Are you the type of person that gets scared or anxious when sending your resume to any organizations? Believe me; I know it feels like allowing tiny little robots to scan your CV and evaluate you before reaching the real human! Hilarious right? It almost feels as though you are sending your resume into a dark hole. Well, if you are that type of person, today is your lucky day because you get free access to resume typing tips that could help you beat these Applicant Tracking Systems.
Why Applicant Tracking Systems?
Let us think of these systems as tiny little robots that read and go through Cvs, ensuring that only suitable applications are selected for the job proposal.
Ever wondered why these systems even exist? Wait, I’ll tell you.
On an average, job proposals tend to get like 300 applications. If you are looking forward to working with reputable tech companies like Google, statistics show that Google receives 75,000 applications per week. This makes the whole process very competitive. So, of course, these systems exist as some kind of resume filter to cut through all the noise and present to the HR manager or recruiter, a small percentage of applications that are fit to be considered and then taken to the next stage of the application process which could be the Interview.
According to a recent study, 98% of Fortune 500 have an applicant tracking system, and over half of multi-midsize companies use them. ATS is very much like Search engine optimization for websites that gives you results based on whatever you wish to know and whatever you typed into the search engine that could be relevant to you. That’s precisely what ATS does for recruiters. It knows what’s in the job description and uses an algorithm to scan through profiles to see which of them matches the requirements. The results could come in as 82% match or 90% match based on what the recruiters are looking for and if you are suitable. You can read more on how resumes pass through an ATS if you are interested to know more.
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Most resumes get rejected, and that’s why it is essential to know how to work with the system to make sure that your resume ends up in the pile that gets reviewed by an actual human being.
Resume Tips to Beat Applicant Tracking Systems
- Keyword Matching: One of the first steps to get your resume past these applicant tracking systems is to identify keywords from the particular job description concerned. This involves going through the job description and highlighting some of the keywords that are being used over and over again. You shouldn’t mistake copying and pasting them into your resume. Think about different ways to naturally put them into sentences, especially for your summary section, achievements, and roles. Just make sure you give it that realistic outlook. For Example, suppose you are going for a digital marketing role specifically involving you working with influencers on social media. In that case, you can infer that they want someone with experience and influence in management, community management, and community engagement. So, try to see how you could work all of these into a sentence.
- Language matching: For Example, if the job description is looking for customer experience and you have client experience on your resume, immediately change it to customer experience. If they are looking for leadership skills and you have managerial skills on your resume, change it to leadership skills. Always make sure that you match the language they use in the job description. Job titles are very crucial in cases like this. Even though you may not have served in that position before, you can be creative around your tags. If you struggle with getting the perfect title, you can look up Linkedin on what core titles could be used. You can also practically be able to integrate some of the languages into your resume. I also recommend looking at the company’s website and its values, and what drives them as an organization. Understand the company’s language in most cases and try incorporating that into your resume.
- Format matching: The Reason that word documents get turned into PDFs is that they hard encode the text from the Word document into the PDFs. When you have a PDF, you can highlight the text. This means that the algorithm the ATS uses will be able to read that language using its natural language processing. You can submit PDFs that are not based on a word document. There are online tools that can be used to create resumes; make sure you can highlight the text when you download it. Make sure you use fonts that are simple and less complex. Make sure to use more words than graphics because they can’t read images, graphs, or pie charts to focus more on the terms.
Some Applicant Tracking Systems are more sophisticated than others and can actually measure the degree or magnitude of tasks and skills.
- Adverbs, Adjectives, and Nouns Matching: Some Applicant Tracking Systems like PyjamaHR are more sophisticated than others and can actually measure the degree or magnitude of tasks and skills. It is in this case that Adjectives come into play. Adjectives include strong and compelling words, which is one of the secrets to a good resume. You can throw in some adverbs as well as some nouns to give that emphasis. It will definitely help to provide that magnitude to an experience or skill.
- Don’t use Headers or Footers: Another critical tip in making sure you beat that ATS is that you don’t use Headers or Footers in your resume. It could cause the information to get lost and cause a parsing error in the system.
- Jobscan: You can use a website called Jobscan. It is not 100% perfect, but just like every other software, it serves its purpose to a large extent. You can upload your resume and the job description to the site, and it will give you a relevancy score. It also provides some tips on making your resume even more ATS friendly.
There are many ways one can use to beat Applicant Tracking Systems. But the above points have served their purpose. If you fall among those who can’t get their resumes past ATS, this article is for you.
