Showbizjobs Blog

Here's a simple suggestion that may help your cause.  Open the most recent version of your resume, and change the title of it to “first name_last name.doc” and click save.

People use many variations of file names to keep track of their own document. So ‘Paul_Buss.doc’ often becomes ‘paul buss revisedResume2009.doc’. This is good for keeping things in order on your computer, but once submitted to a company for consideration that tag stays with it.

Many companies use systems which parse your resume data and store it using their own naming conventions. Parsing systems also have a list of characters which usually cannot be translated into their data scheme, such as “&%#@)>:” so if your resume file is named ‘pbuss_fin&acct.doc’ you run a high chance it will be kicked from their system.

Over half of today’s recruiters are not using parsing systems, so when they file responses from a job posting and want to find it again, they typically are manually searching for documents in order of the candidate’s name.

Increase the likelihood of not getting lost in the system…name your resume properly.