Top Tips to Get Your Resume Past Applicant Tracking Systems

I’ve written before about how to format your resume for the modern job search, but the biggest challenge job-seekers run into today is getting their resume past AI screeners and in front of human eyes. 

These robotic gatekeepers create a powerful first barrier to any application’s success, so no matter how beautifully formatted and perfectly worded your resume may be, if it never makes it past the AI screener, it’s not going to work for you. 

What is an AI screener? 

Artificial intelligence or AI systems are now being used worldwide to scan resumes, extract keywords, score and rank job candidates via their submitted resumes, cover letters, and sometimes even video-recorded answers to screener interview questions.

According to a recent study by Jobscan, 98.2% of Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to sift through job applications at scale.

Here are my Quick Do’s & Don’ts for Getting Your Resume Past Robots

DO include keywords from the job description.

It’s always a good idea to specifically connect your past experiences and skills to what the employer is looking for, but with AI screeners, word choice matters a lot.

If the job description says it’s looking for candidates with experience in “advanced statistical computation,” the robots screening your resume won’t be able to deduce that you probably learned that when getting your PhD in Applied Mathematics. 

Be specific about matching key words exactly. Did “Microsoft Excel” appear multiple times in the job description? Don’t write “Experience with Microsoft Office Suite” on your resume and think that’s sufficient - because it may not be. 

These AI screeners rank candidates based on how much of a “match” you appear for the job in question, and that often boils down to using similar language in your application materials as you see being used in the job description. 

So be sure you’re clear about how your skills map directly to the job description by using the same language wherever appropriate.

DON’T over-do it with sneaky keyword matching

I hesitate to even mention this, because it’s truly a terrible practice, but the advice is out there on the internet, so I’d like to address this directly: do not copy-and-paste the entire job description into your resume and then “hide” that text by making the font color white and then somehow writing over it. 

When employers first started using robot screeners, some job candidates took the practice of keyword matching too far, and so now many AI systems will actually flag you for matching the job description too much or in its entirety. 

The moral of the story here? Don’t try to get too clever with gaming the system. 

DO make sure your file format matches what’s requested 

Are you uploading your resume in an ATS? Keep an eye out for specifications in the field where you’re being asked to upload your resume. Often you’ll see small descriptive text telling you to upload your resume in a specific file type, like a Microsoft Word Document or a PDF. 

Make sure to follow directions specifically, because file format can make a big difference. 

If a particular format isn’t specified, I like to stick with the trusty PDF, since those files are harder to edit and better at preserving your desired design from one device to the next. 

DON’T use text boxes

For all my Microsoft Word users out there: beware of the risks associated with text boxes. As a GoogleDoc fanatic myself, I almost never run into text boxes because most Google Doc resume templates rely on the use of tables to create the 2-column resume formats I love most. 

But many Microsoft Word resume templates rely on the use of text boxes to add text in different places all across the page and for whatever reason, as of this writing, text boxes are not able to be read by robot screeners.

Just say NO to text boxes, job seekers! If not, you risk your resume being partially or completely un-read by the ATS. 

DO the Plain Text Test

Want to double check your resume template to make sure it’s AI-friendly before you go through all the trouble of reformatting everything? Here’s a simple way to do just that: 

Save your resume file as a .txt file on your desktop, then double click to open it in a piece of software that’s likely on your computer already but you rarely use: a Plain Text Reader. 

What populates this new window is exactly what the robot will be able to “read.” While all the formatting will be stripped away, it’s important to check to make sure all the content of your resume actually shows up. 

Are huge portions of your resume’s text missing? Are things showing up in all kinds of weird characters that read like hieroglyphics? That means you have a problem with however you’ve formatted your resume, or perhaps you’re putting critical information in the Header and Footer section of the document, which robots can’t “read.” 

Again, don’t worry if the plain text version of your resume doesn’t look pretty - this test is just about making sure everything shows up as present. It doesn’t even really matter if the order is the same as how your regular resume looks, it just matters that all the text is, in one way or another, showing up. 

Once you do the plain text test and confirm everything’s showing up that you want robot screeners to be able to see, you can feel free to trash that .txt file. It’s not for use in uploading with your applications, but rather just for confirming that the resume you’ve worked so hard on is going to work for you, too. 

Ultimately, your resume needs to be a balance of what appeals to humans and the bots they use to make screening resumes easier these days. For lots more strategies on how to navigate the modern job search, download my free Job Search Guide here. 

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