Mary Eileen Williams
Technology has altered the hiring process significantly, especially when it comes to resumes. Due to the overwhelming volume of responses to posted positions, most mid- to large-sized companies are now using applicant-tracking systems to perform a first-level screening of incoming resumes.
Although the software has been around for a while, many job-seekers are unaware of how it works. This mistake can be costly because applicant tracking systems process today's massive numbers of resumes, whittle them down to a manageable size and select only those that are suitable to pass along to reviewers and recruiters. As a savvy applicant, you should presume that the resume you submit to an online posting will be screened in or out by this software.
In order to ensure your resume gets passed along, you'll need to:
Learn the rules of the game. Applicant tracking systems are programmed to allow only those resumes that match the search criteria (i.e. keywords) to make it through the screening process and eventually wind up on the recruiter's computer screen. If yours does not reflect what they're looking for, it will disappear into the black hole of cyberspace, unseen by human eyes.
Give them what they want. You'll need to match your skill sets to the skills advertised in the posting. Whatever you put on your resume needs to be 100 percent truthful; however, it is your decision as to which skills you choose to emphasize. So ignore your creative urges and repeat the words you find in the posting. Remember, software cannot make assumptions -- your resume needs to duplicate the advertised skills as closely as possible.
Make your resume eye friendly. If your resume does make it through the screening process of the applicant-tracking software, it will eventually be viewed by a human screener/recruiter. Most reviewers claim to give a resume only a 30-second scan to determine whether or not it is worth reading. Your key skills and experience, therefore, need to be readily visible and literally leap out at the reader. This means you'll not only need to match the skills and keywords in the ad but also place them at the top of your resume, surrounded by plenty of white space, and use bullet points to catch the eye.
More Tips and Complete Huffingtonpost article
Although the software has been around for a while, many job-seekers are unaware of how it works. This mistake can be costly because applicant tracking systems process today's massive numbers of resumes, whittle them down to a manageable size and select only those that are suitable to pass along to reviewers and recruiters. As a savvy applicant, you should presume that the resume you submit to an online posting will be screened in or out by this software.
In order to ensure your resume gets passed along, you'll need to:
Learn the rules of the game. Applicant tracking systems are programmed to allow only those resumes that match the search criteria (i.e. keywords) to make it through the screening process and eventually wind up on the recruiter's computer screen. If yours does not reflect what they're looking for, it will disappear into the black hole of cyberspace, unseen by human eyes.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThanks -- as someone who reviews hundreds of resumes a day, I completely agree. Having said that, I also get really tired of candidates who are "over-optimizing" for the screening software. Recently I spoke to a candidate who called to ask why she hadn't been invited for an interview. She said "I copied the entire job post into different parts of my resume so that I'd get through the software"
Well, when I glanced at her resume, it really didn't say anything unique about her. Even if she made it through the software, her resume was not fit for human eyes!