I hear from many people who have applied on-line for jobs dozens and hundreds of times without hearing back from the company. It is one of the most frustrating aspects of being in job search. Did someone even look at my resume? The odds are that no human being ever saw your resume.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are utilized by the vast majority of companies. There are dozens of companies that offer their human resource software solutions. Taleo is used by the majority of companies. It is software that scans and scores your resume once you complete the job application on the company website.
There are many pitfalls in uploading a resume to a company’s ATS. A major faux pax is usually due to the formatting of the document. Typically, an ATS does not read underlines, multiple columns, headers and footers within the document. If you have used a narrow margin on both sides of the paper, odds are the ATS is missing text outside the normal one inch margin.
Perhaps, you heard that a customized resume is needed for each job and didn’t believe it was really necessary. If that is your practice, and you are wondering why you are not getting called back, here is my advice. An ATS scores how well your resume matches the job description. If you are missing key skills on your resume that are in the job description, you will not score well enough to be considered. Several websites can do a scan comparison of your resume and a job description to see how well they match. One site is http://www.jobscan.co that compares your resume to a job description. It will empower you to fine tune your resume before applying to that job.
This article by Monica Torres offers more insight about applying on-line. Click here to read 3 Ways To Beat The Machines That Judge Your Resume When You Apply Online
Career Coach Corner 