How to deal with the Application Tracking System (ATS)

Even the most qualified and experienced candidates can slip under the radar if their applications do not make it past the ATS. Understand how the system ticks — and what you can do to bypass it.

It is already tough to land an offer for a job interview. Sometimes, it feels like you are just chucking applications through a black hole with no answer. Chances are, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is probably making this process more complicated for you. In this case, your application might be automatically rejected or so buried down the list that recruiters may not even notice it.

While this is unfortunate, the ATS remains a crucial tool for most employers, especially in an era where a click is all it takes to send an application. Today, companies often receive high volume of job applications and it would be almost impossible for recruiters to deal with all of them manually. As a result, most large companies deploy an ATS to help streamline their recruitment process and smaller firms are following suit.

How does it work?

An ATS does more than tracking applications and resumes. It also serves as a filter, scoring your resume according to its relevance and ranking it before passing it to a hiring manager or recruiter. But like every form of technology, this system has its drawbacks.

For older systems especially, an ATS does not always process synonyms accurately. As a result, they can only spot exact matches, which can cause even the most impressive resumes to fall under the radar if they lack the right keywords. Thankfully, getting past the ATS is not an impossible task – as long as you can match its requirements.

How to Optimise your Resume

1. Format your Resume

A well-designed resume might be easy on the eyes and shows your creativity to your prospective employer. Unfortunately, it is not going to impress the ATS. At the end of the day, using an easy-to-read resume format and including specific keywords makes your resume more ATS-friendly.

Traditional fonts like Arial might be boring or even unthinkable to use for creative graduates. But it is ultimately your safest bet when it comes to beating the ATS — which often has trouble processing fancy fonts and images, so try to keep images and graphics to a minimum. Keep to the standard resume template and stick to common headings and keywords such as ‘Professional Experience’ and ‘Skills’, as the ATS may not be able to compute uncommon headers.

For submissions, Word documents are most compatible with an ATS, so send them using this format instead of PDF whenever possible. Although it can be programmed to process and read PDF documents, reading errors can surface depending on how it was formatted — so it is better to be safe than sorry!

2. Use relevant keywords and phrases

Before you start on your application, read through the job description and responsibilities carefully. Filter the keywords that are suitable to be placed in your resume, such as in your ‘Skills’ section. But be sure not to overdo it. Stay honest when describing your past experiences and skills.

If you need more help with this, speak to your Career Coaches for assistance in shortlisting those keywords. Your main goal here is to not only ensure that your resume makes it past the ATS but to be more readable to hiring managers.

3. Check your spelling

People may be able to spot out typos, but an ATS may not be able to do so. Review through your resume manually and ensure that there are no typos before running it through a spellcheck. Once that is done, ask someone else to look through it again before sending it in.

You can also take this opportunity to have your Career Coaches appraise it and gather their input to improve your resume. This may sound like a lot of work for just one document, but it will be worth it when it passes through the ATS and reaches the recruiter. So make an appointment with your Career Coach via GEMS when you can!

4. Go around it if you can

Getting to a recruiter or hiring manager directly is the best way to get past the ATS. After all, you do not need to worry about the ATS if your resume does not need to go through it.

Keep in mind that the hiring practices of the company and remember to add a brief note or cover letter on why you think you would be a good fit for the job. In the meantime, focus on building a network in the company — having people vouch for you within the company can greatly boost the odds of you not only landing an interview but the job too.