Why You Need an ATS Friendly Resume
Are you quickly applying to tons of jobs but feel like your application gets lost in the dark abyss of rejection emails? If so, I want you to take a breath and lay off the “quick apply” button.
First off, I want you to know you’re not alone and I will help you change this. You may not be aware but you might have mistakes or formatting that are disqualifying your resume, which results in an automatic rejection of your job applications.
In fact, I have worked with many clients to help them negotiate their salaries, and during my coaching program, we spend time making our resumes ATS-friendly. It’s an important part of my coaching program because it’s normally the first time that my clients really begin to see the value of their time and effort at work. Here is why you need to have an ATS Friendly Resume.
What is ATS?
After hosting a Resume workshop, I found one thing that my clients were missing. They didn’t have resumes that were ATS-friendly. You might be thinking, ok what’s the big deal?
Let’s start with the basics before we dive in. First off, you might be wondering what is ATS? ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System and is used by companies to manage applications. In this job market, some job postings receive hundreds of applicants and it would take too long to have a recruiter sift through hundreds of resumes, and with ATS they don’t have to. It is used to automatically screen and rate resumes, only passing on a handful of resumes that meet certain criteria.
Impact of Not Having an ATS-Friendly Resume
Believe it or not, not having an ATS Friendly resume can negatively impact your job search. So if you’re someone who has been feeling hopeless or frustrated with all the rejection emails you might be seeing in your job search, I want you to recognize that you aren’t the problem, but your resume might be.
Facts about ATS
Here are some astounding facts about ATS:
- In a study by LinkedIn, research showed that 75% of job seeker resumes were auto-rejected by an ATS system. That means that the resume was put in the rejection pile automatically and did not even make it to a recruiters review.
- The average candidates start losing confidence in themselves after the fifth rejection email.
- 72% of these individuals didn’t negotiate because they were worried they wouldn’t find an opportunity.
- Another study found that large companies receive thousands of applicants. There is no way that a recruiter can review so many applications, which is why they use ATS.
Do’s and Don’ts for ATS Friendly Resume
Like anything, there are some obvious do’s and don’ts when it comes to writing a superb ATS friendly resume. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Do’s for an ATS Friendly Resume
- Do use consistent tenses, dates, punctuation, and grammar
- Do use strong action verbs
- Do optimize your resume for keywords
- Do use a simple ATS-friendly format
- Do add metrics and quantification that demonstrate your impact to your resume
- Do incorporate concise bullet points
- Do youse active language
- Do list your experience in chronological order
- Do review and use spell check to avoid mistakes
Don’t’s for an ATS Friendly Resume
- Don’t use inconsistent tenses, dates, punctuation or grammar
- Don’t use buzzwords
- Don’t use a complex resume format that isn’t optimal for ATS
- Avoid using images, graphics, or charts in your resume
- Don’t forget to add metrics and quantification to your resume
- Don’t write long wordy sentences
- Don’t use passive language
- Don’t list your experience out of chronological order
- Don’t leave spelling errors on a resume
Summary of Why You Need An ATS Friendly Resume
The moral of the story is, you cannot take rejection emails personally, because chances are some AI robot or algorithm rejected your resume… not an actual person. My friend, I am not going to let you beat yourself up about rejection emails, not until you’ve analyzed your resume! If you’re getting lots of rejection emails, it just means you might want to lay off the quick apply button and take time making your resume ATS-friendly.
Remember, you want to leave a good impression with your resume and you can’t do that if it never makes it to a recruiters desk. Here is how to make your resume ATS-friendly.
