How to Create an Applicant Tracking System Friendly ATS Resume

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) refers to the specialized software a company or hiring professional uses to analyze your resume. According to software company Capterra, over 75% of recruiters and talent managers use some form of recruiting or applicant tracking software, in conjunction with the Jobscan statistic that 98% of Fortune 500 employers and 80% of all companies now use an ATS to scan their resumes.

This means that to get your resume into the hands of a real person, you need to craft a scannable document that has key phrases present that show you will fit the company’s needs. If you want to know how to make your resume and cover letter ATS-compliant then here’s what you need to know about writing ATS-friendly resumes and getting them to stand out.

ATS is used to scan through submitted documents looking for significant key terms that match the employer’s needs. This makes it easier for large companies to scan resumes as they receive them and filter out resumes that do not fit their criteria. Usually resumes with a score of 80% or above are the only ones passed on to a hiring manager. Each company uses its own custom set of key terms to parse text that concerns your work experience, certifications and skills.

According to a Career Builder study, over 54% of job applicants do not tailor their resumes to each position or employer. This is the main factor that leads to only a quarter of all resumes submitted making it through most ATS systems. The scoring of your documents submitted to a specific company is based on their phrasing and keywords, so by not analyzing the job description and company details, you’re missing out on several scoring aspects.

As discussed, ATS software uses a scoring system where certain elements in a resume are assigned a certain number of points. If the resume gets to a certain point threshold, it gets pushed through. So to make sure that your resume is ATS-friendly you need to be able to look at a job description and parse out relevant keywords in the job description that best relate to your education, work history, your years of experience and your competencies.

Another element of ATS is knockout questions. With these questions, if you don’t have a certain answer, your resume will automatically get rejected. For example, if a job application is looking for six years of experience, the ATS may look through your resume to add up your years of experience. If it doesn’t find that experience, you’re likely to get knocked out. In the example job description below, the keywords and competencies that an applicant’s resume will be scored against have been highlighted below.

Job Description Example:

About the Role:

COMPANY is looking for an administrative assistant to support our dynamic team. We are looking for a well-organized and motivated individual with high energy and a proactive attitude to provide administrative and organizational communications support.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage, prioritize and anticipate 1-4 executives’ day-to-day schedules, confirm meetings, enter expenses and attend to other matters as needed.
• Book domestic and international travel arrangements (air, hotel, ground travel) including complex planning of meeting agendas and logistics, assist with meeting coordination and create detailed itineraries for executive travel. Problem solves non-routine travel issues and has a keen awareness of unique time zones and travel complexities.
• Plan and coordinate department events as they arise, including the support of all meeting details (preparing agendas, preparing presentations, ordering meals, securing space and inviting attendees).
• Prepare internal and external communications and presentations.
• Process expense reports in Workday and ensures spending is within budget.
• Interact and communicate with employees at all levels and across the organization, including other Workday executives and outside vendors.
• Proactive problem solver – takes action with little to no direction and acts on behalf of the Executive. Anticipates what’s upcoming and helps executives stay ahead.

Qualifications:

• A minimum of five years of experience supporting the Executive Suite and or Operations as a sales and or administrative assistant.
• Poised under pressure, is patient, and has the ability to relate and work with a variety of people and personalities.
• Not afraid of change, taking charge and handles new responsibilities daily.
• A passion for sales as you will be connecting and communicating with potential clients and you will be the first person they interact with.

To build an ATS-compliant resume for the job above you would want to include the following key phrases:

Planning, Communication, Meetings, Problem Solver, Agendas, Organization, Workday, Schedule and Coordination

Also in your work history, you should weave in your proficiency with using Workday, processing expense reports and making travel arrangements as those are the essential role responsibilities. Your highlighted experience levels will be counted so having a minimum of five years of experience related to sales, client service or office administration are a must to qualify for this role.

Create Your Resume

One of the major reasons your resume is being rejected by ATS is a hard to scan resume layout. Having large unnecessary graphics, unreadable fonts and hard-to-format text boxes can make your resume difficult for ATS to scan meaning your chances of it being viewed by a real person are slim. The best way to remedy this is by using a resume template. Resume templates provide structure for your resume and allow you to write a professional resume far more quickly than if you started from scratch. ResumeHelp’s resume templates are employer-ready, which means you can rest assured they’ll make it past ATS.

The templates below have been created to be ATS-friendly in presentation and if you want to see more varieties you can use our Resume Builder to create the perfect ATS-compliant resume for every kind of job.

1. 1. Look at job descriptions to find keywords.

   Most of the time, the resume keywords you need for optimization are right in the job description. Take note of the job requirements, and soft and hard skills wanted. Getting the right keywords for your resume is often as simple as picking from the keywords presented to you.

2. 2. Lay out your resume sections effectively.

   When you’re writing your resume, it’s standard practice to modify layouts and use headings to differentiate each section. However, qualified candidates can sometimes get lost just because they fail to use readable design elements and headings that match what an ATS is looking for. It’s best to avoid charts and extravagant graphics (like large headers) along with strange section titles that aren’t “Work Experience”, “Work History” or “Skills,” as the ATS may not be able to pick up different phrasing or sections that have unusual layouts.

3. 3. Think about both the ATS and the recruiter when proofreading.

   Make sure your resume is using a professional and readable font like Times New Roman, Georgia or Arial so that both the ATS and a real-life recruiter can read your content clearly. It’s also important to keep the formatting of your resume as readable as possible by having one-inch margins and double-spaced lines, to make sure your key points are viewed properly. Messing with standard margins to fit the one-page format would make your documents harder to scan.

4. 4. Pick an ATS-friendly resume template.

   One of the big mistakes people can make is choosing a resume template that is hard for ATS to read. The ResumeHelp Resume Builder can help you choose ATS-friendly resume templates that look amazing. Most importantly, it can help you choose from fonts that work well for ATS, like Arial or Times New Roman, help you describe your professional experience and show what resume examples should look like in your field.

5. 5. Review your resume in different file formats.

   Lastly, when you go through your resume for one final proofread, it’s important that you think about it going through an ATS first, then going through a recruiter. So making sure your resume can be scanned through different systems while still being readable is very important. Most employers prefer PDF or word .docx so make sure to download your resume in these formats for an accurate and readable document.

If you want to make it past ATS you need to be able to adapt your resume to changes quickly and have a set of versatile templates that can help your documents be professional and readable. To figure out the best keywords and formats for your industry ResumeHelp has many resources which could help you to create the perfect resume to make it past most ATS systems.

Check out these resources if you are looking for just the right way to present your resume and cover letter:

• Resume Formats
• Resume Examples
• How to Write a Resume
• Resume Skills
• Resume Summary
• Work Experience in Your Resume
• Education in Your Resume