Did you know after hours of hard work writing and editing, your CV wasn’t even evaluated by a real person during your initial screening stage?
According to research, 95% companies in Fortune 500 companies are using software called "Applicant Tracking System". ATS is a human resources software that acts as a database for job applicants. Applicant Tracking System features scan, sort as well as rank applicants during the recruitment process.
As ATS is widely used by organizations, if you want your CV not to disappear into a wide range of job CVs, but actually reach a real person, you need to follow these 5 rules that can help you beat the ATS robots.
Optimize your Resume with Keywords
As we all know, when we need to look up something, we will enter some words on search engines. The words you used in the search were ‘Keywords’.
Similarly, the recruiters use these keywords to retrieve candidates who have the necessary skills and qualifications for the job. More and more recruiters set up these keywords in ATS programs so that the ATS finds suitable candidates according to these keywords during initial screening stages.
Therefore, keywords determine whether CVs succeed or fail. The easiest way to do this is to identify skills requirements that have occurred repeatedly in the company's job descriptions, modify your CV according to these keywords, and ensure that your CV matches as much as possible with job descriptions.
Give up Fancy Formatting, Be Simple
Many job seekers want to stand out among the many CVs so they invest in fancy layout such as using tables, images as well as columns. However, although ATS continue to improve along with technology development, it still has great limitations. ATS is adept at converting Doc or Docx files, for example, but cannot handle PDF files. As for these novel CV format, ATS will even have a harder to screen your CV. This means, that it won’t be able to read important information from your CV. Consequently, recruiters may never notice your well-designed resume, not to mention the experience and skills that qualify you for the position.
Check your Spelling and Grammar
Spelling and grammar errors are trivial parts of your resume but are also easily overlooked. ATS identify the simplest spelling and grammatical errors. These errors seem very unremarkable but they may likely lead to your CV being eliminated. So please read and examine your CV carefully before applying for any position.
Format your CV Correctly for ATS
You need to ensure that your CV can be scanned by an ATS properly. This makes formatting your CV correctly particularly important.
There are three primary resume formats that can be considered: Chronological format (suitable for job seekers with good experience and working longer years in the same field) and Functional formats (suitable for highlighting leadership skills rather than working experience) and Combination formats.
Optimizing Social Media
With the continuous improvement and development of ATS technology, some ATS software can automatically screen your presentation on social media. Hence, you don't only have to ensure that your CV can be preliminarily screened by an ATS, but your social media will also be evaluated.
So, you also need to optimize your presentation on various social media and choose to showcase your professional side on these platforms.
Now, Let’s create your first ATS-friendly CV together!