your job searching process, you will find that a very convenient way of sharing (and showing off) your skills, accomplishments and abilities is by creating a personal resume website. This doesn't need to be a very complicated site but it should display your work favorably. It can include articles you've written, artwork and photography you've created, and/or software you've developed. You can even use such a site to include other features such as your letters of recommendation.

• Digital Portfolio - Just because you have a large and impressive portfolio doesn't mean that you can afford to make a tremendous number of copies to go with each of your job applications. Nor does it mean that you want to struggle with carrying around a tremendous, oversized binder, or a huge case filled with your samples. These days, you can create a portfolio that is small enough to fit in your briefcase several times over. This is because you can create a digital copy of your portfolio and place it on a CD that can be used in the CD-ROM drive of your prospective employer's computer.

Not only will you open many doors by using all of the tools available to you for finding jobs but you'll also keep those doors open to you by demonstrating to your employers that you are a forward-thinking candidate who takes initiative, has many practical skills and who thinks outside the box.