The Software Contractor's Guild

How to enter your Resume

Finding the resume update form
We assume that you have already signed up with the Guild and have a member id. When you signed up, the program created an Information Profile page with the information you provided and a template for your resume page.

Entering your resume
Assuming that you are starting with a Microsoft Word document and you are using WORD2000 or later here are the instructions:

  1. Prepare your resume.
    Some things in MS Word do not convert to HTML. Images, headings and footings, and tabs are some of them. So you will need to make a copy of your resume and remove these. If you used tabs or multiple spaces for alignment you will have to replace this with tables. Tabs and multiple spaces are interpreted as a single space in HTML.

  2. Convert to HTML.
    In MS Word, select [file] and then [Web Page Preview]. This will start up a ie browser with your resume in it. select [View] and then [Source] to create an HTML text version of your resume in Notepad. Select everything from the top down to just before the </body> at the very bottom of the page. copy it into your paste buffer.

  3. Locate the Resume update form.
    Go to your Information Profile Page on the Guild. Here you will find, near the bottom, a menu where one of the items is "|Modify Resume|". If you click on this, it will ask for your password, then give you a form containing the current HTML contents of your resume.

  4. Paste in your resume
    In this form, select from the top down to just before the <hr> tag near the bottom (use the scroll bars on the form). We keep the footing at the bottom so that you have a link back to your profile page.

    Paste your new resume on top of your old resume that you just selected. It may take a while to do this and nothing seems to be happening....be patient.

  5. Submit the form.
    If your resume is rather long and you don't have very much memory available on your machine, it might not be able to paste all of it. Be sure you got it all before you submit it. If you cannot paste it all, email it to us and we will put it in for you.

  6. Check that it worked.
    Return to your profile page. click on "View The Contractor's Resume". Then click on the Refresh button on your browser. You should see your modified resume.

Formatting considerations for your HTML:
If you want to create your resume directly in HTML, here are some suggestions.

  • Start with an HTML heading "<HTML>".

  • Between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> html tags, put in your name and title. This is the text that will be put in the title block of the Web Browser's window. The keyword search program will also use the html title tags to construct the index.

  • The body can be anything you would like. This begins with the <BODY> tag. Here is where you sell yourself to your clients. This is normally your resume but other formats may also work very well. Be creative as you wish. Obviously, obscene or offensive material will not be acceptable.

  • Use the tag <BR> to insert a line break. Use the tag <P> for a paragraph break. Extra spaces and tabs are ignored.

  • You may use html anchors to reference other web pages on the net. A good example would be a home page that you maintain elsewhere or references to your clients' corporate home pages.

  • If you do not include your entire resume, be sure to include a list of "key words" that describe your abilities. The Keyword index program will scan only the Information Profile page and your resume page. It will not scan offsite pages.

  • We provide a few Images such as balls, lines, and icons that you may use in your resume. However, do not put too many images in your page. Clients will want to print or email your resume and usually the graphics make it more difficult.

  • At the bottem, Include the following (replacing nnnn with your member number):
    <hr>
Member number: nnnn<br>
Additional Contact information is available on the
<A HREF="nnnnI.html">Profile Page</a>.<br>
<FONT SIZE=+1>Software Contractors' Guild
(<A HREF="http://www.scguild.com">www.scguild.com</A>)
<FONT SIZE=-2><br><b>
<A HREF="../copyright.html">Copyright</A>(c) 2005 Software Contractors' Guild,
Post Office Box 257,Nottingham, NH USA 03290-0257</b></FONT>
</BODY></HTML>
    This link back to your information page is very useful because many searches are performed by the search engines and they may not arrive at your resume via your information page.

    The copyright notice gives you some small measure of protection against unauthorized redistribution of your resume. You may include your own name in the copyright notice.

    • NOTE: Do not provide references in your resume. Your clients may not like their names and phone numbers posted on the internet for the public to see. Anyone that is interested in you will contact you directly for references.

    IMAGE LIBRARY

    I want to say this again because some of you missed this ---- We do provide a few Images such as balls, lines, and icons that you may use in your resume.
    Go to The Contractors' Guild Home Page
    Copyright(c) The Software Contractors' Guild, 3 Country Club Dr., #303, Manchester, NH USA 03102