Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an AI software that many companies use to filter résumés. This means that many résumés are not reviewed by people anymore, so you need to make sure that you design your résumé to pass through ATS filters.

Here are a few tips for designing a résumé that ATS will accept:

• Use clear and concise language when describing experiences and listing skills.
• oDouble check your grammar, spelling, and sentence structure.
• Use basic, professional fonts.
• oFor body text, try to only use font size 11 or 12. Stick with only one for text.
• Use bold for emphasis.
• oTry not to underline or italicize anything.
• Avoid emojis, shapes, and uncommon symbols.
• oAcceptable symbols include numbers, bullet points and dashes (• and -), symbols for numbers ($, #, and %), and the pipe symbol (|).
• oUnreadable symbols include forward slash (/), ampersands (&), any arrows (<, >, or ^), and accented letters (é or í).
• Do not use any photos, graphs, or tables.
• oATS cannot read these and may reject your résumé because of this.
• List dates to the right of education and jobs, and place any degree abbreviations or license abbreviations BELOW your name instead of after it.
• Do not use columns or text boxes.
• oATS cannot read these formats.
• Include the title of the position AND multiple keywords from the company's website, mission, and values.
• oATS will filter out résumés that it detects do not address the job and the company specifically.