What is an ATS?
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is the software most mid-to-large size companies use to streamline recruiting. It can be seen as a database that stores information about candidates and tracks their application progress.
What is an ATS CV scan?
One of the key ATS features is the ability to filter stored CVs by job description keywords and sort the result by the number of keywords found – or, in other words, to find and rank potential candidates by CV relevance. Among job seekers, this filtering feature is mostly known as an ATS CV scan.
Why do you need a targeted CV?
A targeted CV is a CV created in response to a specific job opening to emphasise the candidate's relevance. The relevance is crucial because many companies must comply with fair and unbiased recruiting standards that legally force recruiters to reject candidates that don't meet the job criteria. Knowing this, a generic CV could easily miss out on some details that a particular company finds most essential and destroy any job interview opportunities.
How to pass the ATS CV scan?
To get past the ATS CV scan and land the interview, you need a targeted CV that matches the specific job position's requirements with the exact keywords found in the job ad. Frankly, it doesn't even matter if the company uses an ATS or not – your CV end goal is to clearly communicate that you are suitable for the position so that anyone reading your CV would see the obvious fit.