Job candidates put a fair amount of thought and effort into their job application materials, especially their resume. In order to stand out to the hiring manager and make it to the interview scheduling stage of the hiring process, recruiters and hiring teams are looking for ATS friendly resumes.
Companies have powerful candidate sourcing systems to carry out resume parsing to find and hire qualified candidates. When searching multiple job boards, job seekers are trying to find those opportunities and a specific job title that excite them and make them want to apply. You can use a job tracker to manager your job search, from the application process to accepting a job offer, the same way.
What is an Applicant Tracking System?
An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is a recruiting software that serves as a database for job applicants. How do applicant tracking systems work? Applicant tracking system software have key features and are used by companies to do the following functions:
- Search for compatible and qualified job applicants whose resumes most closely match the job description
- Organize candidates' job applications and resumes
- Communicate with large talent pools while recruiting for a role
- Streamline the recruitment and hiring process for employers
Many companies use ATS software, from small businesses to top companies, such as the Fortune 500. This is because an ATS makes it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to manage candidates and filter a sizable amount of job applicants.
Since most companies hire for multiple positions simultaneously, they receive thousands of job applications that might be impossible to read through one by one. This is where the ATS comes in, as it truly makes the hiring process quicker and more efficient.
Using an ATS software allows hiring managers to carry out resume parsing - a practice that allows them to consolidate, organize, and search within thousands of resumes. But what about the job candidates on the other side of the negotiation table? That's what we're here to discuss.
Applicant Tracking System Tips for Job Seekers
If you're an applicant or job seeker who's applying for a job opening at a mid-sized or larger-sized company, the chances are high that you're applying through an applicant tracking system. Because job seekers often apply on a URL managed by the ATS, you probably recognize the top ATS companies, such as Jobvite, SmartRecruiters, iCIMS, Greenhouse, BambooHR & Workable.
This means that as an applicant, your resume might not be considered, and might interfere with the resume parsing process, if it's not optimally formatted or does not contain the right search terms or ATS keywords that match the job description and required qualifications.
What if you could drag and drop your work experience into a ready-made resume template? Think how much time designing and formatting your resume you'd save. Luckily, this scenario becomes a reality with Teal's AI Resume Builder.
Some ATS can even rank candidates by comparing job descriptions to the applicants' uploaded resumes. This means that recruiters are likely to pick those that come out on top of these rankings.
Use Teal's AI Resume Builder to quickly compare the skills and keywords in the job posting to those in your resume. Make sure to add any relevant experience to your customized resume and to your application answers.
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As a job seeker, ensure that your resume has the correct search terms for the specific job posting that you're interested in. This means that you have to examine the job description and include top keywords in your resume.
Is there an applicant tracking system equivalent for job seekers?
The short answer is yes, there is a free ATS for job seekers!
They're called job trackers, or job application trackers, and are the job seeker's best option for getting on top of the ATS' matching algorithm. They are similar to the same systems HR departments use to track applicants - but they're specifically made for job seekers.
These job application trackers allow applicants to optimize their resumes by finding the right keywords in each job description, saving and organizing desired jobs, and managing statuses and follow-ups for each application. Briefly, here's how you can ‘hack' the ATS software with the help of a great job tracker:
- Tailor your resume to fit the job description
- Use chronological/hybrid resume format.
- Use the right keywords to match skills in the job description
- Use both the long-form and acronym versions of keywords. For example: “Adept in content management systems (CMS)”
- No tables or columns
- Save your file as a .docx or .pdf if possible, as most ATS use this format
By using Teal's AI Resume Builder, you can export your resume directly as a PDF.
A Free Application Tracker for Job Seekers
We created the Teal Job Application Tracker to help you manage your job search. It's a way to stay organized while staying on top of all your job applications. You can save any active job post from popular job boards, websites such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, as well as job openings you've discovered on your own. You can keep adding job postings through an easy-to-use Chrome extension that will save all your job listings in an easy-to-use dashboard.
If you plan on starting your job hunt after leaving your current job, manage your job search with Teal's Job Application Tracker, a free job tracking app that lets you track and store important job hunting details.
After you've saved a job description from a job posting, Teal's ‘keyword and skill analysis feature' will analyze the listing and highlight the right keywords you can add to your resume. As hiring managers rank candidates throughout the hiring process, this will allow you to stand out against other candidates and beat applicant tracking systems.
When it comes to applying for jobs, you want to show the company that you are the PERFECT fit for the role. To do this, we recommend highlighting the skills and experience you have that match the requirements of the job description. Teal's Job Application Tracker & AI Resume Builder help extract the top keywords so you can quickly customize your resume and let a company know exactly why you are applying for a specific position.
Bookmark a job with Teal’s free Job Application Tracker and you’ll see the keywords and skills highlighted automatically. Quickly review the most common keywords with Teal's Job Description Keyword Finder and make sure to tailor your application answers accordingly.
The dashboard feature is also super detailed, allowing you to see important details such as application status, follow-up, company, position, location, and your notes per listing.
Within Teal's Job Application Tracker is a super helpful “Notes” tool to track and update your interview questions and answers for each saved job. It pulls up next to the job description, making it easy to pull all the necessary keywords. Make any edits and additions you need, and your changes will be saved automatically.
Conclusion
While recruiters have applicant tracking systems for the recruitment process, job seekers have job application trackers like Teal's. In the same way that ATSs help recruiters and hiring managers sort through applicants, job trackers help job seekers optimize their resumes and communicate with recruiters that they are the right person for the job. Because we live in the digital age, it's not enough to send out one-size-fits-all resumes and hope that interview invites come your way.
The wiser move is to tailor your resume to a job description, optimize your materials, and stay on top of all your job applications to make sure you get the best opportunity for your skills and qualifications. If you're currently looking for a job, we hope our job tracker tool can help you manage your job search for free and get through the ATS software filters.
