Context specific analysis

Abstract

An automatic critique of resumes, cover-letters, and/or other types of documents is provided. The invention employs an input document, a processing device, and a set of rules specific to the document type. The processing device searches the document for specific patterns described by the rules, generates a list of potential errors in the document, generates advice on how to correct the errors and may produce various figures of merit for the document.

1 . A method of performing an evaluation specific to job seeking documents, comprising:
 accessing a resume;   automatically, by a computer, evaluating one or more data items in the resume using criteria specific to resumes in order to identify one or more errors;   automatically, by the computer, storing error information for the one or more errors, the stored error information includes an indication of a type of error and error context information, the error context information includes an indication of where the respective error is in the resume;   for at least some of the errors, automatically, by the computer, converting the indication of the type of error to a user readable form and displaying that user readable form with a selectable user action item;   receiving, at the computer, a selection of at least one of the displayed selectable user action items;   fixing an error in the resume associated with the selected user action item in response to receiving the selection.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the error context information includes an indication of how to fix the respective error;   the selectable user action item is a link that includes a form of the respective error context information; and   the fixing of the error in the resume is performed based on the form of the respective error context information in the link.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the displaying of the user readable form with the selectable user action item is performed in a report.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the displaying of the user readable form with the selectable user action item is performed in a dialog box.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the resume includes multiple sections of different types of data;   the criteria specific to resumes includes global document rules that are not specific to one type of data; and   the criteria specific to resumes includes multiple sets of section rules, each set of section rules defines one or more error conditions in and specific to a subset of one or more sections of the resume, each set of section rules is different from other sets of section rules and is applied to a different sections of the resume during the evaluating.   
     
     
         6 . A method of performing an evaluation specific to job seeking documents, comprising:
 accessing a resume;   automatically, by a computer, evaluating one or more data items in the resume using criteria specific to resumes, the step of evaluating comprises recognizing an identifier of a destination on a global network and using the identifier to automatically test whether the destination exists and is reachable; and   if the destination does not exist or is not reachable, automatically, by the computer, creating a report that indicates that the destination does not exist or is not reachable.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein:
 the identifier is a Uniform Resource Locator.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein:
 the using the identifier to automatically test whether the destination exists and is reachable includes attempting to load a web page identified by the Uniform Resource Locator.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 scanning the web page to determine whether the web page contains content predetermined to be undesirable.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein:
 the identifier is an email address.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein:
 the using the identifier to automatically test whether the destination exists and is reachable includes attempting to contact an email server associated with the email address.   
     
     
         12 . A method of performing an evaluation specific to job seeking documents, comprising:
 accessing a resume in an electronic free form format;   converting the resume from free form format to a plurality of sections of data, with each of the sections having one or more fields of data related to a specific sub-topic of the resume for the respective section, each of the plurality of sections is for a different subtopic;   automatically, by a computer, evaluating one or more data items in the resume using criteria specific to resumes, the step of evaluating includes separately using the criteria to recognize predetermined issues in each of the plurality of sections; and   automatically, by the computer, creating a report that identifies issues with the plurality of sections.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein:
 the step of converting includes accessing paragraphs, parsing the paragraphs into specific fields for a respective section and repeating the accessing and parsing for additional sections of the resume.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein:
 the sections include an Experience section and an Education section.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein:
 after the converting, the resume includes multiple sections of different types of data; and   the criteria specific to resumes includes multiple sets of section rules, each set of section rules defines one or more error conditions in and specific to a subset of one or more sections of the resume, each set of section rules is different from other sets of section rules and is applied to a different sections of the resume during the evaluating.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein:
 the criteria specific to resumes further includes global document rules that are not specific to one type of data and are used during the evaluating.   
     
     
         17 . A method of performing an evaluation specific to job seeking documents, comprising:
 accessing a resume;   automatically, by a computer, evaluating one or more data items in the resume using rules specific to resumes, the evaluating includes using the rules to recognize predetermined issues with visual appearance of the resume separate from substantive content of the resume; and   automatically, by the computer, creating a report that identifies issues with visual appearance of the resume.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein:
 the predetermined issues with visual appearance includes uneven margins, margins out of range, page use, inconsistent indentation, inconsistent fonts, too many fonts, too many colors, punctuation, formatting, and use of symbols.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein:
 the substantive content of the resume includes date information, experience data, and facts about education.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein:
 the evaluating further includes looking for errors in the substantive content of the resume.