What is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?
The thing that’s everywhere that you’ve never heard of.
By Jacquie Liversidge
An Applicant Tracking System is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment needs.
This application assesses your applications content against a criteria and provides the company with a percentage figure for how well you have addressed keywords, qualifications and core skills.
This is before HR even look at your resume.
How does this affect you?
The companies likely to use this software are medium to large sized. If you are applying for a position within a company of this size, then you need to be tailoring your application material to succeed in a possible ATS test, whilst still being interesting to a human.
Complicated? A little, but achievable.
ATS screen out roughly 70 per cent of the resumes and other application material due to lack of relevant keywords, text that cant be read (images, blocks of colour), and overuse of critical keywords.
So, how do you get your resume through an ATS?
Cut out the junk.
Don’t repeat content.
Cut down on infographics and images which are not machine interpret-able.
We love creative resumes, but if we think you are applying for a company where ATS is employed in their screening, we design your resume and application with ATS in mind.
Employing a targeted, purposeful approach to your resume ensures a level of competitive edge that you can bet the other potential candidates haven’t accommodated for.
We hope this post has given you a brief overview of how to tailor your approach!
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