Escape the Applicant Trapping System

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a tool designed to stand between you and your next job.

Okay, snark aside, it is an indispensable tool for recruiters to filter hundreds or thousands of resumes down to the ones that the hiring manager should look at. Unfortunately, these machines aren't terribly smart, and if your resume doesn't explicitly speak to the job description, you're likely to get ghosted, or rejected immediately.

I wanted to understand these beasts better, so I used a free trial. The main takeaway: BambooHR doesn't do resume parsing. They say recruiting should be about the “personal touch” (love it!), so it's the ATS we all wish we were going through.

However, since many others aren't so polite, here are common tips for making your escape.

Uglify your resume

As someone who values visual design and enjoys putting real work into presentations and documents, this one causes me physical pain… but, many applicant trapping systems choke on pretty resumes. (Sorry designers!) Ugly it up, because it needs to be machine parsable—and some companies are using legacy ATSes that really can't handle much creativity at all. So:

• Ditch columns, tables, footers, and other nice-looking grouping elements.
• Use MM/YYYY dates.
• Avoid icons and graphics
• Use system fonts or submit PDFs. (I prefer PDFs so I don't have to worry about fonts or formatting issues, but I've read that Word docs might be safer.)
• Don't differentiate your structure…parsability is key (e.g. your name → objectives → contact info → Top Skills → Work Experience → Education).

Customize your resume for each application

Assuming your resume is parseable, the ATS's main job is to scan it for keywords. The general advice is to use keywords without stuffing them. Completely awkward and artificial use of keywords isn't going to help, so be judicious. Choose keywords from the job description itself (and common parlance in your domain). Make sure your keywords aren't misrepresenting you…you'll have to back them up at some point.

(I've seen articles that even suggest some ATSes will score you higher if you mention the company name in the objectives section. Anyone know whether this is still true?)

Use Jobscan or SkillSyncer

I tried Jobscan and a couple of similar tools. Not exactly an exhaustive search, but I found that one Jobscan competitor parsed my resume and helpfully regurgitated it in a format chock full of known bad practices. Yikes. Jobscan and SkillSyncer both compare your real resume to a real job posting and give you solid advice. The free versions of each are fairly robust.

Skip the ATS and change the game

The easiest trap to get out of is the one you didn't step in. Instead of sending your resume into a potential black hole, work personal connections to get close to the hiring manager or anyone else on the inside. Treat it like you're a one-person sales org:

• Prospect for potential buyers (the companies you're interested in).
• Find out who the decision-makers are, e.g. by combing through the company's LinkedIn. (Failing that, you can look for people in a similar role to the one you want.)
• If you have connections in common, see if you can get an intro.
• Reach out and ask how you can help them solve the problem that necessitated the job posting.

You'll still need an ATS-friendly resume, but having the inside track lets you skip the line.