Electronic Resume Tips

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

07 May 2008 01:08 PM

These days, the electronic resume is the way to go. Most employers don't want to see a nicely typed or printed resume on paper. Instead, most resumes are now filtered through electronic systems that are the first line of filling a job position. These electronic systems sort electronic resumes, ranking them and discarding those that are inappropriate to the job title all before a human actually looks at the resumes. Job listing sites, such as Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com have been making use of electronic resumes for years, but now electronic resumes are being requested all across the board from head hunting companies to smaller firms.

Here are some tips to make sure that your resume rises to the top of the heap instead of getting lost in someone's database.

Use simple formating. In fact, it is best to remove all the formating you can in your resume by saving it as plain text or text only file. You can then open it back up in a simple word processor, such as SimpleText, WordPad, Notepad or TextEdit to insert basic formatting, such as spacing and flushing everything to the left with no indents. When your file has too much formating, the electronic resume systems may not be able to read the file, and it may be rejected.

Most of these systems sort resumes based on keywords, so make sure that you include these keywords that are relevant to the job position.

I have some more advice on using keywords. Don't flood the resume with the same keywords over and over again. You won't push your resume up any higher. Also, some systems only read a limited number of keywords, such as four. Make sure that your most relevant keywords appear first. Keywords work best in a resume when they are nouns. A "Network Specialist" will be more likely to be noticed than would someone who has "experience in running networks."

Check back again for future articles about making technology work for you.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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