CV TIPS - 5 Tips To Beat The Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Posted 26th October 2022 • Written by Andrew Fennell on forbes.com • • • • •
You know the job you want, and you know you’ve got the right skills and experience to be successful, but you’re yet to be invited for an interview. In fact, you’ve rarely received so much as a follow-up email.
Surely that many recruiters can’t have passed over your CV?
Before you start to doubt your credentials, there might be one important step you haven’t considered. As with so many areas of our lives, many hiring professionals now rely on technology to help them screen applications.
So the problem is that an actual person might not see your CV for a long time after you submit it. Instead, it will pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS); a HR tool that determines whether your CV is a match or not based on keywords.
This means you need to become an expert in beating the bots. The good news is there are some simple steps you can take to get your CV past an ATS.
Include the right keywords
The most important thing you need to do is ensure that your CV contains the right keywords. Recruiters will search for CVs based on set keywords and criteria relevant to the role, so if you haven’t included these in your application, it will likely go unnoticed.
These keywords could be specific skills, qualifications and job titles that showcase your experience. The best way to ensure you’re ticking the right boxes is to look through the job description and pick out the specific requirements set out by the employer. You can then pepper these keywords throughout your CV.
For example, if the recruiter is looking for a ‘web developer’, be sure to get the job title in there. Not only this but be sure to highlight important skills such as ‘project management’ and ‘testing’. You could also include specific tools if the recruiter has listed them, such as ‘CSS’ or ‘JavaScript’.
In doing so, you make it much easier for the ATS to scan through and find all their relevant keywords, flagging that you’re a good match for the recruiter’s search criteria.
Cut the fluff
When it comes to writing a strong CV, it’s always important to ensure you only include the most relevant information. However, when trying to beat an ATS, this is even more important.
Though it might usually be beneficial to give details of your passion for the industry, how you’ve risen through the ranks and your willingness to keep learning, these are rarely terms a recruiter will search for using an ATS.
Therefore, it’s best to cut the fluff and keep your CV clear, concise and absolutely to the point. Stick to actionable skills, qualifications and job titles that you think recruiters might be searching for.
Use traditional headings
Your CV should be broken up into sections to make the information easier to digest. However, you need to ensure you’re using standardised headings and making them clearly different from the body text. Otherwise, you might confuse the ATS, prompting the tool to organise your information incorrectly. This will make it harder for recruiters to run searches and find your CV.
With this in mind, it’s best to stick to traditional headers like personal profile, key skills, work experience and education to help organise your information, and ensure all heading are big and bold.
The same applies to job titles. Be sure to use clear and traditional job titles, specifically those listed on the job description. Avoid any quirky titles you might have had in the past, such as developer evangelist or cloud chief architect, as these will only be confusing and could cost you an interview.
Format your CV correctly
An ATS might be very technically advanced, but it still has limitations. At the end of the day, it is a machine and not a person, which means poor formatting can make it impossible for the machine to scan and understand your CV.
To give yourself the best chance of beating the bots, you need to make sure your document is left aligned, with margins of at least half an inch. Also, be sure to use standardised fonts such as Arial or Verdana and no smaller than font size 10.
Ensure all information is contained within the body of the document and nothing has spilt into the header or footer. This will boost your chances of application success.
Choose the right file format
You’ve spent hours carefully crafting your CV, so you don’t want to fall at the final hurdle. You need to make sure you save your file in the most reader-friendly format. Some job descriptions will specify the type of file you should submit; however, if this is not the case, it’s best to stick to a Word document or PDF, because they are easily readable by machines. Never submit your CV as an image file because most ATS will not be sophisticated enough to pull words from a non-text based document.
Keep these five tips in mind as you continue your job search, especially if you suspect your CV will be going straight to an ATS and not to a person. This will increase your chances of beating the bots and securing an interview.
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