NORTHRIDGE — Just as technology has changed the way retailers sell everything from groceries to cars, the digital wave has altered how fresh-faced college grads, anxious to land that first big job, must sell themselves.
The transformation goes far beyond the ability to search thousands of Internet job boards. It extends to things as basic as how you portray yourself to potential employers in a digital world.
While some experts caution that the use of technology has led to an increase in resume fraud--including identity theft--most agree that the changes have opened up new avenues and made searching for a job easier.
"Utilizing electronic technology and the Internet in the job search today is critical," said Vivian VanLier, owner of Advantage Resume and Career Service, a 10-year-old Valley Glen company. "It has become an integral part of the job search process."
VanLier advises all of her clients to craft not only the standard "presentation" resume on paper, but also a highly formatted, scannable one. In this type of resume, the urge to be creative must be suppressed.
"There are stringent protocols," VanLier said. "You use 1-inch margins on both sides of the page and you use a typeface, like Helvetica, where the letters don't touch."
There's more: no bullets, boxes, boldface or other graphic elements. And no indenting.
It may sound plain vanilla, but in today's market, VanLier said, it's what works.
She noted that increasingly, when a resume is faxed or e-mailed to a company, it automatically goes into a large database, accessed by hiring managers within the firm.
"The manager will put in the keywords or search parameters to access the resumes that fit their search requirements. Without the proper formatting and the heavy use of keywords, you can get passed over for a job," she said. "Can it be that your resume will only be seen by a machine? Yes."
Ronit Farkas, campus recruiting coordinator for Arthur Andersen, said about 80% of the resumes the company receives from college students come in digitally.
The worldwide accounting firm was among the nearly 50 companies looking for new recruits at last week's Tech Fest, the third annual job fair for technology majors at Cal State Northridge.
CSUN educators said students, even those in non-tech majors, are becoming more comfortable with the new digital drill.
