If your resume doesn’t impress a computer, it might end up in the trash before a human ever sets eyes on it.
Companies spanning many industries are increasingly using computer screening tools and software, along with traditional human-resources specialists, to scan resumes and decide which candidates deserve interviews.
“I always tell my clients that you have to write your resume for three audiences,” said Chrissy Littledale, client services manager and transition specialist at Hire Heroes USA.
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Those are: the computer program that may take the first look at your resume, the human-resources specialist who will review your resume and the hiring manager who will make the final decision on who gets the job, she said.
Scanning software is mostly used for the sake of efficiency, said Littledale. It simplifies things for employers by narrowing down the number of resumes they need to sift through.
”Most companies only use them as the first line of defense,” she said. “For many of them, it’s practically a requirement.”
Jon Christiansen, chief intelligence officer of marketing research firm Sparks Research, said that companies have been using software like this for at least the last decade.
“You’d be hard-pressed not to find any publicly traded company that’s not using some version of it,” he said. He mentioned Google, Boeing and General Electric as examples of companies he has heard utilize them.
With that in mind, here are 10 tips for veterans on how to sail past automatic resume scanners and land more job interviews with humans.
