Successful Electronic Resumes Follows These Formatting Guidelines

You understand what your prospective employer is looking for in a job candidate and you have loaded your resume with targeted keywords that should turn up on a search.

However, you still need to make sure your resume is easy to scan and OCR software can capture data accurately. OCR or Optical Character Recognition software extracts words off a scan of your resume. The computer database stores scan results.

Here are some resume formatting tips for best scans:

- Avoid using fancy style fonts that some OCR software may have trouble interpreting. In other words, stick with conventional fonts such as Times Roman.

- Resist urge to emphasize words using underlines or italics. Those words may show up as gobbledygook.

- OCR software reads text and not graphics, so do not include anything too complicated like tables and leading dots.

- Use white space between sections of your resumes so OCR software can determine start and end.

- Make sure you include a separate line that has your name first, then your contact information.

After you have incorporated formatting suggestions listed above, print your resume with black ink on either white or beige colored paper for best scan result possible.

Last Thoughts

You might be most qualified candidate for a job opening, but if your resume does not meet standards of an Electronic Resume, your prospective employer will never read it. Do your self and your prospective employer a favor by making your resume scanner friendly and he will discover that you are perfect candidate for job.

To learn more about writing resumes that grab employer's attention, visit: http://www.How-To-Write-Impressive-Resumes-and-Cover-Letters.com

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Let's say you're walking along a crowded street and you spot a friend of yours on other side of street. Let say his name is Joe. How do you get Joe's attention? You could start jumping up and down and yelling, "Hey! Over Here!" That might work. A better way would be to yell "Hey Joe! Over Here!" That'd be more likely to catch Joe's attention, wouldn't it? Because he hears his name. Personalization increases response dramatically.

Now let's take that thought and apply it to your headline. Adding personalization to your headline is a great idea. Use recipient's name right there in headline. It makes message more personal and increases chance message is read.

Let's take that one step further. Say you're looking for a job as a nurse and you know hiring manger's name is Susan. Susan is understaffed and looking for nurses. So give Susan an attention-grabbing headline to open your cover letter.

How about this, "Susan, Finally! A Nurse Who Can Do More Than Take A Temperature! But don't stop there. Make it big and bold. Remember, it's a headline. Make sure Susan notices headline. Grab Susan's attention.

How could Susan possibly not notice that headline strategically placed at top of your cover letter? And you can take that simple concept and apply it to a cover letter to any hiring manager for any job.

So work on an attention-grabbing opening sentence and in Part II we'll talk about interest, desire, and action.

To Your Extreme Success, Robert A Phillips