Automated Application Rejections? Give Your Resume A Binary Personality
More than likely your job applications have never been seen by human eyes. Welcome to the 2017 job search where the task of pre-screening resumes has been outsourced to the company's latest digital resource, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
An ATS reads in a resume, scans for keywords and key phrases, then applies an algorithm to rate the applicant against all others and the top few applications are seen by a human being.
Many qualified candidates are rejected by an ATS because their resume is written or formatted in a way that is not compatible with resume screening software.
KEYWORDS
Add keywords that are in the job listing to your resume. And use phrases from the job description, typically the keywords and phrases in the listing are also used in the ATS.The ATS may not have acronyms programmed as keywords, include the full phrase along with any acronym you include.
Not sure what keywords to use? Technology vs technology, paste the job listing into a word cloud generator like http://tagcrowd.com/ and see what keywords pop up.
FORMATTING
Remove headers and footers. Remove logos and head shots. Headers and footers can confuse the screening software and it doesn't like images or fancy formats.Look at the sections of your resume, do you have any creative titles? Get rid of them and stick with the basics like "Professional Experience", "Education", and "Skills".
Don't put your employment dates first. The ATS seems to work best when job history is listed in order of the employers name, your title and date. If you have tables in your resume so everything is aligned nicely, get rid of them. Tables confuse the ATS.
Reformat your paragraphs into concise bullet-ed lists. The ATS can extract keywords and phrases from lists easier than lengthy paragraphs.
Never attach a PDF of your resume to the online application, the ATS doesn't like that format. Upload a Word or text version of your resume and cover letter and save the pretty formatted version for the (hopeful) interview.
Good luck and I hope some of these tips help connect you to the hiring manager.
Are you're a recruiter or hiring manager looking for product people to join your great team? Check out Steve's LinkedIn bio.
Steve is a Digital Product Manager based in New York City. Most recently implementing Content Management Systems with customized features for entertainment publishing. He known for solving problems, optimizing product features and creating happy users. Steve is actively interviewing and would like to join an Agile team as a Business Analyst / Product Manager. You can learn more about Steve's skill set and background at http://linkedin.com/in/steveapple
