Good help is hard to find. You shouldn’t be. Today’s job market is becoming increasingly competitive. More and more young people attend college and are more qualified to attain the high-paying, corporate level jobs. Companies are becoming larger and larger, and recruitment for their positions has become a full-time job.

This is mind, it’s just smart to take every measure to make your skills and assets as an employee as easy to access and process for an employer as possible. An excellent way to do this is by making your resume, the professional image of yourself, on the web for prospective employers to see.

• An e-resume functions when it is functional. Unlike the traditional paper resume, which is the most impressive when printed on quality paper and laid out elegantly, you’ll find a good e-resume is hardly distinguishable from the next in layout and aesthetics. It’s all about the content.

• An e-resume affords less time than the traditional resume for personal stuff. Because the typical electronic recruiter reviewing your resume will review thousands of resumes per week, (s)he must be able to analyze yours in less than a minute. Therefore, your personal hobbies and interests aren’t going to be nearly as relevant as your work experience. They will in fact detract from your presentation.

• Let’s face it; if your resume is published on the World Wide Web, more employers and people in general will be able to access your information. Granted, this is the point. You have probably chosen to promote yourself online because of the incredible amount of access employers have to your professional image. Many career sites offering resume services have privacy policies as well. Simply keep in mind that you must take the good with the bad with the Internet; there’s no real assurance that your information will be safe in every situation.

• E-resumes are instant. Prospective employers can view your information at any time, day or night. An e-resume truly cuts down on the valuable time formerly spent in getting the resume to an employer, them getting back with you, and so on.

• E-resumes get to the right places, most of the time. Not only does an e-resume reach many, many more employers than possible with a traditional resume; it can be specifically routed towards employers in your field, and once it’s online employers can easily transfer your information to other employers who may be interested in your work. The e-resume is a true networking tool simply because it is flexible and can be moved around the Internet.

The most common and recommended method of marketing yourself online with an e-resume is to make use of one of the many career websites, such as Monster.com or Hotjobs.com. Many of these sites are free and offer career-oriented services such as personal email notification when a possible job matching your experience and search criteria becomes available.

Here is a run-down of the most popular of these sites. All are free of charge and can be accessed by typing “www” in front of the listed addresses.

• You can have job opportunities emailed to you when they become available.
• You can access career-related advice like how to make a cover letter, interviewing, tips on equal opportunity, work abroad, working for a non-profit.
• You can search from a list of nearly 400,000 U.S. jobs.

• You can search for jobs based on type of work.
• You can find job listings in Canada and Australia.
• You can request the website’s free newsletter.

• You can access 37,399 jobs.
• You can pre-register for upcoming career events.
• This company is dedicated to companies trying to find hard-to-hire candidates.

• This site is an Information Technology Job Board.
• The site offers an Announce Availability tool; it allows you to immediately announce when you can work.
• You can search for jobs by specs like location (domestic and international), whether you’ll commute or telecommute, and more.

Cover Letters
E-Resumes
Locating Professional References
Resume Basics
Resume Content and Structure
Sample Resume
CVs