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How Do I Create an ASCII Résumé?

Question

Help! I saw a job posting on a Web site and it said to send an ASCII version of my résumé. What is ASCII and how do I do I create an ASCII version of my résumé?

Answer

ASCII (pronounced "AS-key") stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It's another term for plain text and it can be read cleanly by any computer, which is why so many employers ask that you have one available.

It's easy to convert your résumé from Word, WordPerfect or other word processing software to ASCII. Here's how:

1) Save your résumé as text only. This will eliminate most of the fancy formatting that separates an ASCII document from word processing documents.

2) Open this new text-only version of your résumé using Notepad or your computer's text editing software. Do not open it with word processing software.

3) Read over your résumé to look for stray characters that don't translate into ASCII; they usually appear as black boxes in the text. In most cases, you're looking for smart quotes and long "em" dashes. Replace these with "dumb quotes" (" ") and double hyphens (--). Once the text looks clean, save and close the file.

That's it. You now have an ASCII version of your résumé to send by e-mail to any employer who asks for it. Good luck!

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Article by Kevin Donlin of Guaranteed Résumés, a Minneapolis-based résumé service.
Since 1995, Guaranteed Résumés has provided résumés, Internet résumés, cover letters and job searches for clients in 44 states and 23 countries.

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