Have you been sending out countless applications without feedback? Wondering how best to land that much-desired job interview in Canada? You’re probably the most qualified for the positions you’ve missed out on. Without an interview – that moment where you get to share your fantastic ideas with the employer- no one may ever know. This can be a truly frustrating situation, especially because of the rude silence that some recruiters subject you to.
If you’re that person, there’s only one thing that’s probably wrong! Your resumes aren’t getting to the employers, because the Canadian resume Robots won’t let them. Only about 25 percent of resumes sent to organisations, especially the large ones, actually get seen by human eyes. The rest of them? Condemned to the dungeon of rejects. So if you must land an interview in Canada, you should know how to beat Canadian resume Robots. And this is extremely important because 95% of Fortune 500 companies use them.
These robots are called Applicant Tracking System (ATS). But what is it, and how does it work?
What is the Applicant Tracking System
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software that selects the most qualified applicants based on a prescribed threshold. An ATS is programmed to scan applications and resumes for specific keywords and select only those with a good ranking in the matching scoreboard. A resume with a good score should have at least 90% match on the system.
Only about 6 applicants get called for an interview out of an average of 250 that apply to a corporate position. That is just about two percent that actually beat the robot. So you must Optimize your resume if you want to get called for an interview. As a Canadian job seeker, you should use a Canadian Applicant Tracking System. Bottom line is, to get an interview, you have to beat the recruiter’s robot.
How to beat Resume Robots to get Interviews in Canada?
First, your resume must be Canada-compliant. It must be well written so that it ranks high on a Canadian Applicant Tracking System. To do this, the following tips will help;
- Formatting: the formatting and design on your resume won’t matter when it gets to the ATS. Everything is pasted as plain text. Headers and footers should also be avoided. I strongly recommend the Reverse Chronological Resume format. Put the most recent career history first.
- Soft Skills: For Canadian employers, soft skills are more important. This is something you must pay attention to. The Canadian Applicant Tracking System is programmed to look out for keywords pertaining to soft skills more than it is for hard skills. Use well-spelt out words to include them clearly at the top half of your resume.
- Qualification: Your education background is just what it is until you put it to use. It is an important information that you must clearly spell out. Canadian employers are also interested in this and will scan for specific qualifications using the resume robot.
- Hard Skills: Hard skills may not be the most important information on your resume but they should be there. These are the technical skills for the job. You should also optimize them for keywords.
- Use Canadian language and Spelling: This is one thing Canadian job seekers sometime fail to do. A Canadian Applicant Tracking System will definitely scan for words spelt in Canadian English or terms written the Canadian way.
Lastly, you must scan your resume with a Canadian Applicant Tracking System before you submit your application. Do this alongside the job description to know how suited it is for the position. You should get at least 95% matching score before you submit.
