Submitted by janesays on Wed, 02/14/2007 - 3:17pm.

When employers post a job online or in the newspaper, they expect to receive a large volume of resumes in response to their posting. Employers might review more than 100 resumes an hour, spending only about twenty to thirty seconds on each one. Because resume screening can be a monumental and monotonous task, recruiters have developed strict screening procedures to weed out resumes that do not meet their requirements.

In today’s online recruiting world, most employers use your resume to screen you out, rather than to choose you for their interviewing pool. It is more and more important that you put together a resume that will land in the “accepted” pile, rather than the "rejected" pile. Here are some good suggestions as to how you can improve your chances of making the "accepted" pile:

• Make sure that you tailor your resume to each job to which you are applying. At first, this may seem like a daunting task, but the more you do it the easier it will become. Employers receive general resumes all the time, and if you do not tailor each resume to the specific job, it will probably land in the reject pile.

• Include interests that are relevant to the job. If you are applying for a job in finance, for example, don’t include your knitting interests. Try something intense and high pressure, like whitewater rafting or base-jumping.

• Highlight your achievements rather than just your duties. Many employers have a good idea what skills and duties a job requires, so make yourself noticed by highlighting your achievements. Instead of saying that you managed a budget of $1 million, tell your prospective employer the results of your superb management of that budget. Say something like "Reduced operational costs by 20 percent while increasing quality part output by 5 percent."

• Never put personal information on your resume. Employers do not want to know if you are 5’6”, 135 pounds, if you are single, if you are a Sagittarius, etc. Putting personal information may also bring out discrimination in potential employers, as many employers are looking for a specific type of individual (like a single man who can travel a lot) that they cannot legally disclose, but they may secretly use in their hiring decision.

• List a conventional email address, and use standard formats to submit electronic resumes. Do not use that strange email that you had in college (we all had one) like partyman@gmail.com. It is best to have an email that is as close to your name as possible, and if you are submitting an electronic resume, make sure you use a standard format like Word, or a PDF file. Try to find out the exact format in which the company would like your resume, and submit your resume in that format. Employers are notorious for rejecting resumes that are not compatible with the format they desire.

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