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Survival Guide: Electronic Resumes
These stories were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on January 27, 1999.
All rights reserved.
You know that it takes hard work, perseverance, and
patience to find a job — but these days, a PC and modem don’t
hurt either. According to Business Wire the Internet has approximately
11,000 job listing websites with 1.2 million jobs. With this wealth
of options, looking and applying for a job online can be overwhelming.
Susan Guarneri, a New Jersey-licensed career counselor, will
be giving her advice on "Electronic Resumes" on Monday, February
1, at 7:30 p.m. at a free meeting of the Job Club at the Unitarian
Church, 50 Cherry Hill Road. Call 609-771-1669 or E-mail resumagic@aol.com.
"If you don’t know what you’re looking for, no amount of looking
will help — only career counseling can do that," Guarneri
says. "And even if you do know where you are going, out of those
11,000 sites you could be glued to your monitor 24 hours per day,
and not get through them all. But there are reliable, tried and true
sites with good openings." Here are some of Guarneri’s picks for
best job pages:
linked to 550 college career centers. You need to get the password
from your college career office, which is great because it forces
you to go in there. This site has 50,000-plus entry-level positions
posted, and employers know to post there." (Alumni are also welcome.)
from most major newspapers and is searchable by profession or geographic
area. Over 500 newspapers contribute for a total of over 300,000 listed
jobs.
region, it has been online since 1992.
Other suggestions:
the U.S. Department of Labor.
but they may save you from the hassle of being called by headhunters,
recruiters, or temporary employment agencies after unwittingly posting
on one of their pages.
Fine, you’ve found your sites — now what are you going to post?
Each site should tell you how they want the resume. Some may require
it as E-mail; others may require different sections of the resume
to be cut and pasted into an online form. (Do not send the resume
as an attachment, says Guarneri, because of the justified wariness
these days about computer viruses.)
Although electronic resumes are not fundamentally different from traditional
ones, Guarneri recommends that you create multiple resumes: have a
"people-friendly" version with graphics and a little more
content, and a computer version. There are two critical elements specific
to creating an electronic resume.
First is compatibility. "It is crucial to save it as an `ascii’
text file — very likely, it will be largely unreadable otherwise."
To avoid other compatibility problems, use these safe formatting tips:
These come out cleaner and fax well (Times New Roman, specialty fonts,
and special effects like underlining or boldfaces should be avoided).
attracting the eye.
space. But do not use centered headings. Depending on the browser
or program used to open the file, it could end up anywhere.
resumes makes them different, although the content is basically the
same as a paper resume. But because they are seen on a computer you
must keep in mind that the reader will view one screen at a time.
And scrolling through computer screens is a more difficult way to
find a pertinent bit of information than flipping pages.
What that boils down to is keeping content brief and to the point.
Remember too, that the first screen the viewer will see is smaller
than an 8 1/2" x 11" page. On that first critical screen, don’t waste
precious lines with your address or phone number.
At the top, type your name. Then type the position you are looking
for — for example, "Entry-level PR." Next, skip a line
— use the white space — and write a summary. The summary may
be the most important part of your electronic resume.
"This is where you have to get good — this is the teaser to
get them and make them scroll down to the rest of the resume,"
says Guarneri. "In this section write about your degree or where
it was from, what experience you have, what you can bring the employer.
If you are an experienced professional, show in this section that
you can be up and running with that company as soon as you are hired."
Also, check out the hottest trends in your industry. "Employers
posting on the web are not dinosaurs!" Guarneri points out. Write
that you are computer literate if you are, and list specific programs
— make sure these are the latest versions, and not obsolete programs.
Pack the summary full of "keywords" that gracefully and semantically
fit. Keywords are usually nouns particular to the industry that computer
search programs will look for. If you are not sure which keywords
to use, check out advertisements in the field. Keywords need to be
used only once for them to register. It is a good idea to use a synonym
after that instead of repeating a word, because you never know exactly
what a company’s search program is seeking.
Only after the summary should you insert the full body of the resume
the way it would traditionally look. Sometimes you will want to include
a brief cover letter, especially if you are sending your resume to
a specific person in a company.
"Provide a link to a webpage only if it is a visual portfolio;
for example, if you’re a photographer, graphic designer, or writer,
and your website showcases samples of your work. Ask yourself, is
there a purpose to this website? If an employer is interested enough
from that teaser page, you won’t need an additional page. In fact,
some people who create so-called resume webpages often have personal
information on them that is very inappropriate."
Guarneri mentions one caveat: "Privacy and confidentiality. You
have to be very careful about what you put out there because all that
information is available to anyone. I wouldn’t put down my street
address. It’s not a good idea to only list an E-mail address, however;
some employers will want to pick up the phone and call.
"Use the Internet as one more job-searching tool — one of
several you should be using. "Networking is still the number one
method. You still need to approach companies, write letters. But everything
you do normally, you can do on the ‘net. A lot of people don’t think
of the other ways."
With 14 years experience in career counseling, Guarneri works as a
corporate trainer and adjunct faculty member at Mercer College. Her
path to career counseling was not straight: "Because of good grades,
I studied something I was good at but the opposite of my interests
and personality," she says of her biology degree from the University
of Wisconsin. Later she stumbled into her current career and return
for a master’s in counseling from Johns Hopkins.
That experience of making a wrong career choice lends perspective
to her work. "I am one of those people who did not have good guidance.
I’ve been through it myself; I know what you’re going through!"
— Vickie Schlegel
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Recruiting Strategy
Montgomery Knoll-based Mirronex Technologies (609-683-3766)
has based its latest recruiting strategy on an Internet gambit. A
banner on Yahoo touts the offer: E-commerce specialists who apply
to Mirronex through http://www.hotjobs.com can get a sign-on
bonus of a BMW 2.3 Roadster Z-3. The new hires get the use of the
leased car for the time they stay with the company, and after about
three years they can keep it.
Why hotjobs.com? "They target experienced IT professionals,
the type of individuals we are looking to hire," says Stephen
Neish, director of strategic business development at Mirronex.
"And we have had a long relationship with Hotjobs, so we could
get a co-marketing arrangement up and running."
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New Web Guide
If you want to get serious about looking for a job —
or posting a job — on the World Wide Web, a hard-copy directory
to job-hunting sites will help. Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler
of the Kendall Park-based MMC Group, have published the fourth edition
of "CareerXroads, the directory to the 500 best job, resume and
career management sites on the World Wide Web" ($24.95, 410 pages),
and the price includes updates E-mailed to you. To order call 732-821-6652
or fax credit card information to 732-821-1343; E-mail: mmc@careerxroads.com.
Through Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations
the authors offer two day-long Internet workshops for HR Professionals
at major cities including Iselin, Long Island, King of Prussia, and
Manhattan (at the New York Public Science, Industry, and Business
Library). The workshops cost $595 or $1,090 for two; call 212-340-2871.
"We are branching out," says Mehler, "and we have now
developed software that allows the job seeker or recruiter to instantly
select the sites and specifics of their search and find jobs or resumes
live and in real time. We have already sold the system to Johnson
& Johnson, Unisys, and First Union. We really believe that job seekers
will be using the Web more to find their next position."
Download Career infoFinder and Resume infoFinder for a 14-day free
use period: http://www.infoGist.com/careerxroads.htm.
Select from a preinstalled lists of top sites and enter your search
criteria. "Results appear instantly," says Mehler. "You
can start viewing while the software continues to search. And results
are rated for you starting with the closest matches."
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E-Commerce:
Kandu and Verio
The most common error for companies developing a website
is to throw money at the website without being sure of what they want
and how they will use it. So says Will Clark, director of marketing
and sales at Kandu Inc. "In the right situation it can be an incredible
money maker. E-commerce is just exploding. It’s here, and it’s here
now, but it is just another marketing tool."
At a Technology New Jersey seminar on Tuesday, February 2, at 8 a.m.
at the Hyatt, Clark will discuss "Multimedia Interactivity, the
Next Wave in E-Commerce." He will be joined by Jack Foster,
territorial manager of Verio, based on Independence Way. Foster will
discuss "E-Commerce Web Hosting: Does It Matter Where I Go?,"
Cost: $30. Call 609-419-4444.
Based on Kuser Road in Hamilton Square, Kandu does software development,
Web sites, and video games for kiosks, Internet sites, trade shows,
corporate training, and public access media (609-587-7973; http://www.kandu.com.).
Clark has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from Arizona
State, and has 15 years experience in "the dimensional marketing
industry," trade shows, museums, and exhibits. Disillusioned by
having the plug pulled on two years of work ("the client put a
hold on the project") he obtained a retraining grant through the Job
Training Partnership Act, earned a computer graphics certificate,
and joined Scott Terry, the founding president of Kandu, last year.
The 10-year-old interactive multimedia company made its reputation
in the museum world by doing programming for the Edwin Schlossberg
(ESI) design firm in New York. For the Sony Wonder Museum in New York
City, at 56th Street and Madison, it designed more than 100 work stations.
For the Chicago Symphony Orchestra it has just finished an innovative
music education facility, the Echo Experience, in which visitors explore
such topics as the nature of sound and teamwork in performance at
15 work stations.
"With a keyboard in the shape of a musical instrument, you interact
with the exhibits. Then you plug your instrument into the sound wall,
and what you and the other participants have learned are combined
into a symphony," says Clark. "You actually make choices to
mix sounds."
Your website certainly won’t be as fancy as a museum’s, but Clark
promises "to take the essence of your company and make it into
an interactive experience." The opportunity that most companies
overlook, he says, is to offer something to the surfer who comes to
the site — and to change the offering frequently.
"A designer will come to us with a concept or design and we program
it so it is webcentric," says Clark. For IBM, Kandu is doing a
training program that works both as a CD-ROM and on the Internet.
"IBM is saying that all training in the next few years is moving
to the Internet," says Clark. "They know the bandwidth is
not there yet, but they are moving it in that direction."
His "high-end" example for the seminar will be the redesign
of a website for Industri-Matematik (IM), a Swedish customer-driven
supply chain software and consulting firm, http://www.im.se.
The site supplies research data, has investment information, and has
a client bulletin board service.
Another high-end client is Nike, for whom Kandu programmed
a kiosk used in its NikeTown stores, including the one in Manhattan.
This kiosk electronically and digitally scans your foot to measure
it and asks questions about your lifestyle. "It formulates the
essence of what you are and what you should buy," says Clark.
All the features (except for the footscanning) are now on the website,
His "low-end" example comes from a Trenton client, Home Rubber.
"We have a couple of fun things that make it more than a static
billboard, such as a truck running over a hose to show it doesn’t
collapse."
Kandu has partnered with Verio to provide programming solutions for
Verio’s Internet clients, and Foster will tell about Verio’s services.
An alumnus of Case Western Reserve with a master’s degree from College
of New Jersey, Foster taught English and worked in the insurance industry
before moving into computers; he came to Verio in 1997.
Verio, hedaquartered in Colorado, bought Global Enterprise Services,
the regional Internet Service Provider founded by Sergio Heker,
and it also bought about 40 other companies. Verio is, says Foster,
the largest website hosting company in world by a factor of seven,
and the largest domain name registration company; the prognosis is
that Verio will be profitable by June.
When you compare apples to apples, most companies’ prices are similar,
Foster says, so choose your ISP provider based on the size and purpose
of your website: "A lot of people are looking for The Right Solution
and there is no such thing. It is contingent on your size and growth
pattern."
— Barbara Fox
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Digital Content: D.C.
<B>Kenneth R. Kay, a leader in developing digital
content for such areas as electronic commerce, government services,
health care, and education, will speak at Princeton University’s Woodrow
Wilson School on Tuesday, February 2, at 4:30 p.m. in Robertson Hall,
Bowl 1. His topic: "The Evolving Role of the Lobbyist in Modern
Washington D.C." Kay founded Infotech Strategies and is the executive
director of the CEO Forum on Education and Technology. He helps CEOs
define their visions for various areas of information technology.
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Trade with Mexico
Sign up for a United States trade mission to Mexico
City and Guadalajara by Friday, January 29. Business owners pay $1,950
(which does not include air travel, hotel, or meals) to go with Aida
Alvarez, the head of the United States Small Business Administration,
from March 8 to 12.
Call Tanya Galery-Smith at 202-205-6720 or Richard S. Ginsburg
at 202-205-7429.
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Capital Conference
Even the experts have a difficult time keeping track
of all the ways to find financing. Should you go to a bank? Directly
to the Small Business Administration (SBA)? The New Jersey Economic
Development Authority (EDA)? The venture capital community? Or should
you just max out your charge cards?
Probably none of these is the right answer. Probably you should hire
an expert. But to get an idea of the array of possibilities, the New
Jersey Technology Council offers a Capital Conference at the New Jersey
Hospital Association on Friday, January 29, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Scott Baxter, president and CEO of Icon CMT Corp., will give
the keynote. Cost: $140. To register call 609-452-1010.
Mike Nelson will present what is offered by the institution
to which you are most likely to turn to first: a bank. Nelson is executive
vice president of PNC Bank, which received the SBA’s Diamond Award
for approving the most SBA loans last year. The East Brunswick-based
bank approved 157 loans for $10.9 million dollars to New Jersey small
business owners in 1998. PNC Bank also approved the most loans to
women-owned businesses and veteran owned businesses. The bank approved
33 loans for $1.4 million to women-owned businesses and 14 loans for
$523,200 to veteran-owned businesses.
Nelson will tell how to finance technology companies with the help
of Progress Bank’s Steven Hobman and Silicon Valley Bank’s Ash
Lilani.
John Martinson of the Edison Venture Fund discusses private
equity with Victor Boyajian of Sills Cummis et al, Gerard
DiFiore of Reed Smith Shaw & McClay, Perry Pappas
Ingersoll, and Ned Prentice of BT Alex Brown.
Exiting via a sale or merger is the topic for John Aiello of
Giordano Halleran & Ciesla, along with Brendan Gougher of PricewaterhouseCoopers,
James Hunter of Janney Montgomery Scott, and David Tarver
of Bowthorpe Inc. Buchanan Ingersoll’s David Sorin tells about
IPOs with Brian Hughes of Arthur Andersen, Mark Kuperschmid
of NationsBanc Montgomery Securities, David Proctor of Janney
Montgomery Scott, and Tom Werthan, CFO of Emcore.
Steven Cohen of Morgan Lewis & Bockius plus Jeffrey Dunne
of PricewaterhouseCoopers cover growth by acquisition. James Marino
of Dechert Price & Rhoads talks about joint ventures and strategic
partnering with executives from two pharmaceutical firms, Ronald
Pepin of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Lewis J. Shuster
Learn about state tax credits on a panel moderated by Caren Franzini,
executive director of New Jersey Economic Development Authority, with
Michael Batelli of Arthur Andersen; Lee Evans
Jersey Division of Taxation; Pat Lang, CFO of Sensar; and David
Shipley of Dechert Price & Rhoads.
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Bad & Ugly Banking
Controversial cases in banking law — some now being
heard by the New Jersey Supreme Court — could radically change
pricing or mortgages or seriously affect those who perform notary
public services. Michael Horn will discuss these cases in a
half-day seminar on recent banking law development, "The Good,
The Bad and The Ugly," sponsored by the New Jersey Bankers Association
(NJBA), set for Thursday, January 28, at 9 a.m., at the Summit Bank
Training Center, 2 Center Drive, Jamesburg. It will address the issue
of how 1998 bank regulatory, legislative and judicial developments
will affect banks in 1999 and beyond. The half-day seminar costs $95;
call 609-924-5550.
Two Princeton-based attorneys, Robert M. Jaworski of Reid, Smith,
Shaw & McClay in Forrestal Village and Dennis R. Casale of Jamieson,
Moore, Peskin & Spicer on Alexander Road, join Horn, of Newark-based
McCarter & English.
Jaworski will talk about federal regulatory and legislative development
as well as developments concerning credit unions and field of membership.
Jaworski is a consumer compliance law attorney who advises banks and
other lenders about how to comply with consumer credit and consumer
laws that are currently on the books.
He also will discuss a new bill to restructure banking, securities,
insurance, financial, and service industries, as well as different
issues that arise concerning electronic delivery of banking services,
such as marketing services on the Internet.
Casale, who is also general counsel to New Jersey Bankers Association,
will talk about pending state legislation and how it affects banks,
ranging from proposed laws to limit banks from engaging in the insurance
business, to laws that would omit the imposition of ATM fees.
Casale will address what the courts have said about programs that
banks have initiated to require thumbprints in connection with cashing
checks by non-customers as well as laws that would require banks to
turn over account information to the state to track down parents who
owe child support.
Horn is an alumnus of Princeton, Class of ’61, and Harvard Law; he
was the state banking commissioner from ’82 to ’84 and state treasurer
from ’84 to ’86. He will discuss MetLife versus Berger, which involved
an attorney filing suit against a mortgage company for charging late
fees on a commercial mortgage. The case is currently pending before
the New Jersey Supreme Court and could radically change the way mortgage
rates are determined. "The appellate division ruled that late
charges and default interest rates were invalid because they were
deemed to be penalties rather than liquidated damages, the legal term
for a damages agreed upon in advance," says Horn.
"Though this was a commercial real estate case, that doesn’t stop
the Supreme Court from putting in language about a consumer-type loan,"
he says. His firm has filed a "friend of the court" brief
with the New Jersey Supreme Court, representing various financial
institutions: "We believe it is in the best interest of the consumer
to have the appellate decision overruled. Those who pay their mortgages
on time pay one rate and those who don’t pay a higher rate. This is
differential pricing. If the bank can’t charge you a late charge,
all rates will go up."
In the case of Turner versus First Fidelity Bank, the appellate court
ruled that banks could pass on attorney review fees to the mortgage
applicant. The New Jersey Supreme Court is hearing the case now, and
Horn has filed a brief on this one also.
The Buchholz bankruptcy case, decided in August of last year, has
implications for anyone who has ever used the services of a notary
public. In this case, a bank officer who was also a notary public
who did not actually witness a bank customer signing a mortgage. Although
the customer admitted signing it, the mortgage in effect was wiped
out in bankruptcy court.
— Ernie Johnston
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Job Shadow Day
On Tuesday, February 2, national Groundhog Job Shadow
Day, middle school and high school students will "shadow"
sscientists, doctors, architects, meteorologists, firemen, graphic
designers, government employees, as they go through a normal day of
work. The organizers include America’s Promise, the youth development
organization headed by General Colin Powell, the National School-to-Work
Opportunities Office, Junior Achievement, and the American Society
of Association Executives (U.S. 1, December 23).
Princeton area companies that are hosting job shadows this year include
Janssen Pharmaceutical, Bovis Construction, The Hibbert Group, Bristol-Myers
Squibb, and the Journal Register Company. To join the group call Junior
Achievement at 609-989-8989 or National School to Work Office at 410-810-7910.
Students do both observation and hands-on work. To ensure that both
students and their workplace hosts benefit from this project, the
organizers have developed extensive guidelines for participating businesses.
From "Greet your students as a business associate" to "Thank
the students for visiting you today."
To help employers understand and deal with students effectively, the
organizers offer tips on student behavior. Middle school students,
for example, have a strong need for approval, are greatly influenced
by peers, and can quickly become humiliated when singled out in social
situations.
High school students want to be valued, won’t listen to people who
are perceived as lecturing or "saving" them, and think it
is "cool" to be passive. Many high school students will not
demonstrate their curiosity, even if it is functioning at a high level.
most often that surprise is a joyous occasion. If you genuinely regard
learning as a joint activity between you and your students, your experience
will be memorable.
— Teena Chandy
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Donate Please
Ride herd on arts sponsorships by purchasing a table
for 10 at the annual gala for the American Repertory Ballet and Princeton
Ballet School on Saturday, April 10, at 7 p.m. at Forrestal. Call
Dorothy Cummings at 609-588-5876 or Debbie Lescroart
at 609-921-7160 by Sunday, January 31, for a sponsorship reservation.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
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