Should you or shouldn't you use an online application? And if you do submit your resume online, how can you get it the attention it deserves?

If you want the job…follow directions

Online applications won't go away, employers say. An increasing number of employers want candidates to find job openings on company web sites or Internet job boards; they require online applications; they prefer to communicate with potential hires via e-mail.

Hiring with the aid of technology is a time- and money-saving proposition for businesses. It has maximized efficiency in the candidate selection process.

Employers say they can advertise to a wider, more diverse candidate pool (which means you've got more competition than ever before!), find matches for hard-to-fill positions, easily share resumes of qualified candidates with hiring managers, streamline the hiring process, and tighten the timeline between the need for a new employee and the date the employee starts on the job.

Employers say that using the company's own online application system is the fastest way to get your resume into the right hands. Your focus should be on making your application unique; to avoid its being swallowed up in the technology abyss.

Typically, applications submitted online go directly into the employer's applicant data base. Paper resumes are scanned or keyed into the data base (where a scanner or data processor may add errors to your resume).

A hiring manager who needs to fill a position enters keywords to search the data base and find the applications of the people who are the best fit for the job. Those results become the candidate pool.

Making a big splash in the candidate pool

What does it take to have your bits and bytes bob to the surface in a candidate search?

A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (JobWeb's/Job Choices' publisher) asked employers for their advice on how to make an electronic application outstanding. Here's what they recommend: