Formatting Your Resume on Online Sites Such as CareerBuilder

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The heart of the resume form on CareerBuilder is the description field. The rest of the form is static (i.e., you have no control over how it looks). But with a little planning, effort, and attention to detail, it is possible to make the body of your resume look nice.

CareerBuilder offers two ways for you to do this. The key is the little checkbox in the Resume Description field that says, "Use Fixed Font."

The simplest approach is to leave the box unchecked. This limits your formatting options, but it also gives you less to think about. When you enter text without the fixed font feature, it wraps in the text box like it does in a word processor. The only formatting option available is the hard return (hitting "enter" or "return" at the end of a line). You can break a line (e.g., for a paragraph header), and you can add space between paragraphs by inserting blank lines. But you cannot add space within lines to position text where you want it. Furthermore, when your resume is viewed, it expands or contracts to fit the size of the user's browser window. This may sound good, but it can easily distort the appearance of your resume and make it more difficult to read.

To exercise greater control over the appearance of your resume, check the box to "Use Fixed Font." This turns on a special HTML tag that transforms the standard text box. First, it directs most browsers to view the text in a monospaced font such as Courier. (This allows you to control alignment of text.) Second, it recognizes extra spaces inserted with the space bar. Third, it allows you to define the width of your resume when it is viewed by a prospective employer.

While this increases your formatting options, it also requires you to think carefully about what you're doing. Specifically, it requires you to take a low-tech approach to formatting. (Think, manual typewriter.) Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Use hard returns at the end of every line. The text box only displays 72 characters per line. When you've exceeded that limit, the text will wrap on your screen. This is an illusion. In reality, the lines just get longer and longer. Only a hard return will end a line in fixed font mode.

2. Don't trust your "pasted" resume. If you try to paste a copy of your nicely formatted resume from your word processor, you will likely fall prey to the illusion mentioned above. You must manually enter hard returns at the end of every line, or you will have long, single-line "paragraphs" that will frustrate prospective employers who must scroll back and forth to read them.

3. Use the space bar, not the tab key. In an HTML form, the tab key will move you to the next field in the form. Use the space bar to indent text or to center headings. (Hint: Counting the characters and doing the math will be neater than trying to "eyeball" centered headings. It may only be an online resume, but appearances still count.)

4. Check your work periodically. When you get a few points listed in your resume, hit the "Create" button at the bottom. Then return to My Resumes. Clicking the highlighted title of your resume will let you see how it looks when viewed by prospective employers. You'll not only see if you've forgotten any hard returns, but you'll also save your work. (The posting process can take some time. You'd hate to be almost finished and then lose everything to a computer lock-up!) To finish posting, return to My Resumes, select your resume, and choose the "Edit" option.