If you think it’s recruiters and hiring managers are ignoring you and your resume, think again.
Recruiting firms such as Enhance Recruiting, 98% of Fortune 500 companies, and a large number of mid-sized corporations are using some form of an applicant tracking system (ATS) to filter through the thousands of resumes they receive for their positions.
It’s important to understand how the ATS works so that your resume gets seen, read, and doesn’t end up in a black hole.
If your applying to jobs online and getting little to no response, one of the first things that you should do is make your resume Applicant Tracking System Friendly.
What is an applicant tracking system (ATS)?
Whenever you apply for a position online it first gets processed by the ATS. In other words, before it ever gets into the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager at the organization, it gets processed through an applicant tracking system (ATS). This software helps recruiters by scanning for contextual keywords and key phrases, scoring them for relevance, and showing only the most qualified ones to the recruiter.
There are many software systems that keep job seekers from their dream jobs and there’s no guaranteed way of knowing how each recruiter will use the ATS, but there are best practices that you can implement on your resume to make sure it’s ATS-friendly.
1. Keep Formatting Simple
In order for the ATS to easily pull the text off your resume, you want to make sure you keep it simple. Complex templates, overemphasizing features, tables, and graphics are all things you want to stay away from. Again, keep the graphics to a minimum this is one of the most common mistakes because although aesthetically it may look better when going through a system the format can get distorted and take away from the “meat” of your resume.
Use a simple resume template and stick to standard formatting in common fonts like Arial or Verdana.
2. Nail the Correct Keywords
Every profession and industry has its own unique skills of lingo, jargon, software, responsibilities, and licenses – and the Applicant Tracking System is looking for them on your resume. This is why it’s a good idea to try to match and mirror the keywords you find on a job description and requirements to your resume.
3. Scan Your Resume
A tool that will make it extremely easy for you to make sure you’ve got the proper keywords on your resume is a tool called Jobscan.co Once you copy and paste your resume and the job description into Jobscan.co, it will give you a score based on the scoring algorithms based on the top Applicant Tracking Systems.
This is a complete time-saver since you should be tweaking your resume for each position to make sure it’s getting through automated systems.
If you are in Manufacturing Management and/or Engineering please go to www.enhancerecruiting.com for more information or to apply for opportunities.