Candidate portals—the black holes where résumés disappear—are a huge frustration for anyone looking for a new job. We just “know” that these portals can’t be working perfectly. You apply for a role that is a slam-dunk match to your skills and experience, and you don’t hear back at all, or you get a “Thanks-but-no-thanks” email. The hard part: 99% of the Fortune 500 use these portals known as ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems), according to JobScan.
Talent acquisition and HR teams like ATSs because they reduce the hours spent by humans (often too few in HR functions) reading résumés. Presumably, the AI in the ATS system can parse for key words and match those to a job description and any other custom parameters that a company builds into their résumé screening.
Here’s the rub: The AI in an ATS is only as good as its technical functionality and embedded parameters allow it to be. HR professionals readily admit that candidate ATSs (such as Workday, SuccessFactors, Taleo and ICIMS) do screen out qualified candidates.
Randstad RiseSmart (a global talent mobility and outplacement solutions company) states that their résumé writers have found that résumés with the same content can be ranked differently by an ATS “depending on how ATS-friendly the formatting is.”
Aha! Formatting. This is a big part of getting your résumé past the ATS and on the desk of a hiring manager.
Based on my review of the current advice regarding ATS-friendly formatting, here are the critical résumé formatting tips you need to know:
- Use a universal font such as Helvetica, Times New Roman, Garamond or Cambria. Conversely, don’t use special fonts that need to be downloaded.
- Follow the ATS guideline as to whether you submit your résumé as a PDF or a Word doc. In the past, PDFs often ended up a muddled mess when translated by an ATS. This is changing. To be on the safe side, when in doubt, go with a Word doc.
- Do not use text boxes, charts, graphics, logos, headers and footers. These still pose problems and your résumé content may end up in the wrong fields or jumbled. (Bold, italics and underlining are all fine.)
- Use round or square bullets. Avoid check marks, stars or other unusual bullet formats.
- Upload a chronological résumé with the dates of employment clearly identified. Functional résumés confound ATS AI, which is typically looking for a logical progression of dates.
What about the key word thing?
Keywords are important and should be included appropriately in your résumé. The old idea of putting keywords in white ink to “trick the bot” is bunk. Appropriate use of keywords requires you to parse the job description for its keywords and relate them to your experience.
This means that you really do need to tailor your résumé to some extent for each job because the keywords are going to vary. Use a highlighter on the job post so those words are top of mind. Go back to your résumé and look to see where you can accurately incorporate them.
Obviously, you can’t embed keywords if you don’t have the skills or experience. Do this and the hiring team will find you out soon enough. As IT audit, infosecurity and GRC professionals, your integrity is golden, and no job—or job application—is worth risking that.
Keywords alone are not the golden ticket. A whole slew of qualified candidates will be including key words on their résumé. The real differentiator— especially for humans—are your accomplishments.
Satisfying the bot, impressing the human
In the end, your résumé must impress the hiring manager. Your goal is an interesting, cogent and descriptive story of your work and your career. It must also be accurate and true.
Both the AI in an ATSand hiring leaders will be interested in how you quantify your work: the size of teams you lead, the number of projects you complete each year, cost-savings generated, money found, number of controls tested, and so forth.
Bots and hiring leaders will also take note of words that characterize your skills as “strong” or that you have “expertise” or “mastery” of a particular tool, review type or framework.
Hiring leaders are most interested in your ability to lead, influence, solve problems, demonstrate good judgement, work with teams, work with clients and contribute to enterprise goals. To really stand out, invest the time in building compelling mini-stories into your résumé bullets.
Beyond the ATS: Reach out
I had a senior manager and director at different global companies tell me that they had applied to jobs that looked like perfect matches and then they got automated rejection emails. Both of these proactive folks then did a bit of research on LinkedIn, found a plausible looking internal recruiter at the company, and reached out with a friendly LinkedIn InMail, noting they had applied and sharing a bit about their relevant skills. They were both immediately contacted for interviews. They both got job offers.
That’s a small sample size, but the message is instructive. To get your dream job or simply the next great step in your career, it can pay to be bold. Taking the time to seek out the talent acquisition or hiring leaders who could be interested in what you have to offer is a worthwhile alternative strategy to blindly applying via the company’s website. The first step in all of this: Know what you have to offer!