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Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System & Into Human Hands. Does job searching sometimes feel like you’re flinging resumes and cover letters into a black hole?

Beat the Robots: How to Get Your Resume Past the System & Into Human Hands

You may be wondering if your applications are being read at all. Perhaps you’ve heard that computerized resume scanners reject applications before they even make it into human hands. And yes—at many companies that receive a high volume of applications, that’s true. The internet has completely transformed the job searching landscape. Long gone are the days when you’d “pound the pavement” or “go in and ask to speak to a manager” for all but the smallest local businesses. Just ask Muse Career Coach Yolanda M. So hiring managers and recruiters like Owens frequently use an applicant tracking system (ATS)—software that helps them organize job applications and ensure none fall through the cracks.

Luckily, getting past the ATS is a lot easier than you might think. 1. But the reason she looked at such a small percentage of applications? 2. 3. 4. 5. Don’t do any of this! 6. 7. 8. Free Resume Templates: 279 resume samples. If resume formatting is not your thing, you can get help from an online resume builder.

Free Resume Templates: 279 resume samples

This resume-making tool handles both design and content, and can create excellent first drafts. The search for work is a race, and resume builders are starting blocks. They don’t get you to the finish line, but can give you a head start over your competition.Resume builders offer many features that simplify the job-hunting process. How to Make Sure Your Resume Gets Past Applicant Tracking Systems. Are you sending out resumes for perfect-match positions and not getting calls?

How to Make Sure Your Resume Gets Past Applicant Tracking Systems

If so, then you may be the victim of Applicant Tracking Systems, or ATS — the software many companies use to read your resume and rank it according to keywords. According to Forbes, as many as 75% of qualified applicants’ resumes are not getting past these systems. And a recent study indicated that over 70% of Fortune 1000 companies are now using Applicant Tracking Systems. (Find this stat interesting? Tweet it!) Note that even if you give your resume to a friend who works at a large company, the Human Resources folks will still insist it be fed into the Applicant Tracking System to ensure compliance with EEOC rules. So, here are six tips to ensure your resume will be properly interpreted by the ATS: 1. Resume, Meet Technology: Making Your Resume Format Machine-Friendly. You’ve probably heard this advice for making your resume stand out: Sprinkle in plenty of juicy keywords so recruiters will pluck your document out of the pile.

Resume, Meet Technology: Making Your Resume Format Machine-Friendly

But these days, the first review of your resume is more likely to be a software program, known as an applicant tracking system (ATS), than a human being interested in the quality of your paper stock and the power of your prose. While those qualities will be important in subsequent rounds, your first challenge will be to win over a very sophisticated machine that plays by its own complex rules. The Easy How-To Guide for Formatting Resumes for Applicant Tracking Systems. Now that you’ve got the formatting nailed down, let’s take a look at the actual content of the resume and make sure it is compatible with an ATS.

The Easy How-To Guide for Formatting Resumes for Applicant Tracking Systems

Beef up your skills section To improve your chances of being discovered by the ATS, make sure to include any certifications you’ve received and mention any industry-specific terminology (ie. Salesforce for sales professionals or Oncology for healthcare professionals). Include both the spelled-out version and abbreviations of the same word. The Resume Summary Statement: When You Need One and How to Do It. It’s been well established that the good ol’ objective statement has gone out of fashion in the world of resumes.

The Resume Summary Statement: When You Need One and How to Do It

But what’s all this about its replacement—the summary statement? Depending on who you ask and how you’re using it, summary statements can either be a complete waste of space or a total game changer. For those of you who don’t know, a summary statement (also known as “Summary of Qualifications” or just “Competencies”) essentially consists of a few pithy and strong statements at the beginning of your resume that help summarize your skills and experience in order for a prospective employer to quickly get a sense of the value you could offer. Here’s a sample: Summary Sounds great, right? The short answer is, it depends. If you do decide that a summary statement is right for you, get ready to do some digging and some introspection.

Once you have these two cardinal rules down, the real fun begins. How to Quantify Your Resume Bullets (When You Don't Work With Numbers) You’ve likely heard the advice to add numbers to your resume bullets. It helps recruiters really picture the impact you’ve made in your position, and it frankly just sounds more impressive. See for yourself. Which person would you hire?

Person 1: Duties included taking field measurements and maintaining records, setting up and tracking project using Microsoft Project, and developing computerized material take off sheets.Person 2: Initiated and managed tracking systems used for the Green District water decontamination project, saving $125,000 on the overall project through a 30% decrease of staff allocation time. Exactly. 185 Powerful Verbs That Will Make Your Resume Awesome. Led… Handled… Managed… Responsible for… Most resume bullet points start with the same words. Frankly, the same tired old words hiring managers have heard over and over—to the point where they’ve lost a lot of their meaning and don’t do much to show off your accomplishments. So, let’s get a little more creative, shall we? Give your résumé a face lift. After avoiding the 7 deadly sins of résumé design, you may be asking, “If I can’t use crazy colors, clip art, and other types of decoration, how do I make my résumé stand out from the crowd?”

Give your résumé a face lift

Like many things, the answer lies in the details.