yourwaycareer

Don't let ATS become your job search nightmare

We've all been there: you find your ideal job opportunity, customize your resume and cover letter, submit your online application, and even get a referral from a friend, then you pray it can pass that "notorious" six-second resume review test. Unfortunately, in most cases, your job application gets lost in the applicant tracking system — and you can only wonder why employers or hiring managers are ignoring you.

What many job seekers don't realize is that 75% of applications never get seen by human eyes. Before your resume reaches a real person, it often has to pass through a review known as the Applicant Tracking System.

What is an Applicant Tracking System?#

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a type of resume scanning software that recruiters and employers use in the hiring process to collect, sort, scan, and evaluate the resumes they receive.

ATS was originally created for large companies that needed to process thousands, or even tens of thousands, of resumes each week. Today, about 99% of Fortune 500 companies rely on ATS software to help streamline their hiring processes. However, this tool, initially designed as a hiring solution for large employers, has evolved into a common tool for companies of all sizes.

Why do companies use ATS?#

Today's companies have some very good reasons for relying heavily on ATS to narrow down job candidates. The modern hiring process is more complex than ever — not just because there are more applicants for a position. The reality is that most companies lack the time and resources to search through every resume they receive. By using automated systems, they can free up those resources to focus on their core business mission.

Additionally, there are legal compliance issues to consider — especially laws prohibiting various forms of hiring discrimination. Many employers understand that one of the best ways to reduce potential bias in the early stages of the hiring process is to allow machines to handle it fairly.

Most importantly, ATS resume scanning provides companies with an automated way to narrow down the candidate list to only those who meet the job requirements. It achieves this by ignoring characteristics such as race, gender, and age, thereby avoiding potential discrimination. As a result, companies can optimize their compliance with existing employment laws while saving time and costs.

How does an Applicant Tracking System work?#

ATS parses the content of resumes into different categories and then scans for specific relevant keywords to determine whether the job application should be passed on to recruiters. Its job is essentially to eliminate unqualified applicants so that recruiters can spend time evaluating those candidates who are more likely to match the position.

Unfortunately, this means that if the writing and formatting of a resume template do not take the applicant tracking system into account, a qualified candidate can easily be overlooked — regardless of their actual qualifications.

What about artificial intelligence?#

In recent years, with advancements in artificial intelligence, it has become an increasingly important part of many companies' applicant screening processes. Fortunately, our experts know how to harness the power of AI to ensure your resume meets the requirements needed to pass any company's ATS screening.

How to write an ATS-friendly resume#

To determine what constitutes an ATS-friendly resume, you first need to understand what common resume mistakes are.

Statistics:

• On average, each corporate job receives 250 applications.
• Only 4 to 6 candidates are invited for an interview.
• 50,000 to 75,000 resumes are screened by ATS each week.
• 75% of resumes are never reviewed by a human.

Characteristics of high-risk resumes

• Errors in the resume (e.g., conflicting work dates) can lead to exclusion by ATS.
• The template used causes formatting issues.
• Using graphics and tables may prevent ATS from correctly parsing information.
• Using complex designs may cause ATS to fail to recognize key information.

If you want to ensure your resume meets ATS requirements, follow these tips to write and use an ATS-optimized resume.

Choose the right file type for your resume: PDF or Word#

Contrary to popular belief, PDF is not the most ATS-friendly file type. While PDF files excel at preserving the design and formatting of a resume, they are not friendly to ATS that do not have AI parsing capabilities. If you simply need to upload your resume to an applicant tracking system and the ATS tells you that you can use "PDF" format files, then feel free to send the PDF version of your resume.

However, if the ATS does not specify which file types are compatible, for safety, stick to .doc or .docx format Word documents.

Do not place important details in headers or footers#

Not all applicant tracking systems can correctly read and parse information stored in headers and footers. In fact, our research confirms that ATS has a 25% chance of failing to recognize the contact information you write in the header or footer. Please place important contact details (such as your name, phone number, and email address) outside of the header or footer to avoid the same fate.

Optimize your resume with keywords#

One of the best ways to ensure your resume is ATS-compatible is to optimize it with the right keywords (also known as keyword optimization).

Unlike fancy "buzzwords" (like "proactive," "optimistic"), keywords represent the soft and hard skills you possess, as well as the expertise you have gained over the years that qualify you for the target job.

If you're unsure which resume keywords to use, follow these steps:

1. Gather three to five job descriptions that represent the type of position you are pursuing.
2. Copy and paste the job descriptions into a free word and phrase frequency tool, such as Online-Utility.org's Text Analyzer, to identify commonly used terms in each description.
3. Incorporate these terms into your resume.
4. Don't forget to match your skills, experience, and education with the qualifications of the position.

When creating an ATS-optimized resume, you need to consider both the frequency of these relevant keywords and their placement in your resume.

Some ATS will determine the strength of your skills based on how many times the terms appear in your resume (the method is to add the term two to three times in your resume), while other systems will assign an estimated amount of experience for specific skills based on the terms' placement in the resume. To make your resume truly compatible with any ATS, you need to optimize it for both systems.

• Create a "Core Competencies" or "Areas of Expertise" section below your resume summary that lists your strongest hard and soft skills.
  If one of your skills has a commonly used abbreviation, such as "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization), include both the full and abbreviated versions in your resume.
• Then, weave these same terms into your "Work Experience" or "Education" sections where appropriate to demonstrate when you utilized that skill.

Some applicant tracking systems will correlate the length of experience with how long you have been using that skill. For example:

• If you worked for five years in a previous job and mentioned that you were responsible for the company's SEO, then ATS will assume you gained five years of SEO experience from that job.
• If a skill is listed separately — for example, in the summary or core competencies section — then ATS scanning will assign a few months of experience to that skill.

That's why it's crucial to reiterate your skills throughout your entire resume, not just in the skills section at the top.

Resume Title#

Make sure your resume has a title.

This single-line title should be placed after your contact information and before your summary statement. Companies using ATS to screen resumes often include the job title in their ATS evaluation criteria. To create an ATS-friendly title, simply:

• Identify the job title you are applying for. It should be in the job posting or description. For example, suppose you are applying for a Marketing Director position. These two words are the keywords that need to be included in your title.
• Identify other key requirements that you can highlight in your title. It might be as simple as requiring candidates to have at least five years of experience managing marketing teams. Note that job qualification, as you may also want to include it in your title.
• Create a title that includes the job title and some descriptive language that helps immediately identify you as a qualified candidate. Using our example keywords, your title might look like this:

Marketing Director with Over 5 Years of Customer Success Experience

Avoid images, charts, and other graphics#

While resumes with embedded images may look nice, they can turn into gibberish when passed through an applicant tracking system.

• ATS often converts any type of image or graphic into strange characters (e.g., $&%#*)
• ATS may interpret it as an error in your resume file, indicating that the file is corrupted
• Your resume may be completely rejected by ATS

ATS rejection is one of the main reasons job seekers' resumes "sink without a trace."

Stick to simple bullet points#

When used correctly, bullet points are a great way to highlight achievements and qualifications on a resume. However, if you choose a complex symbol for your bullet points, your important selling points may get lost. When creating bullet point lists on your ATS-compatible resume, avoid using complex characters. Stick to the simplest options, such as solid circles, hollow circles, or squares, to ensure your bullet points enhance your resume.

Use a clean resume design with clear hierarchy#

When it comes to your ATS-friendly resume design, simpler is better. Complex resume designs or unusual formats not only confuse most applicant tracking systems but also frustrate recruiters who are used to quickly scanning resumes for specific information they want to find in certain areas of the document.

This means you should avoid those two-column resume formats.

• Yes, they look nice.
• No, they won't pass ATS.

How to create an ATS-friendly resume format#

If you want your resume to perform well in ATS scans, stick to standard resume formats like reverse chronological or hybrid resumes. These resume formats use a professional summary section at the top of the document to outline your key skills and qualifications, combined with a "Work Experience" section arranged in chronological order that explains how you leveraged those qualities to deliver results for your employer.

Most applicant tracking systems perform better at reading and interpreting reverse chronological or hybrid formats because they rely on time-ordered data to parse your resume.

ATS-friendly resume templates#

Resumes are not essays. If your resume is just a long story with different information scattered across one or two pages like an essay, it will not perform well. And even if it does perform well, no real hiring manager will bother reading it.

Break your career story into different sections to ensure both ATS and hiring managers can find key details. This helps provide a structure that makes it easier for machines and humans to quickly scan the information they want to see.

Here’s a simple structure you can use to ensure your resume meets the needs of ATS and any hiring manager who sees it:

1. Name
2. Location | Phone Number | Email | LinkedIn URL | Personal Portfolio URL (optional)

Resume Title#

A three to five-word title designed to grab any hiring manager's attention. You can include keywords in this section, such as skills, experience, and measurable achievements that showcase your potential value to employers.

Core Competencies#

You can list the skills that demonstrate you meet the qualifications for the position here. Depending on the job you are seeking, your skills section may lean toward soft skills or hard skills — but you should aim to include a combination of both.

Work Experience#

This section should include your relevant past work experience. Start with your most recent position and work backward. For each position you held, include the company name, job title, dates, and up to five bullet point examples to showcase your achievements in each role.

Company Name | mm/yyyy-mm/yyyy
Your Job Title
Achievement #1
Achievement #2
Achievement #3

Education#

Should include the name of the college you attended, the year you graduated, your major and degree, and any relevant courses you need to showcase to prove your qualifications. You can also include a list of certifications, continuing education, and other relevant training.

How to know if your resume is ATS-friendly#

There are two simple ways to determine if your resume is compatible with applicant tracking systems during the job application process.

Convert your resume to a plain text file#

Copy the entire content of your ATS-friendly resume, paste it into a plain text file, and then check the results. If the plain text version is missing details from the original resume, has characters saved incorrectly, or looks messy (e.g., your "Education Manager" title appears in your work experience), then it means your resume needs to be re-edited to meet ATS requirements.

Request a free ATS scan for your resume#

A better option is to have ATS scan your resume. Most platforms, including YourwayCareer, offer free services!

In fact, when you request a free resume review from YourwayCareer, you will receive feedback on your resume content and its ATS compatibility. You will learn the following:

• What your resume does well
• Its shortcomings from an information and design perspective
• What information ATS will extract from your resume
• What information ATS will misread
• The top skills and keywords your resume currently ranks for
• What options you can choose to correct any resume flaws for more interview opportunities

Extra effort pays off big#

You might think that you have to do a lot just to find a job. However, considering that your resume is being sent to hundreds of positions with no response, that effort is well worth it. Ask yourself, "Do I want to send out hundreds of resumes with no response, or do I want to optimize my resume and apply for a few targeted positions and actually get interview opportunities?"

Don't let ATS stop you from finding your dream job. Write an ATS-friendly resume now.