I recently had a client who asked for help after applying for dozens and dozens of roles without any success. She said she polished her resume on a resume builder website and then ran it through 3 resume checkers online – they all showed her resume would pass ATS, and the resume score was 85 and above.
She was confused why she hadn’t been invited for even one interview.
Like many job seekers out there now, she was also unaware that the ATS has little to do with the application’s success. She was convinced and scared by so many coaching “experts” that solving the resume ATS compliance problem would get her a job.
My dear people…it will not.
When I read her “polished” resume, here is what I found:
❗ The summary that was actually talking about what her goals are, and a bunch of adjectives that blurred the meaning of the sentences
❗ 21 (!) hard and soft skills listed
❗ Lengthy job duties descriptions for each job
❗ Achievements with percentages, but without any context
When I asked her to send me the 10 job ads she applied to, I saw that she was actually qualified for only 2 of them (still did not meet all of the requirements).
After one week of coaching and rewriting her resume, she thanked me for helping her see what things were crucial for landing an interview – and she was invited for the first interview two weeks later.
I repeat this all the time, but I’ll write it again as simple as I can:
Do not write your resume for the ATS, write it for a human. The only way you will get an automated rejection (very soon) is when you answer the application (“knockout”) questions unfavourably – and that actually means you are NOT qualified for a job. That’s all. That’s all the ATS “witchcraft” you should know.
So, stop paying for unnecessary services and start looking at your job search process with a strategy and direction.
You can find useful articles here that will, hopefully, help you clarify your position and next steps.
Work smarter, not harder. 🍀💙
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