Welcome to the Machine: Writing a resumé that's ATS compliant

Since re-imagining my life, I've spent quite a bit of time working on my resumé. I've also helped others develop theirs, and hopefully helped them in their job-seeking journeys. Jobscan offer a useful resumé screening service that helps you match your experience with the job you're considering.

Jobscan's helpful article could be the difference between your resumé reaching human hands and you receiving a generic email like this: "Thank you for the time and care you took in applying for this role. Unfortunately in this instance you have not been chosen for further consideration for this position."

Jobscan's Jon Shields goes on to say that ",job seekers also need their resume to be compatible with applicant tracking systems (ATS). An ATS-friendly resume template can be the difference between getting noticed and slipping through the cracks"

Resumé Do's and Don'ts

Jobscan consulted with seven experts and came up with some helpful tips. Read the full article here.

Remember too, that some industries have different requirements, so take that into consideration when deciding what to keep or discard.  I read their thoughts and decided that these are the things I should change:

1. Get rid of "references available on request."

2. Check carefully that my formatting is consistent. For example, using consistent dates throughout.

3. Keep my LinkedIn link and change my address to simply a location.

4. Change my formatting to a simpler, ATS-friendly format.

5. Make my bullet-points short, sweet and with white space between.

I found the comments on visuals interesting. Two of the experts had helpful comments to ensure that your visuals don't mean hiding key points from the ATS. 

 

ATS-friendly Templates

Check out these templates on Jobscan's website. You can have them emailed, or you can download them. There's also a Google Docs link if you want to keep them in the cloud.

One final word of advice was given me by a friendly real-estate agent. Not every employer is going to love your work. Her advice was simply to "move on and say, "NEXT!"