ATS: Playing to the Common Denominators

The majority of Fortune 500 companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS) – an integrated platform for streamlining recruiting processes and handling volumes of applications. ATS keeps resumes in one place and helps hiring managers stay organized and compliant with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In this episode of the Career Confidante, Marie Zimenoff and guest Cheryl Minnick, senior career coach at the University of Montana, break down why some resumes may not be scored highly by resume parsing systems inside ATS. Many recruiters do look at every resume, but the ATS can help them narrow the applicant pool to determine who to interview. Playing to the common denominators can ensure your resume scores as highly as possible in the system, as most companies tailored their ATS to find the right candidate for a job. Following these strategies will also improve your resume for human readers! If you want to make a good first impression - for the humans and the bots - listen in!