Killer résumé: How to woo the machines

10:49 AM Killer, machines No Comments

msnbc.com

Using the right keywords several times in a resume can make the machines take notice.

If you are still writing your resume for humans, you’re doing it wrong.

It’s fine if you prep a human-friendly version to hand out in the interview but in this day and age, you need to have one that catches the eye of the machines — before they let you through the gate to speak to the humans.

 “One secret to a killer resume is to use the right keywords to improve your performance with search engines,” said Tony Lee, the publisher of CareerCast.com.

 Remember the days when we learned how to orient our name vertically, add a picture and throw in a column format to really wow ‘em?

 Yeah, throw that out the window.

 Remember when we strove to be concise on our resumes and not repeat ourselves?

 Toss that one on the recycling pile.

 Today, it’s all about wooing the machines.

 And in the same way that you choose your words carefully to woo someone you’d like to date, you have to choose your words carefully on your resume to woo the machines reading it.

So, what’s the machine-equivalent of “Wow, you have the most striking eyes”?

 First, you want to include a target job title and include it up high on your resume, an area favored by algorithms, according to Martin Yate, author of the “Knock ‘Em Dead” book series.

 That sounds simple but it puts you at a huge advantage: Seven out of 10 resume writers forget to include a target job title, according to CareerCast. But don’t just stop there — use all the words and phrases to describe the job you want.

Equally important, include a “performance profile” — also high up — that describes your ability to do the job, CareerCast suggests.

The third thing that should be high up is a description of your professional skills.

“Placing these skills near the top improves your performance with those search-engine algorithms, and provides the recruiter with a series of 'aha' moments as each word and phrase drives home your suitability,” CareerCast says.

And, while it took a long time to teach you to be brief and not repeat yourself in the cover letter and resume, in this day and age of machine-scanned resumes, repeating your professional skills two or three times farther down the resume, where you you talk about your past employment experience, can actually double or triple your resume’s ranking in a search that uses those words, according to CareerCast.

“Employers use keywords to filter through piles of resumes on their desk. If your resume is handed to them without the keywords that match the job requirements, then your application may hit the ‘reject pile’ without a second glance,” said Kerry K. Taylor, who writes the personal-finance blog Squawkfox.

Fox advises finding eight keywords and driving those home.

So, how do you find these magical eight keywords?

“You don’t need a degree in English to find your eight keyword nouns,” Taylor said. “Keyword nouns tend to be the ‘hard’ skills, industry-specific qualifications and job-specific terms employers look for in a job candidate.”

Of course, those are going to be different for everyone. A writer and an underwater welder will have very different keywords.

Taylor suggests looking at the following areas to come up with your keywords: degrees or certifications, university or college names, job titles, product names, technical terms, industry jargon, job-specific buzzwords, company names, service types, professional organizations, software or hardware packages and computer lingo.

A great way to find your eight is to look at five to 10 job listings with similar job titles to your field, Taylor said, and pluck out the words that are repeatedly mentioned. Be sure to include them not only in your resume but also your cover letter.

Taylor offers an example of how that strategy of plucking keywords from job listings works here.

Other important tips for winning over a robot recruiter’s heart: Make sure your resume is text only – no special formatting like bullets, tabs, italics, etc. Choose a functional font such as Arial or Times New Roman in 10 or 12 point font. And use a standard address format. If you have more than one phone number, enter it on a separate line.

Ready … aim … fire those keywords!

This article, "The killer resume: How to get hired by the machines," first appeared on cnbc.com.

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Baguette machines builds French bakers

11:35 AM Baguette, bakers, builds, French, machines No Comments

PARIS - France which is home to the baguette, the savory, sharp staple of a legendary gastronomy. But try just always a fresh in the evening or on a holiday, or even in August when a large part of the country's 33,000 bakeries are closed.

Jean-Louis Hecht thinks, that he the answer.

Open the Baker from the Northeast, which has rolled out a 24-hour automated baguette France donors, much promising warm bread for the hungry night owls, shift workers or anyone else, who don't have time to bring, while their bakery is hours.

"This is the bakery of tomorrow," Hecht, announced the extension in Paris planned to Europe and even the United States "If other bakers not, give that want to niche, they go to decimated get."

For now but is much.

He has only two machines - in Paris, another in the town of Hombourg-Haut in France - each in addition to the own baking trades. The machines take partial pioneers breads bake up and deliver them all for 1 € ($1.42) dampen within seconds customers,.

Despite the extension of the fast-food chains, millions of French remain loyal their beloved baguette: it is the largest breakfast basic - usually with butter and jam - and the preferred accompaniment for cheese, lunch and dinner.

Customer experience is still a back seat to lifestyle rhythms here often. Many shops in small towns and even lower traffic areas of Paris close to noon. And in August, many companies - including bakeries - shutdown for part or all summer vacation month.

Late-night supermarkets are rare, also in Paris. And they are usually considered to be a source of substandard, despair, not the handicraft products from certified Baker.

Pike wants his automated baguette machine, to fill the gaps.

His first attempt two years ago ran into repeated technical problems. Now with the help of a Portuguese engineer and improved technology, Pike developed a new generation machine, which in Hombourg-Haut in the January operation started.

He sold 1,600 baguettes in its debut month, and almost 4,500 in July. If this set, the $50,000 be ($71,000) engine for release within a year, Hecht said.

"If you sell 100 baguettes per day, a margin of 33% (profit) is: it is phenomenal," he said, adding that he has signed up three patents.

His second baguette dispenser in the northeast of Paris began last month.

Pike came up with the idea a decade ago. Er how many French bakers - lived upstairs from his bakery in Hombourg-Haut and customers come would scrounge for a baguette, to hold them until the morning often knocking at his home after closing.

"" My wife said: "We have never, no peace!"so I said, 'we are distributor of bread, and we are alone,' "Hecht recalls."

Now, he thinks that the automated bread dispenser could revolutionize the lifestyle of the Baker, of which many before dawn get up to go to work. With the machine, she could in a little sleep, he says.

In contrast to bakery fresh bread, this baguettes are precooked, a technique, industrial, high-volume bread maker, the vendors French at many provide. Pike calls it "a good compromise". The machine has at the same time in a room cool store approximately 120 baguettes.

Customers get no choice. The machine churns out only one product: a hard crust "tradition" style loaf - a poet and crispy cousin of the standard baguette. Everything not sold out after 72 hours thrown.

Innovators have for many years to develop baguette dealer, but no one has yet managed according to the officials at the Paris bakers Union. Earlier attempts hit problems inventory management, wet or warm bread served or not win great attractiveness.

Which were an associated press Newsroom taste test reviews especially favorable, from "Is it good!", "I never would have thought that it came from a donor" to "The crust is a bit soft."

However, French skeptics were in force.

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"For me it is not even baked bread." It has not kneaded and baked at the point of sale - by definition, it is a machine, "Marc Nexhip of the Union said the Paris bakers, who admits he is not yet nor tried."I am not convinced that the good taste in the course of time can be maintained. Maybe for 15 minutes - but not for several hours. "

"It is certainly convenient - but it's just not quite the same as fresh bread," a 31-year-old pharmacy said Tiphaine Ath, technicians, according to a collection in Paris for lunch. "Is five seconds, and it prepared?" "I have my doubts."

But for Pike, it is with the time change.

"It's like with banks: before each, a plate went;" Now, everyone used ATMs, "he said." "It will be the same with bread: today, everybody goes to the bakery." "Tomorrow they will go the baguette dispenser."

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