You’ll hear us discuss “7 seconds” regularly here – it refers to the average amount time a HR Manager will take to review your application. When an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is being used it may be even less, you see, an ATS manages all of the applications so HR staff aren’t required to open hundreds of envelopes (circa 1985) or emails.
Some ATSs go further and actually create short lists or highlight matching candidates. That means your resume may not even be seen by a real human.
Here’s how it works – an ATS will scan your resume for keywords and that matches the requirements of the position. By using some algorithms and maths it will decide which applicants should be reviewed and considered for the next stage.
So, before you go ahead an add your most recent job to the same version of your resume that you wrote a few years ago, consider these tips:
Job Titles
Job titles are not standardised for every workplace – “Account Manager” and “Customer Liaison Officer” could be the exact some role within different organisations. It’s OK to tweak your job titles to highlight relevance
are vary within organisation and no
Keywords
Read the Position Description carefully and use similar language to describe your experience and skills.
Be Real!
Don’t over do it – remember if you do get short listed a real person will be reading your application next.
Contact us today if you’d like some more advice about resume and cover letter writing – we can help!