Resume Action Words.info
 
Home Resumes Interviews First Job Grad School Med School Law School Biz School

Formatting A Scannable Resume

Formatting a scannable resume is similar to formatting other types of resumes because the recipient is the primary focus of your work. Because you're dealing with a human and non-human recipient mix, you'll want to ensure your resume is legible by scanners and the people who use them.

Scanner-Friendly Fonts

Since scanning equipment may differ from company to company, it’s best to err on the conservative side when choosing fonts that will be easily read by the software.

Therefore, avoid all “designer” fonts that are difficult for a human being to read. If anything, the scanning software will have even more difficulty.

It’s best to stick with classic fonts like Arial, which is san serif, or Times New Roman, a popular serif font. Other good choices are Garamond, Bookman, Courier New, and Century Schoolbook.

Font size

Don’t make the software work extra hard to read all the characters in your resume, as this may lead to mistakes and missed keywords. It’s best to use a font size between 9 and 12, depending upon the font.

Effective Formatting

Unlike resumes being read by a human audience, scannable resumes must be easy to read by computer software. Therefore, it’s essential to stick to basics and avoid formatting headaches.

Your best choice is to:

  • Be certain all type is flush left.
  • Put section headers in ALL CAPS.
  • Rather than using dashes (--), dots (. . .), or tildes (~~~), separate sections with white spaces.
  • Do not use tables.
  • Do not use graphics.

Samples

The following are “classic” scannable resumes in which all formatting enhancements have been removed. These resumes can be read by all OCR software. With technological advances, scanning software is available that will read more formatted resumes. However, unless you're sure that the employer you’re targeting is using this new software, it’s best to stick with an easy-to-read format that emphasizes keywords and content.

An example for an Executive Chef's resume

An example for an Attorney's resume

These sample resumes were created by ResumeEdge.com - The Net's premier Resume Writing and Editing Service.

Back to RESUME CENTER ->

The essentials of a scannable resume include:

 


 
©2007 Action Info. All Rights Reserved.