When it comes to creating or optimizing your work from home/remote resume it may be difficult to know where to start! I know when I first learned about the new artificial intelligence applicant tracking systems I was so confused on what these meant and what that meant for me to change on my resume. Here you can read a brief basic summary of how this will affect your applications and small changes you can make to get your resume remote ready.
What are ATS applications and what do they do?
ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System and is a program used by a company's human resource department to feed through applicants based on certain parameters and keywords. This means if a company is looking for you to possess a certain skill or have previous experience in a specific role they can have the system feed through every applicant to help filter the best talent before the application even sees the hiring manager.
If you've felt like all you have been doing is constantly applying for roles and you're never hearing anything back it may be because your resume hasn't been optimized to beat the system.
Tips & Tricks To Optimize Resume
Here are some quick tips to get your resume ready for the ATS.
1. If you see a pattern of certain skills/qualifications you need to possess for the roles you're applying to add these into your resume. You can either list them in the bulleted list or throw them under previous job roles with the description of what tasks you did.
2. Cross reference the job posting to your resume and sprinkle in little key words needed. Within these systems hiring managers can set a percentage match of keywords you need to possess on your resume to get through. You want to keep these keyword percentages high to beat the system.
3. Keep to one page. Really maximize small space on the resume by tailoring it perfectly to fit on one page. Resumes can be two pages if you have an extensive history or are applying for an executive level role. Make sure you also add a cover letter tailored to the specific company and job too.