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That's not the only difference. Filter software also can't experience a good visceral reaction. A good resume - one that the hiring decider puts on the short stack - has to include what he wants to see. That goes way beyond making sure all the right words and catchphrases are in and exclamation marks are out. The resume still has to be well organized so he doesn't form the impression that you're sloppy. It still has to engage his interest, and that requires a human angle in the resume.
One of the most common things you hear about how to write resumes is to highlight your accomplishments, rather than just give a chronology of past jobs and list your years of experience with specific tools. You're supposed to write things like "saved the company X millions by renoberating the frabjapper" or something like that. Unless resume grinding software has gotten LOTS more sophisticated recently, that kind of information can be picked out by a human reader but probably would not make it through a buzzword filter.
Whether or not a resume goes through filter software, it still is the document from which the hiring decider will get his first impression of you. A resume IS your first impression. When you go in for an interview, that is the second impression. The interviewer will be mentally seeing if you are the same in person as you were in the impression he formed when he first read the resume. So, the resume has to give the reader good reason to form a favorable picture of you as a human as well as a collection of skills inside a skin bag. In addition to listing reasons why you can handle the published job requirements, it has to give the impression that you are organized and clear headed at the very least.
Down off soapbox now. Boring day; very little to do.
> From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: job-hunt weirdness
> To: "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 4:54 PM
> The only difference is that the
> software lacks the ability to experience
> exclamation points. If you have the job requirements
> in hand and your
> resume still can't get past a keyword scanner, some
> instrospection is
> probably in order.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
> >I wouldn't characterize the relationship between
> resumes and screening
> >software that way, but if you have all the
> qualifications and your
> >resume doesn't make it past the filter, you aren't
> taking full
> >advantage of your technical writing skills.
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers
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> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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