How to get your resume past gate keepers
Andy Nanopoulos • February 17, 2023 • 3 min read
For those of you in the job search process, you may not be aware of the terms "gate keepers" or "ATS (Applicant Tracking System)". Many companies use third-party systems to manage the job application process. When you upload your resume to one of the these systems (ATS), the system's first task is to parse your resume. If it cannot be parsed, it is silently rejected. The next step is to compare the parsed results to the job requirements and to rank the resume. If the ranking does not meet a threshold, again, the resume is silently rejected. These steps occur before humans (HR or the hiring manager) get to see your resume.
To get past the gate keepers, your resume has to be formatted correctly and has to be customized for each job to which you are applying.
How do you optimize your resume to be parsed?
There are a number of excellent resources online such as Jobscan that describe the optimization process. You can find ATS-optimized templates for your resume and cover letter online. These recommendations are for the resume that will be uploaded to an ATS system, not for resumes that you email directly to a recruiter or hiring manager. Here is what I have gleaned:
- Keep the format as simple as possible. Do not use headers, footers, columns tables, or text boxes.
- Remove all images.
- Use standard sections in this order
- Contact Information
- Summary or Professional Summary
- Work Experience or Professional Experience
- Education
- Skills
- Use reverse chronological order for your work experience.
- Use mm/yyyy for work experience date formats.
- Use boring fonts such as Arial (no Wingdings!)
How do you optimize your resume to be ranked?
- Include the job title from the job description verbatim in the first sentence of the the Professional Summary section.
- Incorporate keywords and phrases from the job description into your Professional Summary, Work Experience, and Skills sections. This exercise should not turn your resume into fiction.
- Subscribe to a service such as Jobscan.
- Keep iterating until Jobscan gives you a score of 75 or greater.
How do you optimize your cover letter?
Although all jobs may not require a cover letter, if you are asked to provide one, it may pass through the ATS system as well.
- Incorporate keywords and phrases from the job description into your cover letter if it make sense to do so.
How do you organize the files since each resume has to be customized?
- On your computer or file service such as Google Drive or Dropbox, create a folder called "resumes".
- Create a sub-directory called "templates". Place your original resume and cover letter in this directory.
- Create a sub-directory for each company that you are applying to.
- Name your resumes
<First Name>_<Last Name>_Resume.docxfor the file that will be uploaded. Use .pdf for the resume that will be emailed if needed. - Name your cover letters
<First Name>_<Last Name>_Cover_Letter.docx.