Dana Bell

My work search continues to take up much of my time and attention as recent posts have suggested. During the next week I may spend some time with Emuser. Emuser is an Access resume database that I developed several years ago. I developed Emuser as an aid to applying for jobs in multiple fields. It's time now to expand what it can do.

Decades ago I established a standard form for my resume that included the standard application information about my work history, plus a separate section of Skills, or as my resume lists it, a Summary of Qualifications. The resultant resume for a job as graphic designer, though styled the same, will be drastically different from a resume for a job as an administrative assistant, or a computer programmer.

I can't say how well this summary works in getting a job or an interview, though I have been told it has been helpful by some of the people that have interviewed me. The separate summary takes at least a page and with plenty of white space, my resume is usually at least 3 pages, taboo for the 1-page resume purists.

The magic of Emuser is that for any job I can select which employment to include (depending on relevancy), education, certifications, select items to include in my Summary, and add other items, such as Projects and Activities. I also have a way to record the applications I've made with details about the job and the company. If you know about Boyce-Codd normalization you probably know how it has to be setup.

I'm now adding a Kudos section, and a cover letter composer that accompanies application information. My next major step, other than some cleanup and forms creation, is to make it multi-user, so John Jones can record his own information in it. Once that is working, I can convert it to an on-line database. Who knows, I may be able to create a system that meets the needs of companies and individual seeking employees; one that bridges the gaps of the current systems that I've criticized here. Of course, it won't fix HR deficiencies.

If you are a programmer, you know how simple that is to do, and of course, how much time that will take to implement and debug. Programming is easy today, but it takes a lot of work to do it right.