5 Resume Mistakes That Doom it to the ATS Black Hole

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You feel like this job is the one and excitedly hit submit, only to never again hear from the company. We all share the frustration of feeling like you are sending your resume into some black hole in cyberspace where no one is reading it. In all honesty, you might be. Perhaps you’ve heard of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), through which many companies do their hiring. These systems collect resumes and applications, sorting them by position, keywords, and skillsets. If you have the requisite information, your job chances increase, while lower matches between your resume and the job opening will doom your resume to the black hole. Here are some common resume mistakes that will doom even the most qualified candidates.


1. Misspelling words will doom your resume faster than you can misspell definitely.
While this holds true for any resume or cover letter you are submitting, it is armenia phone number list especially important when it comes to ATS. As efficient as the systems are in tracking candidates and their skillsets, they will not register misspelled resume keywords, and it will not be able to rank you for that qualification.


2. Fancy Formatting will not help optimize your resume for Applicant Tracking Systems.
Borders, graphics, or tables in your resume may be visually compelling, but ATS doesn’t have eyes. Save those for in person meetings, like job fairs or interviews. When it comes to ATS, the simpler the better. Don’t run the risk of excluding content for the sake of visuals.



3. Writing your resume with a thesaurus will prevent your resume from ranking well when a Hiring Manager searches something more simple.

Don’t try to impress Hiring Managers with vocabulary in your resume. Optimize your resume for ATS by writing well while staying consistent with the industry’s terminology. While a Hiring Manager will understand what you mean, ATS runs the risk of not compiling that synonym in the same way, which may cause it to overlook it. Matching your terms and keywords from the job description will boost your chances of a higher match. For example, the phrases Work History or Work Experience commonly categorize these sections on a resume. By ascribing to this standard, ATS will more easily interpret and file the content of your resume.