How to Score Highly on the ATS

How to Score Highly on the ATS with your Resume/ CV:

If you’re serious about getting a job, you must know how an ATS works. Otherwise, you’ll expend your time and energy making resumes no one will ever have a chance to read.

What is ATS – Applicant Tracking Systems?

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are software applications that scan resumes and other job recruitment documents for relevant keywords such as skills, job titles, and educational background. To pass the ATS scan, your resume/CV has to be formatted properly, and include the right words.

If you want to get to the interviewing stage—

You have to make your CV ATS friendly: use an ATS compliant template, add the right keywords, and make it a great read for the actual human recruiter.

What Is an ATS Compliant CV?

An ATS-compliant CV is a document created in a way that lets the applicant tracking system parse the application with ease. The formatting is simple and easy to scan. ATS-friendly resumes/CV also contain keywords that match the job ad, highlight relevant work experience and professional skills.

An ATS is a tool for recruiters, so why should you bother?

If your CV doesn’t play well with applicant tracking systems, it’ll never get through to the human recruiter. It’ll only end up in the recruitment black hole for all eternity.

It’s estimated that over 75% of the recruiters use some ATS. Other sources say that up to 98% of the big companies and organisations rely on Applicant Tracking Systems. About 94% of those who incorporated some sort of ATS into their recruitment process say it has improved the hiring process. Although in Kenya, not most organisations use ATS, they HR systems that are automated to sift through the applications.

But how does an ATS work?

The ATS scores candidates’ resumes/CVs according to certain preset criteria and shows the recruiter which candidates are the best fit for the advertised position.

The scoring differs from one ATS system to another.

For example—

Taleo, one of the most popular ATS software solutions today, does the so-called keyword scoring. In other words, your resume needs to have a certain number of relevant keywords for the system to let your resume through.

Taleo also allows to set up certain knockout questions. These questions determine whether or not you meet the criteria set by the company.

A knockout question could be something like: How many years of PM work experience do you have?

If the answer is set to five, the system will either automatically reject anything that’s below that number or lower your candidate scoring.

Other applicant tracking systems work in a similar fashion:

They let the recruiters assign different weight to questions, sort the candidates on the basis of their answers, set up disqualifying questions, etc.

Recruiters can easily customize their ATS resume scanning options. Make sure your resume/CV doesn’t miss a thing.

How to Beat the System and Make the Perfect ATS Resume?

The perfect ATS resume doesn’t exist. Why? Because you can never be sure how the recruiter set up the system. You may be a perfect fit. But if one of the most important criteria is your willingness to relocate and you’d rather not, you won’t get the job.

Despite this, you can still prepare an ATS optimized resume/CV to boost your chances.

Here’s how to make an ATS-friendly resume step by step:

Reply to a specific job offer. You should treat the job description as a benchmark for your application documents. You may not know how the recruiter set up the system, but you can make informed guesses on the basis of what they specified in the ad.

Tailor your resume/CV Tailoring your resume/CV to the job offer is crucial. That’s the best you can do to get invited to an interview. If you send a generic resume/CV that doesn’t have much to do with the job offer itself, your chances of succeeding are close to zero. The following points specify what you can do.

Identify the Key Areas that the Job advertised is looking for and choose the best resume format. There are three main resume formats: chronological resume, functional resume, and combination resume. Of the three, the chronological resume is your safest bet as no ATS will have problems parsing it.

Use ATS-readable fonts. The best resume fonts are the ones that are readable to humans and machines alike. Choose simple, professional-looking fonts for your resume.

Label your resume sections in an understandable way. The resume/CV section headings must be easy to navigate. First of all, the ATS will surely know where you described your experience if you label the section Experience rather than Things I Am Proud Of. Second of all, a recruiter will only spend 6 seconds scanning your resume/CV, so don’t confuse them about your education section.

Use the ATS resume keywords. Using the right resume keywords is essential. An ATS resume must follow the pattern set out in the job offer. So take a good look at the phrasing, and describe your experience imitating the language of the job posting. For example, if the employer is looking for a team-player, describe yourself as one. If you keep describing your teamwork skills as being collaborative and miss out the team-player keyword entirely, chances are the ATS resume/CV test will miss it too.

Choose the right skills for the position. Putting the right skills on your resume will surely show the ATS you deserve a high candidate score. Again, you can use synonyms (collaboration or teamwork), but try to include the original wording at least once, just to be sure. Plus, if your resume/CV goes past the ATS scan, the recruiter will also get to see you’re perfectly qualified to get the job done.

Conclusion

Have the recruiter in the back of your mind when optimizing your resume/CV for the ATS.

Once you focus on optimizing your resume the ATS scan, it’s easy to forget you’re doing all this so that a human will have a chance to read it. Make sure your resume profile and all the other sections read well and impress the recruiter with the achievements you put on your resume.

Also, have the ATS in the back of your mind when writing your resume for the recruiter.

Yes, your resume must read well, but it also has to pass the resume ATS test. So, remember to include the right keywords, phrasing, and focus on the areas delineated in the job ad. Let the job offer serve you as a benchmark for your resume. And avoid including extra elements such as tables or footers—ATSs don’t like them.

Pro Tip: You can use an online ATS resume checker that will compare your resume/CV against the job offer to see how much your resume overlaps with the requirements of the job ad.

Here’s all you need to remember about making the ATS resume:

The ATS (Applicant Tracking System) helps the recruiters manage recruitment processes by identifying qualified candidates.

The ATS scans resumes, and scores them according to the criteria pre-set by the recruiter.

Even though you can never know what criteria a recruiter chose, you can treat a job offer as a benchmark for your resume.

A good ATS resume should always be tailored to the position you’re seeking and use an ATS-friendly resume template.

If you follow the steps above your resume will be ATS-compliant.How to Score Highly on the ATS with your Resume/ CV POSTED ON MARCH 6, 2021 BY INTEGRATED STAFFING If you’re serious about getting a job, you must know how an ATS works. Otherwise, you’ll expend your time and energy making resumes no one will ever have a chance to read.