I’m sure you must’ve heard of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Oh, you haven’t? Anyway, they are software that act as filters for recruiters. They are what you may call resume robots; gate keeping the resume pool and granting access to only a few that meet certain criteria. But what are these criteria and how do you get past the ATS and impress the human recruiter at the same time? Let’s read on.

 

Don’t include your physical address:

The ATS may have been programmed to select only applicants that live in a particular city or even a part of that city. If you don’t, you won’t even get the chance to express your willingness to relocate. And even if that isn’t part of the selection criteria for the software, living too far away from the company is a red flag for the employer. Instead of your complete address, you may consider just writing the name of the city.

 

Design Your Resume to beat the bots:

To do this, there are certain rules you must follow. First, include the relevant keywords as found in the job description. Also, do not include designer fonts; graphics or logos; no tables or lines across the page; no information in headers or footers, etc. All of these things will either not be read or will be misinterpreted by the filtering software.

 

Include Position of Interest:

This is a great way to Optimize your resume as well. The Applicant Tracking System will be looking for the exact job title match. A simple statement will do, e.g. “I am seeking the position of Data Specialist in CompareMyResume Inc, reference #241232”.

This would mean that every job application should have a specific resume.

There are other tips like using a reverse chronological order format, including a career highlights section and writing out your achievements instead of describing your past jobs. In the end, ensure you use an Applicant Tracking System to Optimize your resume. If you’re applying to a job in Canada, use a Canadian Applicant Tracking System.