Has Your Resume Vanished Into the ATS Black Hole?
We’ve all been there before. Sending out countless resumes only to hear crickets. It seems that no matter how many times you tweak your resume, nobody responds.
Worry no more. Justin with Career Talk will show you exactly how to game the ATS (applicant tracking systems) so you no longer have to thump your head against the wall trying to figure out what’s going wrong.
What is an Applicant Tracking System?
An applicant tracking system, or better known as an ATS for short, is a database that contains algorithms that scan your resume for particular keywords related to a job posting. Most large companies (corporation) utilize an ATS for applicant screening purposes to save their HR departments significant amounts of time by allowing them to sort potential candidates using an automated artificial intelligence (AI) process.
This allows HR to focus more on recruiting, interviewing, and more important administrative functions rather than having to read countless resumes every single day. The job market competition is fierce, and if you resume does not contain specific keywords which are related to a job posting, it will be instantly rejected by the ATS.
How to Pass the ATS Test
First, be sure to pick a specific career path. This is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of resume writing that job seekers seem to ignore. By not choosing a targeted direction to take with your career, you eliminate the possibility of ranking well in any ATS program. That is because it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to come up with content related to job postings for a particular industry/job title if you are not focusing your resume towards those types of positions.
For example, if you have a background in both pharmaceutical sales and retail store management and want to focus on both areas to keep your options open, then you will need to create two different versions of your resume. If not, then your resume will have a blend of two different fields mixed together and the keywords will not be relevant to one another when your resume is matched to a job posting.
Instead, create one resume focused on pharmaceutical sales-related keywords, and another focused on retail store management keywords. This will ensure that your resume will score higher in the ATS and ultimately provide you with a much higher job match rate.
