The Science of Resume Processing
Applicant Tracking Systems do not read your resume like a human does. They use complex resume processing algorithms to strip away your layout, extract your text, and map your experience to a database schema. Here is exactly how that technology works.
The Reality of Resume Processing
The majority of the job seekers think that when they hit the "Apply" button, the resume is instantly sent to a recruiter who reads it line by line. In fact, this isn't exactly the way hiring works these days. Many resumes start their journey to an employer without ever reaching the hands of a human recruiter by going through what is known as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a complex software that processes, organizes and evaluates thousands of resumes in an efficient manner.
ATS knowledge is not an option in today's job world. Creating a resume that is more likely to get the attention of a recruiter is an integral component of this. Whether or not the ATS is a deciding factor in your hiring, it has a major impact on the way your information is stored, searched, and shown to hiring teams.
Setting up the resume for your ATS. Formatting a resume for an ATS.
An ATS isn't like a human recruiter, who sees your resume as a pretty design. It has no need for fancy layouts, colors, graphics, icons, or fancy formatting. Rather, the system tries to derive the gist of your resume and transform it into structured data.
This is called resume parsing. While parsing, the ATS will look for key elements like your contact details, work history, educational qualifications, certifications, technical skills, and projects. It divides these sections and assigns them to pre-defined fields in its database.
For instance, if your CV says that you served as a Quality Assurance Engineer with a company for two years and that you have skills including Selenium and Python, SQL and API Testing, the ATS tries to identify each of these skills. Instead of a resume in a format, it produces a record that is structured and includes your job title, employer, employment dates, and skills.
Why Resume Formatting Matters
The ATS is interested in extracting the text and not maintain the formatting so some formatting decisions may make parsing harder. Some parsing engines may not be able to correctly extract or classify information, if the table is complex, or if there are multiple columns, embedded graphics, icons, text boxes and decorative elements.
It doesn't imply that resumes have to be dull or unappealing. Instead, formatting should be designed to be readable by software and human recruiters. Generally, the clearer the headings, the more consistent the section titles, the more standard the fonts, and the more logical the organization, the more compatible with any ATS.
Keywords are the most important words in a word list.
A key factor of ATS optimization that is widely talked about is the utilization of relevant keywords. Technical skills, certifications, software, programming languages and industry jargon are sometimes included in job descriptions. As your resume naturally incorporates keywords that are relevant and a true representation of your experience, recruiters can find your resume more easily when they are searching the ATS database.
If a role calls for the expertise of Python, Selenium, REST APIs and SQL, the proper use of these terms in your resume, in context, means that your actual skills are accurately represented. But just having a lot of keywords in a resume in the absence of evidence of experience is not going to help you and might even diminish the quality of your resume.
This article explains that the ATS is not the ultimate decision maker.
One of the misconceptions is that an ATS rejects candidates simply because they don't have the right keywords. The truth is, the majority of the modern ATS platforms are basically an applicant management system. They create resumes, give recruiters the power to search and filter candidates and simplify the hiring process. Interviews and hiring will be at the discretion of the recruiters and hiring managers who assess your qualifications, accomplishments, communication skills and overall aptitude for the position.
Knowing the Process is Your Advantage
Many people are applying without taking into account just how recruitment software deals with resumes. When it comes to resumes, understanding how it works, how to extract structured data, and how to match keywords can help you produce a resume that resonates with the automated systems and human readers.
Not using an ATS-friendly resume to manipulate software or to ensure an interview. It's a matter of making your skills, abilities, and experience easy to understand, easy to read, and easy to find so that hiring managers can see your experience right away. This, along with skills and accomplishments that are relevant, measurable, and documented, and a strong application, greatly increases your odds of advancing to the next step in the hiring process.
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