In its simplest sense, a resume is a written communication that an applicant sends out to a prospective employer. It is a tool designed to sell the applicant's skill-set to an employer, for a specific job requirement. Resumes can be printed and sent to the employers either via traditional snail mail or fax, or alternatively, they can be sent via email or posted online. While the basic content requirement for online and printed resumes remains the same, the formatting for both is quite different. With more and more employers preferring to look at resumes from their email inbox, it is essential for job applicants to be aware of the resume requirements for online job applications.

Employers typically don't prefer to receive email resumes as attachments because of the fear of viruses. So an email or online resume should only be written in an ASCII format. That means bold, underline or italic formatting should not be used. The resume can be prepared using any word processing tool, as long as the resume is saved in text format. If the program allows it, saving as text with line breaks is a better idea, as that puts a hard return at the end of each line. Length of each line should not be more than 80 characters, to prevent wrapping. Additionally, fonts that have different width for different characters, like Arial and Helvetica, should not be used when preparing an online resume. Courier is one of the fonts that is suited well for online resumes. A 10 point or 12 point font size would be ideal.

A resume, whether printed or online, is scanned for less than 30 seconds, maybe even lesser online. So brevity becomes all the more important in an online resume. At the same time, the all important content should not be sacrificed. To achieve this dual, yet seemingly conflicting objectives, bullet points and spacing are used in offline resumes. On similar lines, generous margins should be used in online resumes as well, keying in equal number of spaces from the left margin to have proper left alignment. However, bullet points cannot be used in an ASCII formatted text, so an asterisk may be used instead of a bullet in an online resume. But at the same time, it should not be overdone. With many formatting elements not available when preparing online resumes, the emphasis should be more on the content rather than formatting. As long as the resume is readable, with enough spaces between sentences and no text wrapping around, it is the content that drives the success of an online resume.

Speaking of content, some of the basic ground rules of offline resumes still apply to online resumes as well. The art of conveying more with less number of words is very important when preparing any resume. Instead of long-winded sentences, always use short phrases, beginning with an action verb. Use specific examples of goals accomplished instead of broad, generic sentences. Pronouns like "I" and "me" are implied in a resume, and need not be qualified separately. Begin a resume with a strong profile summary of 2 or 3 sentences, pointing out the experience, skills and responsibilities that are directly relevant to the specific job. Follow that with work experience and education in reverse chronological order, using specific keywords that are highly relevant to the job and industry. Within each section of the resume, follow a consistent layout. Proofread the resume several times to avoid grammatical and typographical errors.

When emailing a resume, state in the subject line of the email the position for which the resume is being sent. Include the resume as a part of the email content as opposed to including it as an attachment. Lastly, never send the same resume to several different companies, but always tailor it to the specific job and the employer.