Nailing an interview is the first crucial element in determining whether you’ll land that job or get that promotion at your workplace. But truth be told—securing the interview is not a walk in the park.
The reasons why it’s difficult to secure an interview in the job marketplace are twofold. First, the job market is overcrowded. In any job that’s advertised, there will be hundreds or even thousands of job applicants who are qualified. Second, employers don’t have time to read through the thousands of the resumes that they get. So, there are high chances that your resume will never reach your potential hiring manager.
How Software Systems Affect Your Resume:
So, how do companies filter through thousands of resumes to find out the ones that match the skills and job experiences for the job that has been announced? Good question. Well, the whole process of screening and assessing resumes—to determine whether they contain necessary information—has been evolving fast, thanks to the ever-changing IT capabilities.
Today, companies are using a software systems known as Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to screen and assess whether your resume contains necessary skills and job experiences for the job they want to fill. An ATS is a software application system that’s used by HR specialists to handle the recruitment needs of an organization electronically.
Think of an ATS as a “robot” that screens your resume to find out whether it contains the necessary skills and job experiences that are required for the advertised job. Therefore, if you’d like your resume to get pass through this software system, then it’s imperative that you to learn to use the ATS’s “language.”
This is the only way your resume will be selected from thousands of resumes so that your prospective hiring manager can have a glimpse of it. But first and foremost, you must learn what this software system is to know its “language.”
What You Should Know About ATS:
Before you begin to craft your resume, it’s vital that you write your resume based on how the ATS will screen and assess your critical skills and job experiences—as it filters those that will proceed to the next stage and those that will be trashed. Why is this important? This is important because many highly qualified and skilled job seekers resumes are rejected by the ATS just because the resumes haven’t been written according to the ATS “language.”
But you can’t blame anyone. That’s because this software is not a human being. Therefore, flaws in their design and development are expected. So, how does the ATS filter through thousands of resumes to find out resumes that proceed to the next stage?
Well, an ATS works the same way that a Google search engine does.
Consider this; you want to find out who is best resume writing services in Phoenix Arizona. The first thing that you would probably do is go to Google and type the keywords-- best resume writing services in Arizona—on the text search box of the search engine. Once you hit the enter key, Google shows you a list of resume writing companies in Arizona.
The search engine will accomplish this task by “crawling” over the internet so that it displays the results on your browser. From the results—hundreds or thousands—that has been found on the World Wide Web, the search engine will rank these outcomes based on the keywords that you typed. In a nutshell, those keywords that resonates with results found on the World Wide Web will have better rankings—and that’s what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about.
What about an ATS?
Well, the ATS will eliminate the formatting and scan for the specific keywords and the key phrases from your resume. It will then begin sorting all the content on your resume based on your education qualifications, contact information, key skills and job experiences. The hiring manager’s list of desired skills and his/her key words will be matched by the expertise and keywords on your resume.
The ATS will then rank the results based on how relevant your education qualifications, contact information, key skills and job experiences matches the job description. Finally, the ATS will score all the resumes so that it finds out which candidates are most qualified.
So, does this ring the bell on how your resume should be crafted?
The Bottom Line
Ask youself this question, "how do I know if my resume is passing companies software systems?". The answer: are you getting called in for lots of job interviews...? If you still are not sure, www.domyresume.net will review your resume for free.
Your resume should be optimized for the ATS if you’d like it to go to the next stage. But crafting a resume that’s SEO is easier said than done. That’s why you should consider hiring the services of a certified professional resume writer.