Creating Scannable Resumes

What does "Scannable" mean?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software scans or looks at your resume and/or cover letter to distinguish every character (letter & number) and creates a text file. Artificial intelligence then "reads" the text and extracts important information about you, such as:

• Your Name
  
• Address
  
• Telephone Number
  
• Work History
  
• Education
  
• Skills
• Keyword Summary (recruiters and managers use scannable resume databases to search for applicants with specific keywords)

There are three ways to use a scannable resume:

• You can mail it (snail mail)
• You can fax it
• You can submit it online.

REMINDER: If mailing or faxing, you should provide a clean, original resume. Scanners can extract skills from most styles of resumes (Combination, Chronological or Functional). A poor quality resume or one with a non-standard format will not be scanned correctly.

HOW TO MAXIMIZE SCANNABILITY

• Use white 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
  
• Do not fold or staple.
  
• Use standard font face (Times New Roman, Arial, Courier).
  
• Use a font size of no less than 12 and no more than 14 points.
  
• Do not condense spacing between lines.
  
• Use all capital letters for section headings.
  
• Do not use italics, underline, shadows, bold and dashes.
  
• Do not use vertical or horizontal lines.
  
• Place your personal information on each page (if resume is more than one page).
  
• List each telephone number on its own line, with no dashes (use spaces instead of dashes).

HOW TO MAXIMIZE RESUME HITS

• Use enough keywords to define your skills, experience, education, professional affiliations, etc.
  
• Use jargon and acronyms specific to your industry (spell out acronyms).
  
• Use concrete words when describing your experience. Do not use vague descriptions.
  
• Your resume can be more than one page, if necessary.
  
• Use common headings such as:
  
  • OBJECTIVE
    
  • EXPERIENCE
    
  • SKILLS
    
  • SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
    
  • ACCOMPLISHMENTS
    
  • EDUCATION
    
  • PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
    
  • CERTIFICATIONS
    
  • KEYWORD SUMMARY
  
  

  Viewing an example of Scannable Resumes may help.
  
  Thank you for using the Free Resume Example website.
  
  

  Creating Scannable Resumes