Creating a Successful Electronic Resume

Resume conversion software processes the information in a resume differently than a human would. Since your resume may need to be correctly interpreted by the software to get the search "hits" that will put it in front of a human, it is more important now to format your resume to look good to the resume conversion program than to make it look good to a person. Here are some tips to follow:

Formatting

Plain is good; fancy is bad. Electronic resume readers only recognize text – not graphics
Headers and footers are confusing to electronic resume readers. Text in headers may be overlooked, so do not put contact information there. Text in footers may become part of the document, so it is better to avoid them.
Omit page numbers.
Text that is embedded in tables may be scrambled by the resume conversion software.
Do not use all caps.
Plain text format is best. While many file formats are acceptable, the most commonly accepted is Microsoft Word format. The best option for resumes created in other programs is to save them as a plain text file with a .txt extension. Hint: Always look at them after converting to plain text to insure that there are no formatting problems.

Content

Always put your contact information first on the page and put each address element on a separate line.
Use common header terms to start your resume sections to make it easier for the resume conversion software to find your:
- Job Objective
- Skills
- Work Experience
- Education
Always put the most important basic facts about your position at a job first, before any descriptive text about the company or an in-depth explanation of your role.
List different positions in the same company as different jobs.
End company names with company words (Inc, Co., etc.) if the company name could be mistaken for a person or a thing.
Put skills into the context of your work history since some resume conversion systems can calculate the total years of experience for each skill. You can still include a separate Skills section, in addition.