Résumé Netiquette
After a recent presentation at St. John’s University Law School, one student approached me and inquired into “best practices” for e-mailing a cover letter and résumé to a prospective employer. With so many communications taking place via e-mail, it’s a good idea to be familiar with some basic rules of netiquette. If you are thinking about applying for a position electronically, keep the following rules in mind:
Avoid cover letters. Summarize your interest in a specific position in a few very short sentences.
Format. Be prepared to send your résumé as either a text (.txt) file or as a Word (.doc) file. Whenever a specific format is requested, make sure you respond to that request using the appropriate format.
Copying and Pasting. Consider copying and pasting your résumé into the body of the e-mail message. This eliminates the need for the recipient to open and download attachments.
Don’t submit multiple copies. Most of your recipients already must deal with e-mail inboxes that over flow. Send your résumé one time only. If you change your résumé, you may resubmit it. Just add a note identifying the résumé as updated.
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