GETTING READY
SECRET TO APPLICATION TRACKING SYSTEM (ATS) No matter how much work you put into your application, it may never get pass the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and into human hands if you do not do it right. How do you avoid this from happening to you?
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anding a job interview during this difficult job market is already pretty tough on its own. Throw in an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and your resume may either end up automatically disqualified, or be placed so low down the list that recruiters do not even spare a glance at it. For fresh graduates, this is an incredibly harsh reality. However, in an era of the internet and numerous job portals, sending in applications is easier than ever. With top-ranked employers unable to manage the sheer volume of applications flooding them, almost all large and multinational companies have turned to an ATS to aid in screening candidates, with smaller and medium-sized companies increasingly following the trend.
How it works Usually, once you have clicked on the “Send” button, your resume will be sent to an ATS for processing, where words on your resume will be matched to keywords in the job description. Following which, the ATS will use the score based on this process to rank your resume according to its relevance before passing it on to human hands. Although some updated and advanced systems are now able to process synonyms, there are still some companies using older systems that can only spot exact matches. Because of this, resumes from top candidates have been known to slip to lower ranks, or even trashed. This means that if you want your resume to beat the ATS, then it needs to get matched.
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SUTD career guide 2021
How to optimise your resume Format your resume Having a well-designed resume may tell a potential employer a lot about your creative inclinations, but it does not help your application when it comes to the ATS. At the end of the day, an ATS is just a programme that relies on matching keywords in the job description to the resume. This means simple resumes with minimal designs and lots of matching keywords are the ultimate winners. Turning to basic fonts like Arial may seem unthinkable to a designminded jobseeker, but it is the safest bet to beat the ATS. In addition, remove all logos and photos. An ATS
will reject fancy fonts and images as it cannot read them. Keep to the standard resume template, and do away with specific headings, such as Publications and Affiliations – the ATS will have trouble computing those too. Stick to common headings, such as Professional Experience, Skills, Education and Qualifications. In other words, the most common descriptive keywords. Submit your resume in Word format rather than PDF if you can. Although an ATS can be programmed to process and read PDF documents, there may be errors depending on how the text is formatted within the PDF. A Word doc file is still the safer bet.
