THE SCANNABLE RESUME

In today's job market, people aren't the only ones who read resumes. Computers do too.

• There are an increasing number of web sites on which to list your resume, sites that
are visited by companies looking for job applicants that are likely to meet their
needs.

• Companies, especially large ones, often get more resumes than they have the time or
inclination to read. When this happens, they usually have a computer take a first cut
at all this paperwork.

When a company visits the site of an electronic resume listing service or is faced with more paper resumes than it has time to read, it programs a computer to scan each resume. Instead of reading every word, the computer looks for keywords, which are words that describe the things that the person who fills this job will work with and do. The more matches there are between the words in your resume and the keywords on the computer's list, the more likely you are to get a hearing.

Typically, the keywords that the computer looks for are nouns that describe the more important facets of the job. For example, an accounting firm that wants to fill an entry-level position would probably include the following keywords on its list: accounting systems,

Career Power!

accounts payable, accounts receivable, audits, DacEasy Instant Accounting, financial analysis, general ledger, system, One-Write Plus Accounting, payment schedules, payroll, payroll-related filings, sales tax forms, W-2 annuals, and year-end statements.

How do you write a resume that a computer will like? By identifying the keywords that describe the facets of the job you want, then building at least some of these keywords into your resume. Relevant keywords can be found in job description handbooks, classified ads, and Internet job listings. Once youVe identified them, look for places in your resume—your objective, the jobs youVe held, your activities, and/or relevant courses that youVe taken—to incorporate at least some of these keywords. Try to find places where the fit is a good one. Resist the temptation to force a fit, to put a keyword where it doesn't belong. Remember, computers aren't the only ones that'll look at your resume. People will, too.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 1176