You've found your dream job, and your résumé is polished and ready to go. Before you hit the "send" key, however, you pause and wonder — will a human ever read it?

These days, a computer probably will be first to see your credentials and accomplishments as more companies use software to filter and sort job applications and résumés.

Job hunters may feel like they're engaged in a David-and-Goliath battle with anonymous, indifferent computer databases that lock them out from prospective employers — and they may well be.

Technology-savvy applicants should be aware of how these systems work so that they can prevent their résumés from being lost in the cybershuffle.

First, follow the employer's instructions to the letter. If the company tells you to include a reference code in the e-mail's subject line, do it.

If you skip such details, "your résumé may go to no-man's land," said Colin Kingsbury, head of media and public relations for HRMDirect, a Boston-based company that produces this kind of software — known as "applicant tracking systems" — for businesses.

You also want to ensure that your résumé is readable. Skip fancy fonts and use plain text. Kim Isaacs, Monster.com's résumé-writing expert and director of ResumePower.com, suggests drawing up two résumés in plain ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format — one that is suitable for e- mail and another for pasting into Web forms. If you are e-mailing the résumé, the text should have forced line breaks at 65 characters or less; if you are using a Web form, don't use forced line breaks. As a test, e-mail a copy of your résumé to yourself to see how it looks.

And make sure it didn't get blocked as spam. If it got caught in your spam filter, chances are it could get stuck in others. You should also check your own spam or "junk" folder regularly for correspondence from prospective employers — there is a chance your e-mail program might label a message as suspected spam.

To get noticed by the computer, and by a human recruiter, your résumé needs to contain the right keywords. These are the words that recruiters and hiring managers use as search terms. They could be particular job titles, academic credentials, skills or names of specific computer programs.

Karen Hofferber, a senior résumé writer at ResumePower.com, recommends taking a few days to do research on an online job board, and doing a nationwide search for a position you are interested in.

Read those job postings from all over the country and make note of the terms, acronyms and expressions that appear frequently. It will give you an idea of what recruiters are looking for.

Use their terminology when describing your qualifications — though only if you actually possess those skills.

Do not rely on vague job titles, Kingsbury said. If you were an account executive at your old job, try to add more detail. Instead of writing "account executive," you could specify "account executive, software sales." Or if you were a programmer who specialized in Java, put "Java programmer."

In recent years, some job seekers have gone so far as to place a large block of keywords at the top of their résumé, much to the chagrin of human resources professionals.

But just loading up your résumé with buzzwords won't get you far. Search tools have become more sophisticated, so the frequency and location of the keywords is becoming increasingly important, according to Kingsbury.

But "if you really know Photoshop, you may want to mention it more than once," Kingsbury said.

And above all, be honest. Don't fudge your background. Hofferber said you will "almost certainly be caught in the end."

After submitting your application, be prepared to answer questions that prospective employers use to further screen applicants. Typically, the questions are straightforward and based on qualifications spelled out in the job description: how many years of experience you have in the field, for example.

After you have submitted your résumé to a prospective employer or job board, remember to update it as often as necessary.

"Renewing your résumé frequently helps it rise to the top of the pile," Hofferber said.

But the best way to get your résumé read by a living, breathing person might be an old way, so don't forget the old-fashioned practice of networking.

"The old wisdom is still the best," Kingsbury said. "Find a way to get your résumé on someone's desk or in their hands."