Instant Interviews: 101 Ways to Get the Best Job of Your Life

Chapter 6. Getting Your Resume Scanned

Getting your resume scanned favorably really increases the number of interviews!

ATSs (Applicant Tracking Systems) are now being used by almost every major employer. With them, companies can draw on a huge database of candidates without paying advertising or placement fees. The candidates have already applied, and in some cases have even been interviewed. So they tend to be more qualified and interested than ones who are sourced on the Internet.

Keyword Indexing of Candidate Files

If your resume comes in as hard copy, they scan it. The computer may try to read the words (it's called optical character recognition). If it does, it sees keywords (Do 15). Even if it doesn't read, it takes an electronic picture of the pages. Then it asks the offeror to input some keywords.

If you submit your resume online, the first thing the software does is comb it for keywords.

So, no matter how the resume comes in, keywords control its destiny. The computer stores the keywords in its electronic document index. Whenever an offeror wants a resume, she enters a keyword into the search software.

If you have the right keywords in your resume, there you are!

Planning for Scanning

That little scanner is looking for highlights. Things like attributes, accomplishments, names of colleges attended, languages spoken, job titles, locations, and sometimes names of other companies (competitors or ones that have good training).

This is one time it's acceptable to go over two pages. ...