Freedom is Knowledge
Scannable & Searchable
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With world acceptance of the information technology revolution, hard-copy resumes may be only the beginning of your job search. Electronic tools such as electronic mail (e-mail), OCR (optical character recognition) scanners, internet search engines and electronic posting capabilities to sites on the internet continue to quickly evolve while becoming a part of the cultures of corporate, business and government environments. Articles and news reports keep surfacing that we are rapidly entering an age of information overload. This is important to remember in your job search because recruiters and hiring managers scramble to manage their time by controlling the use of these tools.
Uploadable Resumes:
On this site you will find a list of popular job banks that offer you employment services while posting jobs and allowing you to electronically upload your resume to their active database. Some services are free while others require a fee because of the implied uniqueness of their site. The advantage of an online service is that many professionals and career services scan these free databases. But there are caveats:
While you can upload your resume to a job bank service, it may not be as simple as cut and paste. Some services divide the posting of resumes into several categories to allow a quick search quickly for a specific skill such as master programming skills in C++, Java, Visual Basic, Webmastering, etc.
Scannable Resumes:
Scannable resumes are resumes that can be provided to an employer in response to a job opening, such as through a newspaper, a recruiter, an online job posting or your contacts through networking.
The purpose of a scannable resume is to allow the employer to add it to their searchable database. You can either send them the resume e-mail or U.S. Mail. But remember that important rules apply when you create a scannable resume for a potential employer. Several resume books can supply these details. Employers will also provide you with instructions on exactly how they want your resume formatted for inputting into their resume database. These instructions can include requests that you not fold your resume or staple it. Therefore, plan to have a few 9" x 12" envelopes on hand.
If you want to see an example of the kinds of category listings that a job bank might show on its resume posting page, go to this page from Columbia University . There you can experience setting up a profile page. While you can easily cut and paste your resume to an e-mail address, an online job bank service may require that the information on your resume be typed in by category. On other sites, you can set up several different resumes based on different categories of jobs you are searching for. You will also find self-guiding questions like, "What are your technical skills?"
Give yourself plenty of time to fill out resumes on your selected job site. Some will require as least an hour and lots of thought.
Searchable Resumes:
While a resume is scannable, it also must be searchable as noted above. "Searchable" means that the appropriate nouns, keywords and acronyms you have selected to appear in your resume must match the terms a hiring manager will use to search the company's database for a potential candidate. This means the key words you are using in your resume to describe your qualifications need to match a company's hit word list. This is why it is important to research information on your target companies. Hoover's online web site provides extensive information on corporations.
Motivate youself to post the best resume possible by clicking on this classic link, Why I Won't Read Your Resume