After hours perfecting your resume, there’s little extra disheartening than understanding that it won’t even make it into the fingers of people. That’s as a result of it first has to get previous an automatic screening system, like an ATS.
An applicant monitoring system (ATS) is a well-liked method for a corporation to make use of synthetic intelligence (AI) to assist streamline the hiring course of. As of 2021, 99% of Fortune 500 firms have been already utilizing an ATS to display screen candidates, and by the tip of 2025, seven out of 10 firms of all sizes plan to make use of AI in some unspecified time in the future in the course of the hiring course of.
“An increasing number of firms are utilizing applicant monitoring methods to evaluate job purposes and assist set up the lots of (and even hundreds) of purposes they could obtain for a job,” says Sam DeMase, a profession knowledgeable at ZipRecruiter. “That signifies that AI instruments can deprioritize and even reject your software based mostly on set standards—required expertise, previous expertise or minimal {qualifications}—earlier than the hiring supervisor ever opinions it.”
That’s powerful. The excellent news is that not like a human, an ATS is fairly predictable. Whereas there could also be variances within the methods firms use them, two parts may also help your resume learn higher to any ATS: utilizing the fitting phrases and sticking to frills-free formatting. Right here’s how you can use these to get your resume previous the “robots.”
Utilizing key phrases in your resume
“The web discourse round ATS key phrases is a bit overblown,” says Seb Morgan, a resume knowledgeable at Resume Genius. “No machine goes to filter out your software since you didn’t use the phrase ‘teamwork’ in your expertise part.” Even so, this doesn’t imply that phrase selection doesn’t matter.
DeMase recommends utilizing the identical key phrases because the job description itself, particularly something that’s repeated. That being stated, don’t attempt to overstuff key phrases all through the resume, as a result of it may be awkward for the human recruiter to learn. As an alternative, DeMase suggests integrating the key phrases all through the resume, comparable to inside your work expertise.
In the case of abbreviations, acronyms, certifications and proficiencies, Morgan recommends itemizing these simply as they seem within the job posting. “The human recruiter could not get round to studying your software if it appears such as you don’t meet the minimal authorized necessities to do the job,” he says.
DeMase notes that “in case your previous firms used job titles exterior the norm, tweak them to be according to the corresponding frequent titles in your business… ‘PR supervisor’ will seemingly have higher luck than an obscure title like ‘PR guru.’”
Vijay Sairam, founder and educator at Distant Jobs Central, suggests including an expert abstract on the prime of your resume highlighting your achievements as they relate to the job you’re making use of for. For instance: “Digital advertising and marketing specialist expert in website positioning, PPC and Google Adverts.”
Within the physique of your resume, “specify quantified achievements (e.g., ‘Elevated gross sales by 30% in six months’) as a substitute of quoting plain fluff like ‘Received gross sales celebrity award,’” he advises. If related, even have a piece exhibiting off your technical expertise—laptop languages you recognize or undertaking administration software program you’ve used.
Key phrase suggestions at a look:
- Use the language from the job description, particularly for proficiencies.
- Combine key phrases into previous job duties and keep away from “key phrase stuffing.”
- Absolutely write out any abbreviations, acronyms, certifications, levels, and so forth.
- Regulate uncommon former job titles to wider business requirements.
- Put a keyword-rich skilled abstract on the prime.
Formatting your resume
A uniquely formatted resume may stand out to recruiters, however it won’t make it that far if an ATS has bother studying it.
“AI is getting higher at picture and file recognition, however not each recruiter makes use of the most recent tech,” Morgan says. “Easy, easy-to-follow doc formatting is less complicated to parse and reduces the chance that the ATS will jumble info when migrating your resume into the recruiter portal.”
Microsoft Phrase, Pages and Google Docs are all nice instruments to make use of when constructing your resume. Simply ensure that your letter dimension doesn’t get too small (10 to 12 minimal) and that your font is ATS-friendly (comparable to Instances New Roman or Calibri). Keep away from any photos, design parts or particular formatting like columns, headers and footers, as these can journey up the ATS, and depart some clean area in order that an important info is simple to search out.
Lastly, make sure that your doc is readable by an ATS by saving it as a PDF or .doc file.
Formatting suggestions at a look:
- Maintain the phrases an ordinary dimension and font.
- Keep away from footage, charts, tables, graphics or different visuals.
- Guarantee there may be nonetheless some clean area and anticipated movement of data.
- Keep away from columns, headers, footers or different particular formatting.
- Save as a PDF or .doc relying on what the job description signifies.
Easy methods to double-check your resume is AI-ready
After following the guidelines above, double-check that your resume is ATS-compatible. There are two straightforward methods to do that: by changing the content material to plain textual content and by checking it towards the ATS itself.
Changing to plain textual content
1. Edit→ “Choose All”
2. Edit→ “Copy”
3. Paste plain textual content into a brand new doc utilizing a keyboard shortcut→ Macs (Choice+Shift+Command+V), Home windows (Ctrl+Shift+V).
When you’ve executed this, you’ll be capable of see if any info is lacking. You too can paste the resume into an internet site comparable to Paste Plain Textual content.
Importing the take a look at resume into the ATS
In lots of circumstances, you possibly can add your resume initially of an software and permit the ATS to try to make use of the doc to fill in the remaining. This allows you to see precisely how that individual ATS is studying your resume and might level you to any locations the place it is perhaps getting tripped up.
Checking your resume towards the job description
Along with ensuring your resume is ATS-ready, you’ll additionally need to know the way seemingly it’s to get previous the screening system.
Miran Antamian, founder and CEO of BookWatch, a visible library of AI-created e book summaries, has spent his profession utilizing AI recruiting instruments as a founder and hiring supervisor. He recommends utilizing resume-optimizing web sites. “They enable you to learn how good your resume is for a specific job and how you can use the fitting key phrases,” he says.
Jobscan is the platform our specialists most suggest for doing this, however it’s removed from the one one on the market. Different nice web sites to strive embrace:
Notice: A few of these web sites will cost you a price after a free trial.
When you’ve run your resume by means of one in all these platforms and uploaded the related job posting, you’ll learn how carefully they match. You’ll additionally get strategies for how you can enhance your compatibility—and thus your probabilities of touchdown an interview.
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