How to Beat Résumé Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

How to Beat Résumé Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) How to Beat Résumé Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) How to Beat the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) In 2019, the majority of companies are using resume reading robots called Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to streamline hiring processes. With only 25% of applications passing the test, its crucial that you follow these tips to optimize your resume for ATS. You feel crushed you think some  hiring manager on the other end actually read through the entirety of your résumé  and concluded that you weren’t qualified for the job. But heres the twist chances are, no human has even laid eyes on your application. The truth?  You  were probably rejected by résumé reading robot called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Welcome to the 21st century. Large and even medium sized firms are using ATS to deal with the hundreds, if not thousands of applicants who are applying to the same positions every day. This résumé reading software allows these companies to automate, streamline, and manage the hiring process. Why  are companies allowing robots  to make human resource decisions? Its all about speed. Going through résumés to screen applicants is tedious work. But the ATS speeds up this process by identifying candidates whose résumés contain key experiences and skill sets that match the qualifications employers are seeking. According to a popular study conducted by search services provider Preptel, as many  as 75% of the candidates don’t make it past the ATS screening. It may seem brutal,  but this screening process does the job of whittling down a cumbersome  applicant pool into just a handful of applicants that the human hiring managers can review more closely. What does this mean for you? Heres the takeaway for living in the age of résumé  reading robots   a well-crafted, ATS friendly résumé  is absolutely critical to a successful job hunt. Qualified candidates that fail to make an ATS friendly résumé will get rejected, period. After combing the web and consulting some of our in-house experts at Resume Genius, we zero in on the 4 most common reasons why résumés of even the most qualified candidates fail to pass screening. Reason #1: The ATS can’t actually process your  résumé Warning: The ATS will fail to read your artistic additions to your résumé. Although a human hiring manager might appreciate a little flair, the  résumé robot will simply incinerate your  résumé without a second thought. Fixability: Easy It would be a shame for your résumé  to get screen out because the ATS is unable to read it. Basic rule of thumb: keep your fonts and formatting simple. Sometimes the  ATS will use  a built-in optical character recognition (OCR) software to processes your digital résumé. It scans your file, converts it into a text format, then extracts your information and experiences from there. While the ATS is getting better at reading PDF files, it’s still safer to feed the system a Word or Text file. Do away with any adjusted spacing, newsletter formatting, lines. Go with the clean, standard fonts like Arial, Verdana, and Times New Roman. Scrap inventive layouts, graphics, or artifacts that affect the readability of your résumé. Reason #2: The ATS doesn’t recognize the headings you used Applicant Tracking System software  is built to sort your experiences based on the résumé’s section headings. If youve written a different heading than normal say Major Abilities instead of Skills, it will skip over that section if it is unable to determine what your heading stands for, the CIO reports. Fixability: Easy People like to get creative with headings, thinking that it will help their résumé  stand out. Unfortunately, unconventional headings can actually hurt it. Help the software do its job. Use the standard headings “Work Experience”, “Skills”, “Publications” so you don’t stand the risk of the résumé  bot placing your qualifications under the wrong categories, or misreading your headings altogether. Reason #3: Your résumé  lacks targeted keywords By now, youve  formatted your résumé  properly, and used normal headings. Heres the meat of how an ATS actually reads your résumé. Its looking for targeted keywords. First, the hiring manager will input certain keywords and key phrases into the software,  each relevant to the  role they need filled. For example, an software company hiring manager might use these keywords: Python C++ Javascript Coded Programmed Next, the ATS software will read through each résumé, and determine whether the it  has enough keywords and key phrases to pass through the screening.  If the percentage is high enough, your résumé will successfully be reviewed by an actual human. Fixability: Medium Your ability to use the right keywords depends on two things: Do you actually have the relevant skills, abilities, education, and work experiences? If you do have all or some  from #1, doing good research and giving your résumé  a hard look-over will get you through the ATS How to select  keywords The best place to begin is to read  the hiring managers very own job description. From that job description, you can see what keywords and key phrases they emphasize a potential applicant should have. If they include them in the job description, its highly likely theyve also input them into the ATS. The image below contains a  real example of a librarian job description, and the image next to it reflects what we believe are important keywords a librarian applicant should include on their résumés: GREEN HIGHLIGHT: Keywords that are CRITICAL to getting past the ATS. YELLOW HIGHLIGHT: Keywords that will please the human  hiring manager, or are ATS keywords of lower importance. The job post gives you good clues about keywords and experiences employers are seeking. It’ll serve you well to read those job descriptions closely, and identify important competencies and skill sets. Place emphasis on these matched experiences in your résumé. It’s also helpful include both specific and general keywords in the mix. ATS uses all of these keywords into certain job functions. For your previous position as “team leader”, include job-specific buzzwords such as “coordinate”, “manage”, but having the general keyword “project coordinator”, “project manager” will help to strengthen your résumé. Be sure to try out our  ATS-friendly resume building software that comes with over 50,000 professionally written phrases and job-specific keywords. Reason #4: Your résumé  has too many nonspecific keywords Some have suggested hacking the résumé  bot by submitting two or three-page long résumés that exhaust all keywords that are relevant to the job.  Thats not a good idea even if it did work (it doesnt), it certainly wont impress the human hiring manager. ATS software ranks your candidacy based on how specifically your résumé matches keywords and phrases in a job description. Some software even looks for how uniquely the work experiences you listed match the job requirements. Fixability: Medium Heres the rub  you can’t stuff your résumé  with an exhaustive list of experiences and hope to game the system into thinking you’re a perfect match. Having off-target keywords can score your résumé  down on relevancy. Use the instruction from #3 to research relevant keywords and ensure that your résumé  is concise and targeted. To the greatest extent possible, your résumé  should  uniquely match the requirements in the job description. To sum it up: the bots are getting better at contextualizing résumés, and recruiters are always aiming to interview candidates whose experiences adhere the most closely to positions they’re seeking to fill.  Therefore, having targeted, job-specific keywords throughout your résumé is more important than ever. Reason #5: Your résumé  lacks industry and company jargon or  abbreviations Experts suggest that adopting industry jargon or even  including a  company’s corporate lingo  within your résumé  is a smart choice. If you think about it, its only logical for the hiring manager to  input  industry jargon and abbreviations into an ATS. Therefore, you will need to optimize your résumé  to include these terms wherever possible. Fortunately, this is very simple to do. Fixability:  Easy Weave relevant jargon and terminology into your résumé, and spell out the abbreviations and acronyms DO NOT ever simply include an acronym or abbreviation by itself on a résumé. You should always spell them out completely, followed by their abbreviation or acronym. Acronyms with  Spelled out Examples Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent with 10+ years of experience. Optimized and purchased Pay Per Click (PPC) ads for a major software company Maintained plant operations perfect record of zero  Operation Safety Health  Administration (OSHA) recordables If youre unfamiliar with a certain industrys lingo, you can  research jargon and abbreviations specific to the field, sector, or industry in which you’re seeking employment. To sum it up: a résumé  with clean formatting and clear, targeted language gets you through ATS screening. Once you land that interview, however, it would be advisable to have a more descriptive and eye-pleasing version of your résumé  ready for your human recruiters.