What is a Scannable Resume?

Answer:
A scannable resume is a resume that has been formatted so that it can easily be scanned.

In order to be scanned easily, a document must have a simple layout that is not fancy or busy. Fonts need to be simple enough for optical character recognition (OCR) software to recognize. While fancier fonts may look good on paper, they could cause the software to misread words. Font size should also be kept standard, and italics, underlining, and other such formatting might also cause the resume to be scanned incorrectly.

Employers often create a bank of scannable resumes so that they can quickly look through their electronic files and not have to shuffle large stacks of papers. Although OCR software is always getting better, it's a good idea to keep your resume to a format that can be easily and accurately scanned if there is a chance that it will be archived electronically.


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