How to Avoid the Résumé Black Hole

How to Avoid the Rsum Black HoleHow to Avoid the Rsum Black HoleIve applied online to numerous positions, and I never get a response. Myrsumjust gets swallowed up in some black hole, and it never even gets seen by a recruiter or hiring manager.This a common complaint from frustrated job seekers. Imagine, however, that you are on the other side of the hiring desk. You advertise a job and receive anywhere from 50 to 200 or more applicants. Each submits a two-pagersumwith dense prose depicting complexsets of skills and experiences. Thats easily 100 to 400 pages to sift through in order to find an initial set of 10 or 15 candidates who you might want to contact. Then, remember that every human resources staffing person typically deals with 15 to 30 job requisitions at any given time, so he or she needs to contend with literally thousands of pages ofrsums. Thats a daunting task, which is made even more complex with the need to documentEqual Employment Opportunity Commissioncompliance an d to track candidates interactions with various HR staff, hiring managers and department personnel. The solution is known as an applicant tracking system, or ATS. This kind of software has become integral to the hiring process for companies of all sizes, as well as for external executive recruiters and headhunters. Say youre applying for a job on the company website. Theres a good chance youre actually accessing the outward-facing portion of an externally run ATS site thats branded to look just like the company site. There are many companies that provide hundreds of competing of ATS software products for employers. Some are simple and stand alone, while others are far more complex with greater abilities.One of the significant players in this arena is iCIMS, with more than 2,000 corporate clients. Susan Vitale, theiCIMSchief marketing officer, spoke with this authorto debunk myths that surround the supposed rsumblack holes. She also provides valuable tips for job seekers about how to best gain the attention of internal HR personnel and external recruiters. Vitale contends that ATS companies likeiCIMSmake every effort to meet candidates needs for convenience. For example, they often allow one to submit information using their login from social media sites, such as Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn. This way, she points out, a candidate doesnt have to create yet anotlageher username and password. She provides the assurance that logging in using social media credentials does not give the ATS the ability to search ones timeline or other posts. When asked if begehung questions posed by ATS systems automatically knock out certain candidates, heres how she replied Absolutely not It totally varies. Some companies use the screening questions as knockout questions, and some do not.Vitalepoints out thatparticularly in regard to EEOC compliancecompanies have to define requirements of positions and show that they didnt pick a candidate because he or she didnt meet th e minimum qualifications. For example, perhaps a job requires a certain certification. If a candidate doesnt indicate that he or she has that certification, he or she could automatically be put in a doesnt meet minimum qualifications category.Vitaleacknowledges that it is uncomfortable for applicants when companies require an answer to the salary question in order to submit arsum. She understands that people, dont want to go higher than they shouldor lower than they need to. Industry best practice today is for companies to provide an option for candidates to decline to answer any screening question, but each company decides for itself what questions to pose and whether or not answers are mandatory for a candidate to be considered.According to Vitale, these points are key to making the ATS system best understand candidatesrsums as intended.1. Any ATS system these days can easily work with Word or PDF file types. It will parse out key pieces of information and populate the database w ith your name, address, skills, employment history and relevant keywords. It will also preserve thersumin the form you submit to be viewed by the recruiter.2. Lines, text boxes and color can be be handled by almost every ATS today. Use these elements judiciously.3. Be careful about using graphics.Different ATS systems vary in their abilities to deal with images. Regardless, words embedded in graphics wont be recognized or parsed out. If you submit a graphic-heavy rsum, it may lose the visual appeal for which you strive. Instead, it may be seen as gibberish on the other side.4. ATS systems look for certain items to be in particular places on yourrsum.For example, your name and contact information should be at the topnot placed in a vertical text box along the side of the page. Use appropriate headings for the various sections of yourrsumand have them formatted logically.5. Dont try to game the system. For example, dont needlessly repeat the same keywords in yourrsumjust to get a bett er keyword-scoring match. It doesnt work that way. It may be noticed, but recruitersgenerally take a negative view of this practice.6. Make sure yourrsumdemonstrates that you are well suited for the positions for which you are applying. It is not the fault of the ATS if you are continually rejected for positions for which you dont qualify.7. Use common sense. Dont apply for widely different positions within the same company. And dont go for positions at significantly different expertise or experience levels within the same company, either. Keep in mind that your entire profile will be seen by anyone in the company who is looking at your rsum. Happy huntingArnie Fertig, MPA, is passionate about helping hisJobhuntercoachclients advance their careers by transforming frantic Ill apply to anything searches into focused hunts for great fit opportunities. He brings to each client the extensive knowledge he gained when working in HR staffing and managing his boutique recruiting firm.