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Make the Cut When Scanned by
both Humans and Computers.
When resumes are scanned by humans, decisions about who to add to the yes pile and who to eliminate are being made. Depending upon the recruiter you have about 20 seconds to make the cut on the first human scan. That means your work history must be easily determined: that is to say, clearly shown. When resumes are scanned by computers, they are being searched to find possible candidates. It doesn't matter whether your resume resides in a hiring company's data base or in a job search engine, it must get found for you to have a chance to win the job.
To maximize your chances of getting in front of the hiring manager, your resume needs to make the cut in both situations. Follow the resume tips below to achieve your most wanted response.
- Start with your current or most recent position and work backwards chronologically as you list your work history.
- Include both the month and year on your employment dates. List the name of the company, your position title and the beginning and ending dates of employment as you detail your work history. (In some cases showing the company's industry is also advisable.)
Resumes that show just the year your employment started and ended without the month tend to be perceived as less than forthcoming. If you want to de-emphasis your dates list them on the right margin with the company name and your title on the left.
- Use bullet points for each responsibility and plenty of white space. Recruiters or other resume screeners are most used to seeing this and it makes the resume easier to scan by the human eye.
- Emphasize the responsibilities and accomplishments that support your career statement or your resume target. Don’t include every responsibility for every job you list.
- Avoid acronyms or industry jargon. Human resource screeners or recruiters may not recognize these terms as being relevant to the position requirements. Note too that keywords and industry jargon are not the same thing.
- Use resume keywords
that are shown on a particular job ad or position posting. This will make your resume scanner friendly for computers. If you’re preparing your resume for distribution at a career fair or to companies that may not have a current opening, use keywords specific to the functional role you're most interested in.
- Present a stable work history. Having consecutive positions that last, at the very least, one and preferably two to three years each is what most employers mean when they say “stable”. Some look for even longer tenure in each position.
You want the human scanner to view your history as stable. Showing the reasons for jobs of short duration or gaps in employment is a good idea if you can do so concisely and in a positive way. For example:
Having summer jobs while you’re in school shows you understand what it's like to be accountable for work related outcomes. The short duration of these positions is understandable. In this case, it’s better to state the reason for short tenure directly than to depend on the recruiter‘s ability to read between the lines and figure it out.
These guidelines are centered on the most common type of
resume format
the chronological resume. However, these resume tips can also be effectively adapted to a combination resume format.
Here's even more help and information on
how to write a resume.
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