How A Header In Your Resume Can Give Your Job Chances The Boot

Many job seekers use a header in their resume.  This usually includes their name and contact information.  While this can help your resume look good in printed form, it’s really not the best way to format your resume. 

Here’s why: Headers & footers are often not read properly by the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) used by many recruiters and hiring companies.  While technically the headers can be read by most of these Applicant Tracking Systems, the problem is that it usually takes an extra step to make sure the information in the header is captured and stored in the ATS.  The real issue is that most recruiters just don’t have the time to take that step.  Think about it – when a recruiter or hiring company places an ad for a job, particularly in today’s economy where competition for each available job is high, they’ll get hundreds or even thousands of resumes from job seekers applying for that job.  So they’re overwhelmed and simply won’t make the time to take that extra step, particularly when they have tons of resumes from other qualified (and less-than-qualified) applicants. 

So if they don’t take the time to make sure the information in the header (and footer, for that matter) is properly imported into their Applicant Tracking System, here’s what happens: Your resume will be imported into their database, but guess what? It will be missing that key information contained in the header & footer sections of your resume.  So while your work history, experience, education and other fields will be in their database, it will be missing the most important information: how to contact you. So even if your resume highlights the skills and experience that are a perfect match for the job, you won’t get a chance to interview because your contact information won’t be in the database. 

This holds true for lots of other formatting, including tables, text boxes, and so on.  So using these tools may make your resume look great on paper, it dramatically reduces your chances of having the information in those fields in a recruiter’s database.  So you end up missing out on opportunities that you would otherwise get a chance at getting. 

Here’s what I suggest: use standard formatting to make your resume look as good as possible.  This means no headers, no images, no tables, no footers, no text boxes, and so on in your resume.  If you insist on using these tools, use them for a resume that you will print out and take to your job interviews, but make sure you submit resumes online and via email that do not use these formatting tools. 

The moral of the story: Jobseekers – don’t put your contact info into the header!

David B. Wright is Chief Marketing Officer and Partner of CareerOyster

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