How an ATS-Friendly Resume Increases Your Job Opportunities

Nowadays, in the competitive job market, it may be quite hard to find the connection that will lead you to an interview. It is shocking to find out that three out of four resumes, because of the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), fail to make it past the machine selection into the hands of a human recruiter. These systems that have now become a standard in 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies analyze resumes and filter them according to the keyword, job title among other information after which it is passed on to the hiring managers. The result? A lot of resumes do not receive a fair consideration. The resumes that are ATS-Friendly are strategically created to go through the ATS system and land in the hands of the human recruiters. This may include the optimization of the format, use of relevant keywords and that your document can be accessible to the resume screening software. Doing so, you ensure a high possibility that they will notice your resume and call you to the interview.

As ATS systems have taken a more important role in the field of recruitment, it is no longer the question of whether you need to know about the ATS-friendliness of your resume or not. Research indicates that optimized resumes have a 70 percent higher chance of call-backs to interviews than the unoptimized ones do.

In this blog, we will tell you how ATS operates, describe the necessary components of an ATS friend’s resume, talk about optimizing, and discuss the pitfalls to avoid. In conclusion, you will get to know how to write a resume that gets you more interview invitations in the modern automated job selection.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a piece of software that is implemented by the employers to help simplify incoming job requests. It aids in the onslaught of job applications in the HR departments, because it automatically organizes applicants and ranks them based on their resumes. ATS is basically a resume parsing software which reads through the resumes and finds certain keywords, job titles, skills or other attributes which revolve around matching the job posting.

The systems have become customary to the majority of firms, particularly large organizations because most of them are efficient in processing bulk job applications. They dispel the use of manual screening, and hiring teams pay attention to the most appropriate persons.

Within the contemporary recruitment processes, ATS can be included in candidate management systems, allowing the recruiters to monitor the applicant statuses with easier processes and locate the best fitting resumes available within the job descriptions.

ATS systems filter the resumes using the job description using the process of keyword matching. Resumes are scanned by the system to locate the particular terms (e.g. job title, skills and qualification) and ranks the candidates based on it. Parsing of the resume begins the process where the document is categorised into understandable subsections including experience, education as well as skills.

Once it is parsed, ATS systems then use the ranking and scoring the resumes as to how each fits the job description. This ranking assists the recruiters to get the best and most competent candidates within the shortest time limit.

The ATS systems are integrated with the HR processes in a way that the flow of work helps the applicants to shift through the different stages of hiring. That being said, however, even a very good resume may fail this first round of filtering to get to the surpassing of the actual hiring, which depends on qualifications, without proper optimization to ATS.

Some of the most prominent ATS platforms today are Workday ATS, Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS and BambooHR. Companies of different industries utilize such sites in order to deal with the applications of their candidates. All the systems have varying features; however, all make use of comparable resume parsing technology to manage and filter resumes.

Regardless of the ATS of a company, the fundamental optimization processes are also similar. It is important to make your resume go through any ATS, and this is the reason you are to make sure that it is formatted properly and contains the right keywords to help it be recognized during the recruitment process.

The effects of ATS on employment applications are beyond doubt. Recent statistics reveal that 98 percent of the fortune 500 companies

With the ATS screening, optimized resumes have an increased chance of success in this first stage. Researchers have illustrated that ATS-friendly resumes have a 70% higher chance of receiving a call back after an interview. The role of ATS optimization within the modern job market with its dominant automation cannot be too overvalued. Without an ATS-friendly resume, yours can never get to the eyes of a human being.

There are several common reasons why resumes are rejected by ATS:

Too much formatting in the form of graphics, complex tables and unusual fonts will confuse the ATS and the use of ATS to inappropriately parse your resume. Do not use very complicated designs, use a simple layout.

The keywords on which your resume is written must be the same keywords used in the job description and this makes it likely that it will come through the ATS filters. Also, don’t forget to add the appropriate keywords of your industry.

It is mostly the ATS systems that will use file types that are either docx or .txt. Problems can be brought on by PDF files since not all the ATS platforms can parse them.

ATS will reject the resumes containing inconsistent information as well as any changing the format of a date or having two job titles which are different. Make sure that there is consistency in representation of information.

TS systems will give a preference to the resumes containing specific, measurable achievements (e.g. 30% increase in sales). Misreported news or lack of a measure of success can be detrimental to you.

ATS-friendly resume format is the basic one when it comes to presenting a resume that will be properly parsed by the system. The most appropriate to ATS is the major genres of the responsorial structure. Such a layout lists your work experience in reverse chronological order and because of that, it is easy to identify the most recent positions held by you, making the system to grasp it.

Do not use graphs, tables and fixed format in your resume. Human eyes might find these things wonderful, but the ATS systems might have problems interpreting them. The structure must be easy to read and easy to understand with very obvious subtitles like Work Experience, Education and Skills.

It also matters with respect to face. Use a normal font such as Arial, Calibri or the Times New Roman font and 10-12 Fonts. This will make your resume to be legible to ATS as well as to human recruiters. Also, to make the document easily readable, ensure there is a white space.

The type of a file that you use is an essential factor on ATS compatibility and the most accepted would be a .docx file, but PDFs can be an issue. In case the ATS is unable to read your PDF document, then it will be incapable of parsing your data properly.

You also should have simple, clear names when naming your file e.g. JohnDoe_Resume.docx. It is important to stay away from special characters, space characters or names that are very long because they may be problematic when it comes to parsing. Also, it is better to make sure that your document is structured. Do not put important information inside the header or the footer since some of the ATS systems cannot extract the information inside them. All you need to do is keep your contents at the main body of the document.

Keywords should be one of the biggest benefits when optimizing your resume so it will not fall out of the hands of ATS. In order to accomplish it, it is necessary:

1. Analyze Job Descriptions

begin by fully going through the job description and identifying your keywords using the exact skills involved, job titles, and qualifications. These are the buzz words that the ATS are going to be seeking.

2. Strategic Placement

After finding the most relevant keywords, place them where they are natural; in the work experience, in the skills, in the education. Use, as far as possible, words you encounter in job ads.

3. Keyword Density

It is important to have keywords however do not overload your resume with keywords which will sound very unnatural. It is all in the grey area. Use the keywords in a strategic way but you need not sacrifice the readability of your resume.

4. Use Synonyms and Variations

In your ATS system, you will be able to check the synonyms and variations of band keywords. An example is that when it says something like a software developer in the job requirement then use programmer or coder since they will crawl better in a search like that.

5. Industry-Specific Terms

The one thing to keep in mind about phrases is that you should be able to add some industry-specific terminology if your job requires it. In the case of healthcare, your certification, e.g., “HIPAA compliance” or in the case of project management, e.g., “PMP certification” may increase your possibility of overcoming the ATS.

The easiest way to maximize your chances of success in getting a job is to build an ATS friendly resume so avoid formatting and make your resume with the following characteristics: a chronological resume format, optimized keywords, simple layout. Rather, it should not be confused with the ATS systems through its complicated designs and graphics. Go through your resume on the ATS software like Jobscan and revise it every now and then. Optimizing your resume to meet the needs of ATS will help you move much further in the process by surpassing the filter to secure more interviews, and consequently, by enhancing your overall job search performance.