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Which organizations electronically scan resumes
Rest assured that indents, columns, and centered text are perfectly fine, so use those techniques if you wish.
Bonus Check
Thanks to today's excellent personal computers, word-processing programs, and printing capabilities, its easy to version a high-quality resume that passes the scrutiny of both the resume scanner and the human eye.
The Final Years
As I mentioned earlier, to make sure you get credit for your degree accomplishment, you need to list it in language that the computer will understand. That means that instead of listing a range (example: B.A., 19941998), you should list just the year of completion (example: B.A., 1998).
Job-Hunt Hint In a nutshell, a good Keyword section says who you are and what you have to offer. Even to a human reader of your resume, the Keyword section tells the whole story.
Black on White Is Right
High contrast between the type and background is the name of the game when it comes to easy scanning. Follow these two guidelines for achieving the highest contrast possible:
- Use black ink.
- Print on white paper--I mean real white, not gray or buff.
By printing black ink on white paper you should have no problem passing the OCR test.
Into the Database
Never use a condensed font for your scannable resume. Condensed fonts squeeze together the characters, and the scanner may have trouble distinguishing where one letter ends and another starts.
Career Casualty Once the scanning and character recognition process is completed, the applicant's files are entered into the resume database. As mentioned earlier section, depending on the sophistication of the system, the entry may include database files of candidate information, a text file of the resume that's ready for a keyword search by any hiring manager in the organization, and/or an electronic image file of the original resume.
Looking Scannable
Philip Baker was applying for a high-tech position and felt certain the employer would use a scanner to process his resume. He created the following resume with these features:
- His name is the only item on the top line.
- He created an extensive Keyword section that included technical and business terms, as well as words that describe his personal attributes.
- His simple formatting includes Palatino type, which can be read easily by a scanning system.
- Two pages of material captured all the data he thought a hiring manager might search for.
Job-Hunt Hint
In order to create a sense of separation between two sections on your scannable resume, insert an extra space instead of a solid line and shaded bar. OCRs interpret white spaces as dividers between blocks of material.
Career Casualty
When printing your scannable resume, never use colored ink or colored paper because they make it harder for the scanning system to pick up text.
Job-Hunt Hint
When applying to an organization that uses resume scanning, avoid sending your resume via fax. Faxes sometimes blur the print, which could gum up the work s when the OCR goes to read the resume.