Do you know who (or what) is reading your resume?
It’s exciting to discover a job opportunity that really appeals to you, right? As you draft your resume for that specific position, it’s important to be aware of who, or what, will be reading your resume and making the decisions about your candidacy. Not understanding the review and evaluation process can adversely affect your chances of getting the job, so let’s examine the two main audiences involved in the process: machines and the human hiring team.
In this day and age of online job postings and applications, it’s easier than ever to find a potential job and apply within minutes. Before you click submit, consider the application tracking software (ATS) that will be greeting your materials upon receipt. For many reasons, including the sheer volume of applications, countless companies are using ATS to screen candidates initially. The hiring team programs in a criterion that consists of keywords and phrases, then the software scans your application to identify matches. If enough matches are made, your application moves to the next step in the process. If not, it is rejected. When this happens, a human never lays eyes on your resume! To move through this stage of the process you should review the job description carefully, customize your resume and cover letter based on the position, and highlight your most relevant skills, experience, and accomplishments. In addition to content and wording, your resume should be formatted effectively. There are hundreds of versions of ATS, some of which don’t read formatting such as text boxes, tables, or pictures effectively. To increase your chances of making it through the ATS scan you should integrate the appropriate keywords, format your resume in an original (non-template) version of MS Word or Google Docs (you can then covert it to a pdf if that’s the requested format), and avoid using a multi-column resume (ATS scans top-down, left-right so a column format will result in the system reading the content out of order).
A representative on a hiring team will review your resume either once it’s gone through an initial review by the ATS or if the company elects to review all applications without the help of technology. Although at this point it’s not a computer that will be reviewing your resume, it’s still important to integrate relevant keywords, skills, experience, and accomplishments into your resume so the reviewer will see how your qualifications connect to the job. You need to connect the dots clearly for a potential employer, because in many cases they won’t do it for you. The format of your resume should be both easy to read and scan, in case one of the decision makers only has a few moments to read your application before making an initial decision about your candidacy. Your resume overall should be engaging, logically ordered, and clearly presented. Your content should be grammatically correct, devoid of misspellings, and your tenses should agree with the dates as appropriate for the entries. Present your skills and qualifications in a succinct way and highlight your achievements. Include the impact of what you did, not just the responsibilities you had. By telling your story effectively, a hiring manager will be able to understand how you’ve been successful in the past and how you can support their organization in a positive way in the future.
It’s critical to be able to navigate the process that involves both audiences throughout the hiring process, because when an ATS is involved, you need to move past that in order to get to an actual person. The computer will screen, but ultimately people are making the hiring decisions. This is one reason why networking is critical. If you can engage with someone at the company that will forward your application materials to a decision maker, you will move past the computer onto the human team. Then at that point, make sure your application materials are powerful and professional in order to wow those hiring managers and land that job.
