If you’ve been job hunting for a while you’ve probably heard about applicant tracking systems. ‘ATS’ for short, these are the software systems used by companies to accept and track applications from job seekers. But do you really need to care about them?
Yes and no.
Do a bit of digging and you’ll find older advice suggesting that these systems struggle with resumes in PDF format, and with tables, and with formatting like italics. This was probably true at one point, but I have tested resumes using tools like Jobscan and skillsyncer (which check how ATS-friendly your resume is) and they seem to do just fine with these things.
So no, you (mostly*) don’t need to care about whether an ATS can read your resume.
What you do need to care about is how recruiters use applicant tracking systems. That’s super, super important.
How recruiters use applicant tracking systems (& why it matters)
As part of the research for my book on resume design I’m talking to lots of recruiters. I ask how they review applications, what they look for, and what’s a hard “no” in a resume. In a recent conversation I spoke with a recruiter for a very well-known social media company, and she staggered me with an example.
A couple months ago her company posted a role that received 1,400 applications. 1,400!
But that's not the real kicker. Of these, she personally only looked at 200.
Put another way, that means only 14% of applicants actually made it to the recruiter.
How did those 200 make the cut? To choose a workable number of candidates this recruiter searched her ATS for applications that included a number of specific keywords. These let her zero in on the candidates who were the best fits.
A handful of words made the difference. 1,200 people didn’t have the right mix of keywords. 200 did.
The key takeaway here: If you don't have the right keywords, the ATS may never surface your resume to the recruiter.
That’s what’s important about applicant tracking systems.
Great keywords are key
A good resume includes the keywords that a recruiter will search for using their ATS.
There’s no one-size-fits-all list of keywords, but here are four tips for improving your keywords and improving your odds of making it past the ATS:
Use the same words you see in the job description as keywords. If the job description mentions “backlog grooming,” make sure you use “backlog grooming” in those exact words on your resume.
But also include synonyms. Going back to the last example, you might add “backlog prioritization,” “backlog management,” and “backlog refinement.”
Include a mix of keywords for hard skills, industry types, and areas of focus.
Use your cover letter as another place to embed keywords.
That last suggestion came from a recruiter and was a surprise even to me. They pointed out that both your cover letter and your resume are indexed by applicant tracking systems when you apply for a role, so they’re both great places to include keywords. (And if that’s not reason enough, there are a few more good reasons to add a cover letter to your application.)
TLDR
Let’s sum up:
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are the systems used by companies to accept and filter job applications.
Recruiters use keywords to search their ATS for good candidates.
If you don’t have the right keywords, your resume won’t make it past the ATS to the recruiter.
Want a quick fix for your resume? Take a stab at improving your keywords.
Footnote
* One caveat: It’s definitely true that an ATS can’t understand graphics, so if you use images in your resume then that information might be invisible to an ATS.
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