The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. It needs to be catchy (but not tacky), impressive (but not long), and most importantly: well-organized (yet still creative). Everyone has a style preference in writing a resume, so I will not get into that here. The purpose of this article is to provide some high-tech resume tips you can apply to any resume. However, you can access my awesome high-tech resume template along with lots of useful notes when you subscribe to my e-mail list. So do that now. It’s ok. I will stay here and wait for you to come back.
Use Google Docs
If you are not already a user of Google Docs, you should go register for an account right now. Google Docs’ benefits are massive, and to get the most out of this article, you will need a Google Docs account.
Key benefits of Google Docs
- Always have a backup
- Export into .pdf and .doc file formats
- Secure collaboration (mom, mentor, a friend at xyz-company recommending you)
- Share settings allow you to keep documents private or accessible to others. For this article, you will want to set your resume document-sharing settings to “anyone with the link…can view.”
Embed links in your resume
Wherever possible, make your text link out to a reference. You can add links easily by selecting the text you want to convert into a link and then pressing the command+k keys. A small dialogue box will pop up, and you can type or paste a URL into that. Click “apply,” and the text is now a clickable link.
Here are some things to consider linking:
- Employer websites
- E-mail addresses of references
- Certificate PDF
- Published work
Be sure to style your links attractively. I prefer to style my links like regular text so that the document is attractive when printed. Though doing so means you can’t visually see the links, it makes for a nice subtle detail recruiters notice when they float their cursor over the document.
You should also utilize a URL shortening service, such as bit.ly, to track how often and when each link gets clicked. This data can be super useful to you during your job pursuits.
Make it easy to send e-mail
This is a little bit of a web developer’s trick, but it’s easy to do, and I think it shows you to be innovative. Here is the link that I have on my resume for my contact e-mail.
mailto:[email protected]?subject=I%20Read%20Your%20Resume!&body=Hey%20Judson!%20I%20was%20reading%20your%20resume%20and%20wanted%20to%20get%20in%20touch...
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mailto:[email protected]is the link base, signifying the link to send an e-mail to an e-mail address. -
?subject=this extension to the link base allows you to customize the subject line for the draft e-mail, which is created by clicking the link. -
%20tells the computer to insert a space between the words. -
&body=this allows you to provide a custom start to an e-mail. I’ve gotten great feedback from recruiters for giving a template to the e-mail they are going to write. It’s something no one else is doing, which helps me stand out from the crowd, which is the #1 goal of a resume.
Download Links
Here is the URL to my Google Docs resume. The jumbled mess of letters and numbers says “Judson’s Resume” to Google Docs. The extension at the end means that rather than open the document, download it in a specific file format:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AtH76fNIOcY7qPpdwEZK9Cv8fu4axDvZGHIymPJUSJw/export?format=pdf
- export?format=pdf
- export?format=doc
- export?format=txt
| Try it out: download my resume: PDF | DOC | TXT |
Though you can download different formats, the PDF format is the best bet for maintaining the formatting style.
Give this a try and let me know your thoughts! Be sure to subscribe to download my high-tech resume template. Do you have other best practices you can share? Please leave a comment below to provide feedback or reach out to me directly at @judsonlmoore!
