ATS or Hiring Manager–Who should I write my resume for?

Executive ResumesResume Writing

Does the thought of writing your resume leave you confused?

Not sure who will be reading this? An AI (ATS) or a human?

It can feel stressful to know what to write, who to write for (recruiters? hiring managers?), what keywords, etc., especially when you aren’t sure exactly what an applicant tracking system does.

I’ll explain it in a nutshell.

ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) are software programs used by employers to filter and sort through resumes to find the most qualified candidates for a specific job.

ATS typically look for the following elements in a resume:

Keywords: ATS scan resumes for specific keywords and phrases that match the job description. These can include job titles, technical skills, certifications, and other relevant terms that demonstrate your qualifications and experience. What words do you notice over and over in the job description?

Formatting: ATS prefer resumes that are well-organized and easy to read. To ensure your resume is ATS-friendly, use a simple and consistent formatting style, including headings, bullet points, and white space. Columns don’t work here as ATS reads left to right (like a book)—it doesn’t stop at the column.

Relevant Work Experience: ATS look for candidates with experience that closely matches the requirements of the job. Make sure your resume highlights your most relevant work experience, including job titles, dates of employment, and key achievements.

Education and Training: ATS also look for candidates with the required education and training for the job. Make sure to include your degree(s), certifications, and any relevant coursework or training programs you’ve completed.

Applicant Information: ATS also scans for basic applicant information such as name, contact information, and location. Make sure to include this information in a clear and consistent format at the top of your resume.

Knowing which keywords to add is perplexing to some of the candidates I talk to.

One way to know if your resume has enough keywords for ATS is to carefully review the job description and compare it to your resume. Look for the specific skills, qualifications, and experience that the employer is seeking and make sure to include relevant keywords and phrases throughout your resume.

Here are some tips to ensure your resume has enough keywords for ATS:

Use exact phrases: Use exact phrases from the job description wherever possible. If the job description calls for “project management experience,” include that exact phrase in your resume instead of a similar phrase such as “managed projects.”

Use variations of keywords: Use variations of keywords and phrases throughout your resume to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific job requirements. For example, if the job description calls for “customer service skills,” also include related terms such as “client service” or “customer support.”

Include relevant industry jargon: If there are specific technical terms or jargon commonly used in the industry, make sure to include them in your resume. This helps to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific job requirements.

Don’t stuff your resume with irrelevant keywords: While it’s important to include relevant keywords and phrases, don’t stuff your resume with irrelevant keywords. This can make your resume look unnatural and may actually hurt your chances of passing through an ATS.

Test your resume: Some ATS offer a “resume optimization” feature that can analyze your resume and provide feedback on whether it contains enough keywords for the job. Alternatively, you can test your resume by submitting it to a free online resume scanner that checks for ATS compatibility.

Something to keep in mind is that even though it’s important to write a resume that works with ATS, it’s also important to write for people.

It’s equally important to ensure that your resume is readable and appealing to human recruiters as well as ATS. This means using clear, concise language, storytelling, and formatting that makes your qualifications and experience easy to understand. Your resume should also highlight your unique skills and accomplishments in a way that captures the recruiter’s attention and stands out from other candidates. It should tell your story.

To strike a balance between ATS and human readability, consider tailoring your resume for each specific job application. Start by reviewing the job description and identifying the key skills and qualifications that the employer is seeking. Then, incorporate those relevant keywords and phrases throughout your resume while also crafting a compelling narrative that showcases your experience and achievements.

Similar to ATS, hiring managers typically look for the following key elements in a resume:

Relevant Experience: Hiring managers want to see that you have relevant work experience that demonstrates your ability to perform the job duties required for the position. Highlight your most relevant work experience and quantify your accomplishments with specific achievements and results.

Skills and Qualifications: Highlight your skills and qualifications that are directly relevant to the job. Be specific and provide examples of how you have used these skills in previous roles.

Education and Certifications: Include your educational background and any certifications that are relevant to the position. This helps to demonstrate your qualifications and expertise in a particular area.

Achievements and Accomplishments: Use specific examples to demonstrate your achievements and accomplishments in previous roles. Quantify your results wherever possible to demonstrate the impact you have made in previous positions. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Add metrics when possible.

Relevant Keywords: While not as critical as with ATS, it’s still important to use relevant keywords and phrases from the job description. This helps to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific requirements of the position.

Clarity and Readability: Hiring managers want to be able to quickly and easily scan your resume for the information they need. Use a clear and consistent formatting style, including headings and bullet points, to make your resume easy to read and understand. Keep the important info on page one—the top half of the page.

In summary, hiring managers look for a combination of relevant experience, skills and qualifications, education and certifications, achievements and accomplishments, relevant keywords, and clarity and readability in a resume. ATS seeks these things as well.

The job description offers a treasure trove of keywords and helps make the writing process so much easier. If you’ve done those same skills list them. Both the hiring manager and ATS will be seeking them out.

 

Is your resume relevant for the role you want?

Resume Writing

Imagine you brought home a carton of milk, opened it for your cereal, started to pour, and out came Diet Coke.

It’s not that you don’t like Diet Coke.

It’s just that you 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘥 milk.

One of the most common frustrations I hear from recruiters and hiring managers is that their candidate’s resumes don’t match the position they are interviewing for.

Do you apply to jobs that may not be in your wheelhouse but apply anyway?

If I’m being honest here, this is a pet peeve of mine.

Recently, I put an ad on LinkedIn. I was looking for a Client Success Manager. Part-time, 20 hours a week. Must have customer service experience.  All of these things were spelled out crystal clear in the position description.

I got hundreds of responses within a 36-hour window.

Guess how many had ANYTHING to do with client success, client services, office administration, etc? About 20. The rest were… everything else. I spent four days scrolling through the applicants and reading every resume from top to bottom. Annoyed that so many were obviously not a fit is putting it mildly.

Guess how many had ANYTHING to do with client success, client service, office administration, etc.? About 20. The rest were… everything else.

There were two CEO’s, a CFO, high-tech, a couple of teachers, sales reps, recruiters, business development, process analyst, and so on. And about 90% of them wanted a full-time role.

None of them mentioned any of the skills I listed–and I searched their resumes for something, anything similar.

I even put a little note at the bottom to email me directly with a copy of the resume. After all, this is a small company, it’s not Google. I had the time to be thorough and review each applicant’s resume.

Guess how many people emailed me their resumes?

Go ahead and guess, I’ll wait.

Wrong.

SEVEN people emailed me their resumes. SEVEN.

I won’t vent here about not reading directions on an application, even though I really, really want to. 🙄I’ll save that for another rant post.

Keep in mind that a recruiter or hiring manager will only take a few seconds to view your resume. If they use ATS, the ATS will pick out appropriate matches as well.

So, if you really want to impress a hiring manager, read the entire position description and send them a resume that speaks to the role they need to fill. If your skillset doesn’t match what the position description is asking for,  you may want to look at other open positions.

If you have some transferrable skills that will work for the role you want, make sure to add them to the career summary, bullet points, and within each role.

Here are some things to consider when drafting your resume:

✅ 𝗥𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘. First, do you have the experience the position asks for? If yes, add examples of what you’ve done. If not, don’t fake it and add it to the resume. Leave it off and lead with other experiences.

✅ 𝗞𝗘𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗦. Examine the description and notice the words they use over and over. This tells you that those words will most likely be keywords ATS will look for. Does your resume have those keywords? If not, add them.

✅ 𝗦𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗦𝗘𝗧. What skills do you offer the role? Each of us has a unique skill set we bring to the job. Great at relationship building? Expertise in vendor negotiations? Specialize in cyber security? Make sure it’s added to your resume. If you have skills from your current role that can transfer, add them. What did you do in your prior role that will work for this new role?

✅ 𝗩𝗔𝗟𝗨𝗘. What value do you offer? How can you help the company? If you are an 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, in what ways have you achieved success? Use quantitative examples where possible. What awards have you received? What results have you produced? How did you help them increase revenue, cut costs, etc.?

To sum it up, making sure your skill set matches the position description is a must. If you think you have transferrable skills for the role, add those to the document. The more you can set yourself up as a candidate with similar skills, the better your chance is of being invited to the interview.

A Visual View Of Resume Keywords

Resume Keywords

a visual view of resume keywords
Have you ever made a word cloud? The most popular version of a word (or tag) cloud generator is Wordle, but there are many other options out there. Teachers love creating word clouds for visual learners because it helps the student see the most frequently used vocabulary in a text.  But you can use your favorite word cloud generator to compare the frequency of words in a job opening and your resume.
Here’s why I think this is a good idea: you’ll quickly see if any words in your resume match the words in the ad.
What you are seeing in that word cloud is the key vocabulary in the text — keywords. Resume keywords play an important role in getting your resume into the “call for interview” pile on an important desk. You’ll also get an idea of how often you use certain words to describe yourself. Does your resume word cloud show an active, effective candidate? Does anything match the word cloud of the position you are applying for? If it doesn’t, then you have some work to do on your resume.
The closer your language matches the language in the ad, the more apt you are to be seen as a “match” for the position. It should go without saying that I’m not telling you to make stuff up, because lying on a resume is a bad idea. But highlighting the similarities between your qualifications and the qualifications of the candidate they are seeking is a good idea.
If you are a visual learner, using a word cloud generator to evaluate your resume and the job opening is an easy way to see which words are being used most often and decide what to do with the way your resume is written.

Elements of A Professional and Accurate Resume

Resumes

professional resume
In order to secure a job you must have a resume. There is really no way around it. Not only must you have a resume, but it needs to be professional and accurate. In order to get you started, here are the basic elements of any good resume. You might already know most of these, but in case you didn’t, here they are:

  • Heading: this includes your name and contact information. It should be easy to read and centered on the top of the page.
  • Career Summary: this is a 5-7 sentence summary of what you have done and are capable of doing. It focuses on your brand, expertise and experience. You need to let the company know what you can do for them.
  • Qualifications: this is a short bulleted list of your skills and qualifications for the job (i.e. keywords of the job position, keywords of what you’ve done “Process Implementation” or “Territory Sales”, etc.).
  • Experience: this gives a brief summary of your prior work experience. Include company name, your job title, your supervisor’s name, and a brief summary of what your duties were.
  • Education: this gives a brief overview of your highest degree of education and/or any additional education that pertains to the job. This could include classes or certifications in a certain area that would help you perform well for the company you are applying to.

Those are the main elements of a good resume. Remember to keep it clean, concise, and easy to read. Also, keep it up to date and accurate–do not add fluff or fake jobs to your experience (you’ll be caught).
These tips will get you started and as you apply for more jobs you will become even better at creating and adapting your resume for jobs.

How Can Keywords Improve Your Resume?

Job SearchProfessional ResumesResume KeywordsResume Writing

How Can Keywords Improve Your Resume?
A resume is used to show off your best qualities to an employer. It shows your skills, work experience, and accomplishments. With all that information, how do you emphasize your best features? You can tailor your resume and pick only your most impressive entries, but you can also use keywords that will help you stand out and impress your potential employers.
Keywords will do a few things: they will keep your resume focused, they will make certain traits stand out to employers, and they will make your resume different than your competition, making you stand out even more.

  1. Keeping your resume focused: Keywords will keep your resume focused because everything you list or say will go back to reinforce those keywords. This will make your resume coherent, consistent, and focused.
  2. Make certain traits stand out: Instead of your potential employers looking at many traits that are desirable, using keywords, especially those found in the job posting,  will make specific traits stand out so that they know exactly what they can expect from you as far as skills and expertise go.
  3. Make you stand out among the competition: Not many people know to utilize keywords in their resume, so if you do, then your resume not only stand out, it will be picked up by scanning machines used by recruiters and employers to week out non-candidates.

So now that you know how keywords can improve your resume, you need to know how to utilize them.

  1. Pick out about three keywords you would like to use. A few good ones could be, Customer Service & Relations, Operations, Information Technology, Sales & Marketing, Staff Leadership, Finance, tc. The keywords can be anything that make you stand out and emphasize the things you are best at, but they should also relate directly to the skills/qualifications outlined in the job posting.
  2. Insert the keywords wherever appropriate into your resume. Keywords can be incorporated into your career summary,  your skills (keyword) list, your professional experience, and accomplishments. Make sure that potential employers see these keywords and have a clear understanding of your areas of expertise.

Using the appropriate keywords throughout your resume will help to ensure that YOU will be the candidate called for the inteview.



Does your resume have an objective?
A resume objective statement is, typically a line or two stating your intention to the reader (note: This DOES NOT mean to add “to obtain a position that is challenging and financially rewarding… etc. THAT is not what I mean). Many HR managers will overlook any resume that does not have a clearly defined career goal – so a resume objective statement–stating what you want to do and what you are good at doing– can be a great way to present your resume to prospective employers. Remember that an objective statement is not the same as summarizing your long-term career goals – it is where you state your goals for your next job–what you can do for them.
Don’t think that an objective statement is necessary for all resumes – they are usually used for specific situations rather than as a standard boilerplate resume requirement. If you’re an entry-level employee or someone looking to change their career path, then an objective statement or title bar should definitely be used. A title bar is similar in that it states the name of the position you want. If you do not have work history that clearly defines your career goals, you will need an objective in order to attract attention. If you are a job seeker with an extensive and relevant work history, a qualifications summary (with a nice branding statement) will be more appropriate.
In order to write an objective statement you need to answer three questions:
1. What type of work are you looking for?
2. What particular skills do you have?
3. How will you be able to help a company that hires you?
When you write your objective statement, you need to focus on how you can benefit your employer, instead of how the employer can benefit you.
For example, if you have experience you could say that you offer a “Dynamic leadership career as Customer Development Executive with a rich mix of special event marketing, team development and leadership, operations management, and sales.” You should avoid phrases that imply you have any particular preferences, like that you are “looking for a position with a team-oriented company” – again, you should focus more on what you can bring to the position rather than what you want from the job.
A good objective statement needs to be specific – it’s not enough just to say that you are looking for a challenging position (ick–don’t do this. I repeat… just DON’T). This says nothing about what your real career goals are. Instead, your statement should briefly list the important qualifications and how they relate to the position. If you’re looking for a specific position, you can reference the job in your objective statement. Make sure you take the time to customize your resume so that you can make a good impression with HR managers, this indicates that you are enthusiastic about the positions they are offering.
The purpose of including an objective statement in your resume helps you eliminate irrelevant information that will not help you get the job that you’re seeking. Anything on your resume that doesn’t support what you have written on your objective statement needs to be removed. Make sure to do your research about the company beforehand and tailor make your objective statement to that position.