Before you e-mail your resume in response to an ad or post it on a job site, it’s essential that it be in top shape. So consider the following:
Spelling and grammar impeccable? Check. Experience laid out in easy-to-read format? Check. Margin loaded with subliminal text invisible to the naked eye? Ch —
Uh, come again?
For the uninitiated, the practice described is a trick some job seekers believe can give them an edge. It works like this:
When you send a resume in response to a job posting, these days it’s a near certainty it will be fed into a computer screening program that selects the most qualified candidates. It does this by scanning for certain keywords that match the job’s required qualifications: “customer service experience,” say, or “upper management.”
So the concept is to hedge your bets by considering every possible keyword the computer might be looking for, putting them in the margins of your document in small type and then setting the font color to white. The result: Nobody looking at the document can see the words, but if all goes as planned, the computer will read them and send your CV straight to the top of the pile.
The practice, sometimes called “white-fonting,” has been around for years, although how commonly it’s done is hard to determine. Susan Joyce, the publisher and editor of Job-Hunt.org, says she’s heard of the practice, yet in 15 years of writing and speaking about online job searching she’s never encountered anyone who’s actually done it.
Brad Karsh, the CEO of Job Bound, says while he’s hearing more chatter about the practice in the downturn, he likewise thinks it’s rare that people actually do it, and rarer still that it would be effective. The notion that it’s an easy way in through the back door is “an urban myth,” he says.
But other experts say it can absolutely help a job seeker.
“I have seen it happen, and I have utilized it in moderation in my own resume,” says David Wright, a career strategist and resume expert in Atlanta. “If you make sure you have those keywords, you’ve got a much better shot at making that short list.”
Teresa Bustamante, a senior management recruiter who’s tracked down many execs for Wal-Mart and other companies, agrees that white-fonting can be effective, and says she’s encountered job seekers who’ve utilized it. Once a resume is called up, she may not notice that the sought-after keywords are not actually in the printed text; instead, she may take note of the applicant’s high grade-point average or Fortune 100 experience.
“It gets you in the pew,” she says. “And the majority of individuals are never going to know.”
Or will they? Brian Platz, the chief operating officer of Silk Road Technology, says most up-to-date screening software — like the programs his firm provides to corporate clients — will uncover such a ruse in a hurry. His programs grab text from a document and sort it into a new format, where any previously invisible words will appear plainly as “a whole bunch of gibberish text.”
“It’s pretty futile,” he says. “If anyone has tried it, they’ve probably lowered their chances.”
But Chandra Bodapati, the CEO of eGrabber, whose ResumeGrabber software has been used by hundreds of companies, says the kind of basic keyword-matching software most companies use won’t uncover white-fonting — and he personally recommends it, likening it to search-engine optimization.
“Does the guy whose results come up highest in a search engine have the best content? No, he’s gamed Google,” he says. “You have to do what the times and the technology demand.”
And if your attempt at subterfuge does get uncovered, some note that it may not be such a bad thing. Some recruiters may admire your resourcefulness, notes Bustamante. Also, as Wright says, “You show that you’re technically savvy.”
He and others make a crucial distinction, though: You’ve got to have the skills or experience your invisible words are touting, or something close. Otherwise, you might succeed in getting someone to eye your resume, but it’ll just be an extra stop on the way to the reject pile.
“Ultimately,” says Bodapati, “you’ve got to have the content.”
chris.erikson@nypost.com