How to Beat an Applicant Tracking System?

An applicant tracking system is used by many employers for automating and streamlining their hiring process. Throughout your job search, you will likely encounter some applications which use an applicant tracking system to screen candidates. These applicant tracking system quickly become the primary way those large companies recruit candidates online. The job hunters must know that nearly 40% of the employers use an applicant tracking system for screening candidates for their job opening. The ATS system does not track where you are in the recruitment process. As a result, there are many companies who have thousands of resume sitting in a database that they have never looked at, in fact, 75% of the resumes are never seen by the real person, as per the reports of Josh Bersin.

If the job offer is posted with the help of job board, then your resume will likely be scanned by bots before it reaches an actual human being. An applicant system helps to scan your resume for terms which match those sued in the job description. The system will pass your application on to the real person. There are most of the brands somewhere with an ATS vendor’s logo, says Dustin Polk. If you cannot find this anywhere in their listing, mouse over the apply or submit resumes button and check the destination URL in the bottom of your web browser. If the company is using recruiting software, then the destination URL may show which one.

6 Simple Tips to Beat ATS

Below are some of the simple tips that help to beat applicant tracking system are discussed as:

·         Use standard resume headings

There are some of the different acceptable ways to phrase headings within your resume like a professional summary, career summary, work experience or work history, etc. Whatever titles you decide to use, you must be sure to stick to these standard headings in order to keep your resume clean, professional and ready for ATS. By over customizing your resume headings, you can make it more difficult for the applicant tracking system to parse your resume. They are typically unable for recognizing nonstandard headings and as a result, they are not able to sort the content appropriately in their database.

·         Correct resume format

There are many qualified resumes which have been rejected because their format was not optimized for an ATS. There are three main resume formats such as chronological, functional and hybrid. While the chronological is the most popular, it might not be the right fit for you. By making sure that your resume is formatted correctly will help you to increase your chances of getting through ATS.

·         Don’t touch header and footer

While it is tempting to make your resume stand out, eye-catching images and fancy typefaces often confuse ATS. Headers and footers are the best left empty with standard 1-inch margins. It is always best to let your experience and skills set apart from others.

·         Echo resumes keyword

If anything on the resume can beat ATS system, then it would be those truly resume keywords. Thee resume keywords are the skills and the qualifications in the original job description which must be included in a resume.

·         Left alignment and interface

Use the left alignment for your resume text. While the right text alignment might paper to give your resume a formal or edgy appearance, it won’t actually boost its chances of beating applicant tracking system. In fact, it could prevent the system from parsing content correctly.

·         Write all acronyms

You may have the thought that your parents and grandparents were terrible at deciphering testing slang such as “OMG” or “LOL” but as compared to them, applicant tracking system is stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to acronyms.

So if you feel that you are a right & perfect fit for the job posted on any job portal then make sure to cross check these 6 points in your resume to make better chances of getting shortlisted by the ATS. Remember most of the companies are now preferring to use an ATS for first round of screening especially if the company is big or job profile & salary is so catchy that it is attracting much more than the required no. of candidates. So to make your resume break through an ATS is important considering the amount of competition we face now days. Hope these tricks help you in beating the ATS.

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