The electronic resume is beginning to have great
impact on the way resumes are created. Organizations are storing
resumes in computer databases and unless your resume follows some
of the rules which are quickly becoming standard, your resume may
not work well for you.
The principles of writing a top quality resume have changed little
in the past ten years. Three overriding constants hold true:
- A resume needs to convey to an employer that you are highly
capable
- A resume should effectively "sell" your work experience
- The resume should present a clear, concise picture of you and
your qualifications... and be easily scanned.
Technology, of course has changed dramatically in these past ten
years. With the greater capabilities of desktop computers has come
the growing use of scanners and optical character read (OCR) software.
This technology has enabled employers to take resumes which arrive
through the mail, scan them, and place them into computer databases
for access at a later time. For such companies, file drawers full
of resumes have become a thing of the past.
Technology changes the way people do things, and the expanding
use of computerized resume databases is changing the way resumes
are created. To understand these changes you must understand how
resumes are scanned and then accessed. When a resume arrives at
an organization which scans and stores resumes, it first passes
through an electronic scanner which in essence takes a picture of
the page. It then must be analyzed by the optical character reading
(OCR) software to change it from an image, to letters and words
that can then be stored in a database and accessed. It is stored
as ASCII (pronounced ASKEE) text which is a universal computer language
that all computers can understand. Problems can occur in both the
scanning and reading stages. If there is not a good contrast between
the paper and letters the scanner may not take a good picture of
the page. This could occur when a resume with black ink on dark
blue paper is scanned. If the letters are too small or if an unusual
font has been used, the OCR software simply cannot recognize the
letters and the resume will be unreadable.
Scanners and OCR software are constantly improving so the newest
high end hardware and software may have little trouble with typical
resumes. The problem is that many organizations are still using
four year old hardware and software, and you have no way of knowing
who is state of the art and who is not. What this means is that
the great looking resumes that people create with their computers
and laser printers, will need to be modified.
Once resumes have been stored in the database, they are retrieved
through the use of key words. A manager looking for a programmer
might select such key words as Programmer, B.A. Computer Science,
Visual Basic (a programming language), and Windows NT (a computer
operating system). These key words are selected because it is believed
that virtually every qualified person will have those words appearing
in their resume. Given these parameters, only those resumes which
have each of those words or phrases will be selected from the database.
One by one the resumes will appear on a computer screen and the
key words in the resume will be highlighted. A person will skim
through each resume to determine which people appear to be good
candidates. When a highly qualified candidate pops up on the screen,
the person reviewing the resumes hits a key which causes that resume
to be printed out. Those not so qualified will simply remain in
the database awaiting future openings for which they may be better
qualified. Once a suitable number of candidates is obtained they
will likely be reviewed by a department manager who will select
ten candidates out of a group of perhaps 20. Those ten will be called
and will probably go through a short screening telephone interview.
Those who pass that test will be invited for a face to face interview.
Observe what has happened. The inclusion of the right key words
in the persons resume caused the resume to be selected from within
the database. The resume was then reviewed by someone. At that point
the actual experience the person had, and the quality of the presentation
of that experience, determined whether the resume was printed out.
If your resume does not contain the right key words, or if some
of the key words can not be read, it will not be selected from the
database for viewing. Also, if the resume does not present your
background well through high quality writing, you will not be viewed
as a strong candidate.
Although it seems like extra work to create a scannable resume,
it will take little extra time if you follow a few simple suggestions.
Following the instructions should lead to a resume which is scanned
and stored with one hundred percent accuracy. |