HOW TO MAKE YOUR ELECTRONIC RESUME After viewing this scrolling text and pressing [ESC], you will see three buttons. The first button will copy all of the necessary files to a floppy in your A: Drive and rename certain files so that you can use them later. The second button will do the exact same thing except that it will move the necessary files to a floppy in your B: Drive. The third button will create a directory on your C: Drive called RESUME, and copy all files to that directory. This is the one recommended. You can then copy all files to floppies in either the A: or B: drive and make duplicates as needed. Once you have made your choice, you can then use your word processor or the included text editor (TE.EXE) to make it your resume instead of Mortimer Goldfarb's. Poor Mortimer. Please don't use his resume as an example for yourself. It does do a pretty good job of showing you a couple of different layout examples. If you like one of the layouts, use it for your own. Experiment a little, make use of so-called "white space." To change it from Mortimer's resume to your resume, just use any text editor to type over Mortimer's words. You can of course lay out the text in any way you want. It is STRONGLY suggested that you use the same layout in each category. Looks more professional. IMPORTANT! Set the left margin to 0 and the right margin to 55 in your text editor. If you use the included public domain text editor TE.EXE, press [Ctrl], [Q], & [M] at the same time to set your margins. This is necessary so that the text will show up correctly in the view window. Your resume must be your own creation. You have three main subjects, Work History, Skills & Experience, and Personal Information. You can of course subdivide these three main areas to as many sub-areas as you wish. Notice that Mortimer's Personal Information is divided into 4 sub-areas, Education, Health, Marital Status and Goals. Yours may include Courses Studied, Languages Spoken, Golf Handicap or whatever. It is important that you have a design goal in mind when you compose your own Electronic Resume. There are two main schools on resumes and how they should be composed. The traditional is chronologic, beginning with your last job and following with the next to last and so on. The other is a Targeted Resume. This is the one preferred by most employers today. It includes a work history (dates are not usually given) but is written specifically for the position applied for. That is one of the benefits of your Electronic Resume. Not only does is set you apart from the crowd and convey a technological comfort to your potential employer, it can also be easily edited and revised for EACH AND EVERY DIFFERENT JOB YOU MIGHT APPLY FOR. Back to the technical stuff. Let's assume that you are going to click the button to install necessary files to your C: drive. Once you begin this action, a directory named RESUME will be created on your C: drive and a number of files will be copied. One or two will be renamed. Once this is done, the only thing that you have to do is use your word processor or text editor (TE.EXE) to put your information in place of Mortimer Goldfarbs. THE INCLUDED TEXT EDITOR Is named TE.EXE and is a handy little editor. I wouldn't want to write a novel with it, but it is perfect for quick & easy, down & dirty text editing. To be able to use it at anytime, just copy it to a directory that is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file PATH statement. I have a directory named UTIL that I use for little goodies like this. Once you make the directory, just add it's name to the PATH statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Once this is done, you can now invoke the Text Editor from anywhere, any directory or hard or floppy drive. Just type TE [Enter] at the DOS Prompt. TE will ask what file you wish to edit. Just type the path and file name, if the file doesn't exist yet, TE will create it for you. TE.EXE will be copied to disk along with your other files. Leave it and use it, or delete it when finished. It is not necessary to include it on the floppy or file you send as your resume. If you use your own word processor, be sure that it has ASCII capability. This is the format the text files must be created and edited in. ASCII is also sometimes called DOS text and usually has the file extension *.txt. Most word processors allow you to work with and save files in this format. These FILE NAMES MUST REMAIN EXACTLY AS THEY ARE; HISTORY.TXT, PERSONAL.TXT and SKILLS.TXT. If you change anything in the names of these files, the program will not work. It must be able to call these three files. When you are finished editing them, be sure and save them with the same file name. If you have different files for different jobs, you can save them as HISTORY1.TXT, HISTORY2.TXT, for instance. When you are ready to copy them to a floppy, use DOS's REN command to change the file names back to the original. Example: REN HISTORY1.TXT HISTORY.TXT [Enter] Typed exactly like that, history1.txt is renamed history.txt and can now be used by the program. Do this on your floppies rather than your hard drive, that way your original files (history1.txt history2.txt etc.) will still be intact on your C: drive, RESUME directory (c:\resume). Or, you could call it Tequila.txt if you were applying for a job with a beverage distributor for instance. I don't care what you call it, as long as you name it back to it's original name (history.txt, personal.txt, or skill.txt) before sending it off. The program calls on these specific file names. If you send your resume off with a file named persnl3.txt instead of personal.txt it won't work. You will probably be embarrassed. TEST your resume before sending off. You can also upload all files to Electronic Bulletin Boards etc. If you're cruising the help wanted ads in Compuserve for instance, and see something that catches your eye, compress your resume files, write a note (cover letter) to whomever posted the ad and attach your resume file. Call it HIREME.ZIP (PKzip) or HIREME.EXE (ARC). You WILL make an impression. REVIEW Use A, B, or C to copy needed files to either A:, B: or C: drives. If you are copying files to a floppy drive, be sure you have a formatted floppy in the drive. Use included Text Editor or your own word processor to edit the following files: PERSONAL.TXT, SKILLS.TXT, HISTORY.TXT. THAT'S ALL YOU NEED TO DO. Just type your information in place of Mortimer Goldfarb's. Again, each of these three files are formatted a little differently and it is strongly recommended that you use only ONE format in each of the three files. Make all three center titled, or all three side titled in other words. Once these files are edited to your satisfaction, your resume should be ready to go. Just copy ALL files to the disk of your choice, slap a label on it that tells the user to type GO [Enter] and you're all set up. Just mail it or drop it off wherever you're applying and wait for the phone to ring. If you choose button C (make directory on C: called resume and copy necessary files), after editing the three files you then copy all files to your destination disk. Example: After editing the three text files in C:\resume, at the DOS prompt in the RESUME directory (C:>Resume) type; copy *.* a: [Enter]. This will copy all files to drive a:. Slap a label on it and it's ready to go. Simple. END FILE Don't despair, if nothing else you've learned enough here to set yourself up as an employment counselor. You can also make Electronic Resumes for a fee once you register this program.