Is the ATS bot a Myth?

Is the ATS bot a Myth?

Yes... and no.

I want to share with you, from the experience of a Recruiter, how your resume formatting can impact the workflow through an ATS and debunk the ATS bot myth.

The concept of an ATS bot is very misleading. Often used by Career Coaches and Resume Writers to instil fear into job seekers that their resume must look a certain way to beat the ATS bot. While some provide this information via free blogs and online posts, many will charge or use it to lure people in for a paid membership/subscription of their services. This is where it rubs some Recruiters the wrong way.

Disclaimer: I am not discrediting Career Coaches and Resume Writers, they definitely do offer a lot of value to job seekers through their established networks and industry knowledge... bonus point for those that come from a background in Recruitment, Human Resources, and Talent Acquisition. Trust me when I say, you want to avoid those that come directly from a Sales background... I digress.

I've used, and been exposed, to a variety of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) (Bullhorn, CATS, Lever, iCIMS, BambooHR, Taleo, SmartRecruiters and more) throughout my 4+ years in Recruitment. I can assure you that there is no gas guzzling, voltage draining, or mystical alchemy-being [ATS bot] standing in the way between your application and human eyes.

But, there IS an ATS, some of which utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as Taleo, iCIMS, SmartRecruiters, and more.

In quick summary, an ATS is similar to a digital filing system. It allows Recruiters and HR to store resumes, source candidates, record notes and interview details, post jobs, create pipelines of candidates, update and track interview process up to and including offer stage.

Should this scare you into creating your resume a very specific way? Not entirely.

The key areas that are most often mentioned in beating the bot posts, include:

• File type
• Font selection
• Keyword selection
• Graphics
• Resume Length

These are all valid areas to focus on, not for the bot, but for the Humans.

When you apply to a role online, you upload your resume and submit other details. Your application then automatically creates a profile in the ATS. Part of this process is called Resume Parsing. While not true Artificial Intelligence, THIS action would be the closest thing to an ATS bot. When an ATS parses a resume, it will try to extract specific information from your resume to fill in the appropriate fields... such as:

• Name and contact info (phone number/email address)
• Current Location
• Current Job Title
• Employment History
• Some will also convert your resume to plain text format AND save your original resume as well

The ATS then stores your resume in a general database and assigns it to a pipeline for the specific role you applied to. A Human gets a notification and looks are your resume. Simple as that. (Although, not so simple when some companies receive 100's-1,000's a day)

While these areas that Experts suggest are in fact good to focus on, this is how they affect your application process.

File Type

If your resume is saved in a bizarre file type, let's say anything other than PDF or Word, the ATS likely won't even accept your upload and request you upload the appropriate file type. So I wouldn't stress too much there. For sake of convenience, have both file types saved and upload whichever format the application suggests. Follow the prompts.

Font Selection

Nowadays, most ATS systems can read and parse any commonly used font. The error Career Coaches and Resume Writers are making here is that they should be encouraging a font selection that are easy for humans to read, not a bot. The common stat is that a Recruiter spends about 7 seconds scanning a resume... so having a simple font style and appropriate size is key. I would recommend sticking with the basics; Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc. As for font size, aim to keep it between 10pt-12pt. I have seen some parsed resumes display odd text when converted to simple format, but this is rare and often does not occur when using the fonts I mentioned.

Keyword Selection

Again, big misconception is that an ATS bot will kick out a resume if it is missing keywords. The narrative that should be used here is that Recruiters will often use Boolean String to source through their database of applicants. These strings are created using keywords. A simple example that would be used for a FullStack Developer could be:

("C#" OR ".NET") AND "React" AND "Azure"

If this was used for a role that required C#/.NET and React and Azure, and you didn't have Azure on your resume... you might be missed. A lot of ATSs will then highlight these keywords when it displays your resume to the human eyes. Naturally, when we see a lot of highlights, it's simply human nature to be more attracted to the profile. The ATS I use also applies a grade to how well a resume matches my search string based on the the concentration of these keywords. So yes, aligning keywords with those in a job description are very important, not for the bot, but for the human.

A common AI feature some ATS use involving keywords is that it will "suggest similar profiles". This is a feature to help dig out profiles that might have been missed if a Boolean String was too specific. LinkedIn even integrates these feature in it's Recruiter subscription.

Graphics

Some graphics can look pretty on a resume and possibly add value... most often they act as a distraction. During the parsing process, the ATS can have difficulty in extracting this information as well. Keeping your resume to text is encouraged, no matter how much you want to include an avatar of yourself...

Resume Length

"An ATS bot doesn't care about how long your resume, so get it all in there!"... While this is true... it's not the ATS bot that is reviewing the resume. No matter the length, it will get parsed into your ATS profile, but it will be a human reviewing the resume. Resume length is really a personal preference thing and depends on what your experience looks like. A Contractors/Consultants Resume can be a dozen pages, while a Full-Time Employee Resume could be as small as one page. A good rule of thumb is keep it between one to three pages (for FTE). Include your relevant experience with about 4 bullets per position (no need to include that part-time fast food role 15 years ago if you're a Software Developer).

All-in-all, if you are seeing posts and articles about "beating the ATS bot", just know it doesn't exist. If you're a Career Coach or Resume Writer and want to create online content, don't include the term "ATS bot" in your writing... you're only going to piss off Recruiters. Instead, position your content and material on how to make resumes easier for Recruiters read and source and its compatibility with Artificial Intelligence.

AI is making serious waves in the Recruitment industry, and we are going to see more of it in 2023... don't let it scare you into thinking you have to beat it. Just understand how to optimize your resume for it and more importantly, humans.

Signed,

Jesse