In our high-tech era many organizations tend to substitute human beings, who used to screen resumes, for resume-tracking computer systems. Especially, when applying to a large, reputable company, the chance that your resume will be scanned by such a system is higher. How to deal with this? It’s easy! Just make your resume computer-friendly:

• As a more traditional copy, the computer-friendly resume should start with your name. Nothing should be put before and after it on the line.
• Also, separate your contact information into different lines, use parentheses in the phone number;
• Use only a laser jet printer and white paper. Send only original printed copies. A photocopy or faxed copy may come out blurry and is difficult to scan. Thus, even if you fax your resume, always indicate in your fax cover letter that you will follow it up by emailing or mailing a scannable version;
• While mailing your resume, include an unfolded, one-sided copy, printed on standard size paper;
• Avoid underlining, italics and fancy fonts. Never use any graphics/pictures;
• Double column and other fancy layout will make scanning difficult, if not impossible;
• In order to save a person scanning your resume both time and effort, use paper clips instead of staples;
• When your resume is scanned and stored in the company’s computer system, it needs also to easily pop up, when the system is looking for someone with your qualifications. To be searchable, your resume should contain key words which are used to label your job. Such key words normally compose a qualification summary of your resume.

Technology is not always perfect and scanning abilities of tracking systems may vary form company to company. If you are not certain of bounds of the system used by the company you apply to, you had better be on the safe side and take proper account of the above guidelines. Little experiment – convert your resume into a plain text format.  If it still looks ok and all different sections in your resume are still definable, than most likely a computer will read it easily.

However, the necessity to create the computer-friendly resume does not eliminate the need in a traditional version. The computer-friendly resume is usually boring in appearance and may not appeal to a human being. In the end, your goal is to catch a recruiter’s eye. That’s why another more traditional version should be prepared for a personal interview or you may email or mail it to the recruiter, explaining that your initial copy was created for resume-tracking purposes only.