RESUME/COVER LETTERS: Transforming Your Résumé to a Text-only Document

Chances are, if you’ve submitted your résumé to a recruiter or a job bank, you’ve been asked to convert it to ASCII format.  ASCII (pronounced “as-kee”) is short for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.  In short, the document is converted to simple text so it can be read by “electronic eyes.”

PURPOSE FOR THE CONVERSION…

With today’s technology, recruiters, job banks, and a rising number of employers make use of a résumé scanning system to input, track, and eventually search incoming résumés.  To read text accurately, a scanning system requires the pica and font to be clear and legible.  Recommended fonts include Courier 10 Pitch, Courier New, and Monaco because they don’t utilize long tails, slant, or dramatize the size of each letter. 

GOING FROM BEAUTIFUL TO BLAND…

Converting a résumé to ASCII format is a simple process, if you know what you’re doing.  Steps to making your résumé ASCII friendly:

STEP 1: Highlight the entire document and change the font to one mentioned above, along with a 10-12-font size

STEP 2: Remove hard returns, bold features, and tabs

STEP 3: Replace bullets with asterisks or dashes

STEP 4: Capitalize headers, name, and any other items that require distinction from the remainder of text

STEP 5: Change margins:  Left 1” Right 2.5”; this allows for systems accepting only 60-70 characters per line; save file with a .txt extension

You’ll know when you’ve achieved ASCII status – the résumé will be plain and generic in appearance.  This version should be used when requested only and not submitted in place of a Word version.   

______________________________________________________________________________________