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Passing the ATS Exam
Getting Your Resume to the Top of the Stack
In this week’s newsletter:
🕵️♂️ Hacking ATS Systems - 5 Strategies to Get by the Bot
📈 Job Market Data This Week - Strong labor market despite higher interest rates
🛠️ Job Seeker Tools - For ATS Optimization
📰 Weekly Headlines - Shopify drama; LinkedIn Layoffs
🎧 Listen While You Read
🤖 Hacking ATS Systems - 5 Strategies to Get by the Bot
The life of a hiring manager is like a multi-tabbed browser, always juggling multiple roles at once. To keep their sanity, many turn to Application Tracking Systems (ATS) - think of them as their digital personal assistant.
These automated gatekeepers scan applications faster than you can say "hire me!", pinpointing the cream of the candidate crop, supposedly.
Here's the catch - you're not just trying to woo human recruiters anymore, you've got to charm the bots too! Noticing a dip in your application luck? Let's debug this issue!
Here are five tips to get your resume past these robots and straight to your future boss!
Use Relevant Keywords
Clarify Acronyms and Abbreviations
Consider Header and Footer Usage
Ensure Readability
Tailor to the Role
1. Use Relevant Keywords
A fundamental strategy for crafting an effective resume involves the strategic use of keywords. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will scrutinize your application for specific keywords and phrases relevant to the job or industry. However, it's not sufficient to just list the essential skills mentioned in the job description. These keywords should be seamlessly integrated throughout your resume.
Moreover, it's beneficial to provide context to your keywords and expand on them where feasible. For instance, instead of merely stating 'project management' or 'delegation', you could elaborate:
"I spearheaded the company's 'Learn by Doing' initiative, managing a team of 15 employees and allocating tasks to ensure all objectives were met or surpassed."
Check out How to Write a STAR Method Resume to dive deeper into this.
An ATS is more likely to favor a resume that incorporates keywords throughout the text. While it's beneficial to have a dedicated skills section, ensure that it's not the sole location where you incorporate those crucial keywords.
2. Clarify Acronyms and Abbreviations
Building on the first tip, it's crucial to define any acronyms or abbreviations when they first appear in your resume. For instance, if you're an expert in SEO, the first mention of this on your resume should read "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)", with the acronym enclosed in parentheses.
Subsequent mentions can simply use the acronym. This approach enhances the likelihood of your resume meeting all necessary ATS keyword requirements.
3. Consider Header and Footer Usage
When crafting your resume, it's essential to optimize every available space. Many professionals include details such as their name, contact information, or social media profiles in the header or footer. While this may be effective for human reviewers, it may not be as effective for an ATS.
Some systems may struggle to read and analyze information placed within the header or footer, potentially causing crucial information to be overlooked. Therefore, it's advisable to either leave these sections blank or limit the information contained within them.
4. Ensure Readability
Your resume should be easily digestible for both ATS systems and human reviewers. While engaging language can capture a recruiter's attention, it's equally important to use clear and direct language that can be swiftly scanned by a machine.
In addition to focusing on text readability, limit the use of unique formatting. Be cautious when using graphs, tables, boxes, graphics, or other design elements as these can confuse the ATS, leading to misinterpretation or omission of important details.
Don’t forget to save and submit your resume in an appropriate format. PDFs can be okay, but Word documents are the most commonly accepted formats, ensuring digestibility from the ATS. If the job description or platform specifies a preferred file type, ensure to comply with this requirement.
5. Tailor to the Role
It's vital to tailor each resume to the specific role and company to which you're applying. Recruiters can easily identify a generic resume, which may not reflect well on your professionalism.
Customizing your resume for each job posting increases its chances of passing the ATS. The system is programmed to search for specific words or phrases from the job description. If your application lacks these keywords and phrases, you risk being overlooked for a role you're well-qualified for, simply because you submitted a generic resume.
Ultimately, these five strategies could be the determining factor between your application being lost in cyberspace or securing your next interview.
Relevant Reads
🛠️ Job Seeker Tools with ATS Optimization
Jobscan
Jobscan helps you optimize your resume for any job, highlighting the key experience and skills recruiters need to see.
Rezi
Rezi is the only resume platform that uses leading AI to automate every aspect of creating a hirable resume—writing, editing, formatting, and optimizing.
🛠️ Browse our full Job Seeker Tool Directory
📈 Job Market Data This Week - Strong Labor Market Despite Higher Interest Rates
For the 3rd week in a row, there has been a dip in the Initial Jobless Claims.
The most recent initial jobless claims data shows the seasonally adjusted initial claims were 228,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 237,000.
This suggests a fairly steady job market, with just a small dip in initial jobless claims. In simpler terms, fewer people are filing for unemployment benefits. This could be a sign that companies are not only keeping their current employees, but they might also be opening the door to welcome new ones. So, if you're on the job hunt, this could be a positive signal for you.
At a Glance
Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, indicating a strong labor market despite higher interest rates intended to slow down hiring.
Despite the fastest interest rate hikes since 1989, the unemployment rate remains historically low at 3.6%.
The U.S. economy has been resilient in the face of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate-hiking campaign aimed at combating persistent inflation.
There have been a number of high-profile layoffs recently, mostly in the technology sector, with companies like IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Twitter, Lyft, LinkedIn, Spotify, and DoorDash.
Outside the tech sector, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, and 3M have also recently shed employees.
Overall, 1.75 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended July 8, about 33,000 more than the previous week.
📰 Weekly Headlines:
WARN Tracker
A WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice is a notice required by the federal WARN Act in the United States, which mandates that employers with 100 or more employees provide at least 60 days advance written notice of a plant closing or mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees.
WARNtracker tracks these and conveniently displays them in a database. They have also recently launched a new job board with 16,000+ jobs from over 300 companies!
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