Q: I am applying to jobs online using a formatted Word document of my resume. I am having some trouble with my resume data and its readability. When I copy and paste the resume into job websites, the resume doesn’t completely calibrate the bullets and the information looks off. Just wondering, have you ever heard of this? ~ Jill M., Chicago, IL
A: Yes, I hear about this problem all the time! It has to do with the type of resume that you are copying and pasting into the job websites. If you try to copy and paste a formatted Word document of your resume that contains tables, bolds, italics, and colors, the document will have readability issues. Applicant tracking systems and job websites cannot electronically read this type of formatting in a Word document, so this will significantly impact the data integrity of your resume during the transmission. In order to have all of your resume content readable while keeping the overall data integrity of the resume, you must use a digital resume. A digital resume is an electronic version of your resume in text formatting that is readable by multiple platforms. Any time you copy and paste a digital resume into a job site, the data will always be 100% readable.