Optical Character Recognition (OCR) was developed in the 70's by Ray Kurzweil, a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Although Mr. Kurzweil's intent was to develop a machine (known as the Kurzweil Reading Machine) to help visually impaired individuals read printed materials, OCR technology has since become indispensable in modern business.

 

Generally speaking, what OCR means to the modern job hunter is that initially a computer, not a human being, will be scanning the resume for appropriate content.  Since machines are not impressed by font styles and other formatting enhancements, content is all-important, as is the presentation of your document in a scanner-friendly manner.  With computer technology changing daily, "scanner-friendly" may mean a document stripped of all formatting and enhancements, or one that bears some formatting that can be read by the more modern software.

 

However, regardless of which format is used, content is still essential, beginning with keywords.