On-line resume service receives mixed reviews

Many University undergraduates have been known to cringe at the words "job search." And that is one of the reasons the Main Quad, a company based in San Francisco, has started a new, free on-line resume service on the World Wide Web. The "Extreme Resume Drop" is a free service that "streamlines the job search process," according to a company press release. "We are a one-stop shop," Main Quad co-founder Mason Myers said. "Students can quickly find jobs available to students, make a resume and send off their resume," he added. The Web site provides information on companies that are hiring on line, advice on working with recruiters, forming resumes, writing cover letters and a method of directly e-mailing materials to companies. Myers further explained why "Extreme Resume" is different from other resume drop services. This service, according to Myers, sends resumes directly to the e-mail accounts of recruiters, rather than collecting the resumes in a database that recruiters must check themselves. The new service does seem to have some drawbacks, though. Data Communications and Computing Services Executive Director Dan Updegrove entered his own resume into the service and found that all of his styles and fonts were converted to straight e-mail text. "I don't recognize the format anymore," said Updegrove, who will leave Penn on May 1 for a job at Yale University. This straight e-mail text "doesn't strike me as the way to make a first impression," Updegrove added. But Myers countered Updegrove's arguments, saying that "e-mail text resumes are the most versatile because they can be sent via e-mail and handled more efficiently by the companies." He also added that the trend of companies scanning resumes directly into computer programs is "definitely rising." Many companies, especially the larger ones, are now using this scanning process to handle their huge number of resumes. Updegrove explained that "you're wasting your money" on beautiful resumes if the computer programs are just going to change them into straight text. He noted that the e-mailing process offered by the Main Quad is an "easy way to get your stuff scanned by companies." Director of Career Planning and Placement Service Pat Rose explained that CPPS is "changing our resume guides to discuss the differences between hard copy resumes and resumes which are scanned in." Despite his reservations about the resume format, Updegrove found an important feature on the service -- the listing of more than 120 companies by category. This service takes the user directly to the employment home page of a company, rather than its main home page. Updegrove explained that this takes people very quickly to the site where they can get information on the recruiting status of the company. This includes "which positions are available," "what skill sets are desired for a given position" and "where current openings are located geographically," according to information provided by the Main Quad. Rose found this part of the site to be useful but suggested that students send their resumes and cover letters directly to the employers via e-mail, instead of using the service the Web site provides. "My belief is that [looking on the Internet] is not the way to find jobs," Rose said. "[But] I would say this is an interesting site that is worth a visit." Rose indicated that there are several other resume drop sites on the Web that include similar features. But she added that she has found that companies are not very interested in finding people from the Internet because they would rather get resumes from the schools themselves, since they carry a known reputation with them. Rose says she fears that people will use sites like this one and then sit back and think that their job search is over. But Myers explained that "their career center should always be the first placed students go." "The 'Extreme Resume Drop' is a complimentary service to a student's career center," he added. The Main Quad also offers a variety of other services on its home page which is located at "http://www.mainquad.com".