As Applicant Tracking Software becomes increasingly prevalent, you need to know how to get your resume through the system and in front of an actual person.
The dreaded ATS. It’s increasingly the initial sentry guarding the wall which stands between you and your next job. One of any number of available algorithms which scan your submitted resume for specific key words, assign a ‘match score’, and either auto reply a ‘thanks but no thanks’ or forward your resume to a human for final review.
One can certainly argue the merits of a real person doing the initial review (as well as the obvious downsides to automating a process which, in most cases, takes a person a few seconds to complete), but Applicant Tracking Systems are here to stay so you might as well learn how to approach the matter.
Stay away from any info in picture/jpg/etc. form. ATS cannot read text that is in an image.
Similarly, steer clear of frames and text boxes. Machines often have problems reading the text inside of them
Bullet points and paragraphs are the way to go (humans do better reading them, too)
Review the job description or ad carefully - It is the employer’s template. Use that to review your resume for key words and adjust your resume accordingly. The more you match, the greater your ATS score (more on that in a minute)
The job title an employer lists in the ad/description will absolutely be one of their key phrases. If the ad says “Client Service Relations” and your resume lists “Customer Service Representative”, it will not be a match. Change your resume to match their phrasing before you submit. (even little things like Rep vs Representative can make a difference)
Now, about that ATS score. The Applicant Tracking System will assign your resume a matching score. The employer may also have a threshold which needs to be met for your resume to get to human eyes. You will want to score at least 50% or higher. The more you match the employer’s programmed needs, the higher your score…. and key words are the basis of that score. There may also be some factoring of years of experience, but even the most sophisticated ATS ultimately is about what parameters it’s given - and those parameters are key words.
If you’d like to get an idea of how well your resume matches a particular job, you can run a match estimate on this website - just copy/paste your resume and the job description and see what number you get!
I hope this info helps. May the algorithms be ever in your favor!