Computer Friendly Summary
Cyndi Barca
We've all been there: you find the perfect job opportunity, customize your resume and cover letter, submit your application to a job listing online, and then pray it will pass the infamous six-second resume review test. Unfortunately, more often than not, your job application is lost in the applicant tracking system - and you're left wondering why the employer or hiring manager wasn't that into you.
What many job seekers don't realize is that 75% of job applications don't get seen by human eyes. Before your resume reaches the hands of a live person, it must often pass muster with what's known as an applicant tracking system.
An applicant tracking system - or ATS, for short - is a type of resume scanning software used by recruiters and employers during the hiring process to collect, sort, scan, and rank the job applications they receive for their open positions.
The applicant tracking system was initially created for large companies that are accustomed to dealing with several thousand inbound job applications on a weekly basis. Today, approximately 99% of Fortune 500 companies rely on ATS software to help streamline their recruitment process. However, what began as a recruitment solution for large employers has turned into a commonplace tool for companies of all shapes and sizes.
There are some very good reasons why today's companies are so heavily reliant on ATS to narrow their job candidate search. The modern hiring process is more complex than ever before - and not just because there are so many more workers applying for a position. The reality is that most companies lack the resources and time needed to search through every resume submission they receive. By using automated systems, they can free up those resources to focus on their core company mission.
But there are also legal compliance issues that need to be considered. Employment law - and especially laws prohibiting various kinds of discrimination in hiring - need to be followed with care. Many employers understand that one of the best ways to reduce potential bias in the initial stages of any hiring process is to allow unbiased machines to handle some of the work.
The bottom line is that ATS resume scanners provide companies with an automated way to narrow any list of candidates to only those who meet the position's posted qualifications. And it does that in a way that avoids potential discrimination by ignoring characteristics like race, gender, and age. As a result, companies enjoy savings in both time and cost, while optimizing their compliance with existing employment laws.
The ATS parses a resume's content into categories and then scans it for specific and relevant keywords to determine if the job application should be passed along to the recruiter. Its job is to essentially weed out unqualified applicants, so the recruiter can devote his or her time to evaluating the candidates who are more likely to be a match for the position. In other words, the ATS is apt to put the least-qualified candidates to the bottom of the pile, rather than identify the applicants who are the best fit.
To determine what makes an ATS-friendly resume, TopResume analyzed 1,000 resumes from professionals across the US with at least eight years of experience, to identify the most common resume mistakes that will cause an applicant tracking system to toss an application. The infographic below highlights some of the costliest mistakes that make a resume incompatible with an ATS scan.
Since the best resume templates are written with two audiences in mind - the ATS pre-screening your application and the live human in HR who will review your resume content - we recommend using a Word document instead of a plain-text file for your resume file type. This will provide more creative freedom to write an ATS resume that will appeal to a recruiter or hiring manager.
Not all applicant tracking systems are able to properly read and parse information stored in the header and footer sections of a Word document. In fact, our study confirmed the ATS was unable to identify a portion of the job seeker's contact information 25% of the time. Avoid this same fate by placing important contact details (such as your name, phone number, and email address) outside the header or footer of your resume.
If you're unsure which resume keywords should be used, start by collecting three to five job descriptions that represent the type of position you're pursuing. Then, copy and paste the job description into a free word and phrase frequency tool like Online-Utility.org's Text Analyzer, to identify the terms that are regularly used throughout your desired positions. If you possess these skills or qualifications from the job posting, incorporate these terms into your resume.
You should also pay careful attention to the job posting and any description of the position contained in that post. Identify any listed skill requirements, as well as desired experience and educational qualifications. These are likely to be included in any ATS resume scan too, so you'll want to ensure that these keywords can be found within your resume.
When it comes to creating an ATS-optimized resume, you need to think about the frequency, as well as the placement of these relevant keywords throughout your resume. Some applicant tracking systems will determine the strength of your skills based on the number of times a term shows up in your resume (aim to add the term two to three times throughout your resume), whereas others assign an estimated amount of experience for a particular skill based on its placement within the resume. To make your resume truly compatible with any ATS, you'll want to optimize it with both systems in mind.
Some applicant tracking systems will associate the length of experience for a skill, based on how long you held the job where that skill was leveraged. For instance, if you worked at your past job for five years and you mention that you handled SEO for the company, the ATS will assume you have five years' worth of SEO experience from that job. If a skill is listed on its own - such as within the professional summary or a core competencies section - then the ATS scan will assign a few months' experience for that skill. This is why it's incredibly important to reiterate your skills throughout your entire resume, rather than just in a skill section at the top.
Make sure that your resume also includes a headline. This one-line heading should be located right after your contact information and before your summary statement. Companies that use an ATS to screen resumes will typically include the job title in their ATS assessment criteria. To create an ATS-friendly headline, simply:
Identify the job title you're applying for. It should be in the job posting or job description. For example, let's say that you're applying for a position as a Marketing Director. Those two words are keywords that need to be included in your headline.
Identify other key requirements that you may be able to highlight in your headline. It could be something as simple as a requirement that candidates have at least five years of experience in managing marketing teams. Take note of that job qualification since you may want to incorporate it into your headline too.
Create a headline that includes the job title and some descriptive language that helps to immediately identify you as a qualified candidate. If you use our example keywords, your headline might look something like this:
While these may look nice to the human eye, resumes with embedded images become a garbled mess after they pass through the applicant tracking system. For instance, if you insert an image or chart to showcase your key skills, the ATS resume scanner will be unable to read it. If you use a cool graphic to brand your name on your resume, this piece of information will be lost on the applicant tracking system.
When used appropriately, bullet points are a great method for highlighting accomplishments and qualifications on a resume. However, if you choose an elaborate symbol for your bullets, your important selling points could get scrambled. Avoid using intricate characters when creating a bulleted list on your ATS-compliant resume. Stick to the simplest options, such as a solid circle, open circle, or square, to ensure your bullet points enhance your resume, rather than make it incompatible with an ATS.
When it comes to your ATS-friendly resume design, less is more. Not only do complex resume designs or unusual formats confuse most applicant tracking systems, but they also annoy recruiters who are accustomed to quickly scanning a resume for specific information that they expect to find in specific areas within the document.
You'll notice that we've mentioned different resume sections throughout this post. There's a good reason for that, of course. Resumes are not like typical prose documents. If your resume is just one long story with different kinds of information spread across one or two pages like an essay, it won't perform well. And, even if it did, no human hiring manager would bother to read it.
Contact information: This section goes right at the top of your resume, but not in the header. Remember, ATS systems are not adept at reading information in that area of your resume. Include vital details like your name, location, phone number, email address, and LinkedIn URL. This section doesn't need a label.
Resume headline: We covered the resume headline earlier in the post, so you can find some tips on how to create this attention-grabbing section there. Like the contact section, this requires no label.
Summary statement: This section should be a three to five-sentence elevator pitch designed to capture any hiring manager's attention. You can include keywords in this paragraph that highlight your most vital skills, experiences, and measurable achievements that showcase your potential value to the employer.
Professional history: Otherwise known as work experience, this labeled section should include your relevant work history dating back 10-15 years. Make sure that you start by listing your most recent position and then list the others in reverse order. For each position you've held, include the company name, job title, dates of employment, and several bullet point examples that demonstrate your achievements in each role.
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