Quick and Easy Resume Makeovers Excerpt

Chapter 1

Getting a handle on today’s new job market

Older job seekers will remember when you started in a job and stayed in that career for life. A teacher stayed a teacher until retirement. A bank manager started as a teller and worked through the ranks in the bank. Now, it’s a different story with certainty of employment a thing of the past. There are very few full time jobs – most are contract roles and part time positions which help employers ride out uncertain economic times. Even government jobs that used to be the safest long term jobs around are now predominantly ‘contract roles’.

To sum up the current employment market:

1. There will be far fewer permanent jobs available – most will be part time or contract roles to enable organisations to react quickly to economic situations.
2. Companies will recruit selectively to fill these jobs – only candidates who know the ‘new rules’ about writing their applications with keywords to get through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) will get to an interview.
3. Instead of being in one role for your whole career, you will have a dozen or more jobs during your working life, so adaptability is a skill you need to develop.

These are the ‘new rules’ for successful career changers. To be competitive in this new environment, you need to maintain your professional development and keep up-to-the-minute with new technology, network with colleagues, keep in touch with previous employers, get a professional LinkedIn profile and develop new skill sets to enable you to move to new roles.

Sorry to frighten you. You can get up off the floor – we’ll guide you through each step.

Here’s an example of how a corporate business trainer reinvented herself after she had to become a full time Carer for her daughter. She started writing online courses, teaching in her area of expertise through TAFE (Community) colleges, writing blogs for careers and small business, being a guest speaker at career and business conferences and becoming an online coach. Each of these careers uses the basic skill-set of teaching but has additional skill-sets that needed to be developed, such as online skills, writing skills, coaching skills, writing skills, etc.

It was an easy transition – I know because I was that corporate trainer. I added one more skill – I started writing books about careers and business and found my niche as an author. You can make a similar transition in your own career using your particular skill sets. Be creative. Look for something that makes you happy.

The key to your success is your ability to reinvent yourself and your career – adapt quickly to new environments, learn new skills and think outside the square about career choices.

What are Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and how do they work?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment needs. There are applications to suit all sized businesses, even free and open source ATS software is available.

The Wall Street Journal reports that résumé screening software is used by more than 90% of larger companies in the United States.  In Australia, the figure is more like 80% but is growing.

Companies advertising open positions often have hundreds, if not thousands, of applications to sift through in order to find a few top candidates to interview for the job. In order to make the recruitment process more manageable, applicant tracking software has become entrenched in both large and small organisations.

Here’s how it works.

Applicant Tracking Systems are usually the first part of the recruitment screening process as they enable the recruiter or employers to process large numbers of applications efficiently and come up with a ranking of how well each applicant matches the requirements of the job.  

Recruiters decide on the key words for each individual position and program the ATS to look for those key words. Applications that don’t have the key words will not move on to the next stage of the recruitment process.

The trick is in identifying and finding the key words and phrases. The keywords and phrases are usually concrete, measurable skills required to perform the job competently. These are called ‘hard skills’. They also look for ‘soft skills’. For example, if you are applying for a job as a ‘Course Trainer’, a recruiter may search for hard skills such as ‘Certificate IV in Training and Assessment’ and ‘course developer’. Recruiters may likely also look for ‘soft skills’ such as’ communication skills’.  We’ll go into how to identify ‘key words and phrases a little later’.

The downside of ATS for applicants is that great candidates are missed by résumé screening robots with 75% of applicants being rejected before their applications are read by a human decision maker.

This is because they fail to write their résumés to comply with the résumé screening software.

So, what happens to applications in the next stage of the recruitment process?

The ATS provides a ranking based on how well the applicants meet the requirements of the role based on key words and phrases. These applicants then progress to a human reader with a different set of criteria to impress.

You have only 6 seconds to convince the reader that you have what it takes.

In summary, you need to write and format your application to get past the digital scanners looking for key words and phrases. You have to please both robot readers and human readers.

 

Chapter 1:  Summary

 

The Employment Outlook Report predicts that a Bachelor Degree or higher will increase your chance of success in the job market – so, if you’re tossing up about doing further study, the answer is ‘YES’.

There’s a strong trend toward part time employment – from 1 in 10 two decades ago, to 1 in 4 now.

There are ‘new rules’ for successful career changers. This is particularly important for people in contract roles who need to prepare for their next job while still in the current one.

To be competitive in the new workplace environment, you need to maintain your professional development and keep up-to-the-minute with new technology, network with colleagues, keep in touch with previous employers, get a professional social media profile and develop new skill sets to enable you to move to new roles seamlessly.

 

Chapter 2

The story of Application Tracking Systems (ATS)

Twenty years ago, you applied for a job by answering a classified ad in the newspaper. You typed (you may have even hand-written) your applications and posted them using snail mail. With the rise in popularity of the internet, particularly in the last decade, the recruitment process moved quickly from paper-based applications to email and eventually to online job portals. ‘Monster’ was the leader of the pack in online recruitment.  To help manage the large number of applications, hiring managers needed to develop an efficient electronic system.

Here’s a brief timeline of how ATS came into being

1991: World Wide Web enables development of electronic Job Boards such as ‘Monster’

1994: Job Boards become more popular – ‘Monster’, ‘Netstart’ and ‘Career Builder’

1996: Martin Quelett, a Canadian, developed a French language Job Board called ‘Viasite’

1999: Martin Quelett renamed his business ‘Recruitsoft.inc.’

2003: LinkedIn was founded

2004: I wrote Selection Criteria Toolkit to help applicants understand the importance of key words needed for government job applications

2005: Hiring managers needed a system for managing large numbers of applications from very popular online job boards

2006: I wrote ‘Get That Government Job’ to help applicants come to terms with key words needed to answer selection criteria for government jobs

2009: I wrote a second edition of Get That Government Job – key words were very much part of everyday recruitment by this time

2012: ‘TALEO’ (the largest ATS provider) acquired ‘Recruitsoft’, ‘Recruitmax’ and ‘Vurv’

2013: ‘TALEO’ had 20 million users and LinkedIn had 225 million users

2017: There are hundreds of ATS providers and more than 80% of employers use them as an essential part of their recruitment process

Why are Applicant Tracking Systems Used?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment needs. There are applications to suit all sized businesses, even free and open source ATS software is available. Sometimes these systems are called ‘robots’ or ‘robot scanners’.

Applicant tracking systems are used to help ease the workload of recruiters and hiring managers. The internet makes it fast and easy for job seekers to apply for jobs. In fact, job board sites like Monster, Indeed, SEEK, Careerone and other online job portals allow job seekers to apply for a job using a saved résumé with only one click.

Research on these sites show that for every corporate job posting, there are up to 250 applications. Of these candidates, only 4 – 6 will be contacted for an interview. Imagine the cost and workload of screening these applications manually.

 

In order to make the recruitment process more manageable, applicant tracking software has become entrenched in both large and small organisations. The Wall Street Journal reports that résumé screening software is used by more than 90% of larger companies in the United States.  In Australia, the figure is about 80%, but is growing due to inexpensive systems suitable for smaller organisations.

Here’s how Applicant Tracking Systems work

The recruiter might request the following: ‘Top 20 candidates for the position of Marketing Manager according to the criteria entered.’ The criteria will contain the key words related to the requirements of the job as listed in the Position Description (PD).  

CLICK. The software spits out a list that contains the top 20 candidates and their rankings. It’s much easier for the recruiter to manage 20 applicants rather than the original 200.

This is fantastic for the recruiter in time saving and efficiency, but how about the candidate who has spent hours writing their application that doesn’t see the light of day?

The ATS cannot recognise certain formatting elements and many excellent candidates miss being selected for the next stage of the recruitment process – human readers. In marketing, we talk about KISS – Keep It Simple Sweetheart. This acronym works perfectly for the ATS. Eliminate fancy formatting elements and keep all text aligned to the left. Use true-type sans serif fonts (the ones that come with your computer) such as Arial, Verdana, Calibri, Tahoma, Trebuchet and Garamond. Go to the QUICK FORMATTING GUIDE for detailed explanations.

Robot readers and human readers 

Applicant Tracking Systems are usually the first part of the recruitment screening process as they enable the recruiter or employer to process large numbers of applications efficiently and come up with a ranking of how well each applicant matches the requirements of the job.  

Recruiters decide on the key words for each individual position and program the ATS to look for those key words. Applications that don’t have the key words will not move on to the next stage of the recruitment process.

The trick for candidates is in identifying and finding the key words and phrases. The keywords and phrases are usually concrete, measurable skills required to perform the job competently. These are called ‘hard skills’. They also look for ‘soft skills’. For example, if you are applying for a job as a ‘Course Trainer’, a recruiter may search for hard skills such as ‘Certificate IV in Training and Assessment’ and ‘course developer’. Recruiters may also look for ‘soft skills’ such as’ communication skills’.  We’ll go into how to identify ‘key words and phrases a little later’.

The downside of ATS is that excellent candidates are missed by résumé screening robots with 75% of applicants being rejected before their applications are read by a human decision maker.

This is because they haven’t written their résumés to comply with the résumé screening software. Don’t let that happen to you. Read the QUICK FORMATTING GUIDE to skip past the scanners.

So, what happens to applications in the next stage of the recruitment process?

The ATS provides a ranking based on how well the candidates meet the requirements of the role. These applications then progress to the ‘yes’ pile to be read by a human reader with a different set of criteria to impress.

You have only 6 seconds to convince the human reader that you have what it takes.

These readers will probably be people who understand the role such as HR specialists or managers in that section. They will be looking at how well you’ll fit within their organisation. They’ll also be looking at what you’ve achieved for former employers as a gauge of what you can do for them.

Please go to Chapter 5: How to ‘sell yourself’ in your résumé with achievements for detailed explanations.

 

The last stage is proofreading your document to ensure it is error free. Just one spelling mistake could cost you the job.  Download the QUICK PROOFREADING GUIDE to catch any problems.

 

Chapter 2: Summary

Great applicants are missed by résumé screening software with 75% of candidates being rejected before their applications are read by a human decision maker.

On average, 250 applications are received for a corporate role – only 4-6 applicants will get an interview.

You need to write and format your application to get past the digital scanners looking for key words and phrases in order to progress to a human reader.

Your résumé has to be formatted using a KISS approach to be able to be read by the scanners – no fancy formatting, boxes, underlining or graphics.

Writing a successful job application requires attention to detail, correct formatting and using key words from the PD.