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 resume scan?
One of the key ATS features is the ability to filter stored resumes 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 resume relevance. Among job seekers, this filtering feature is mostly known as an ATS resume scan.
Why do you need a targeted resume?
A targeted resume is a resume created in response to a specific job opening to emphasize 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 resume 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 resume scan?
To get past the ATS resume scan and land the interview, you need a targeted resume 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 resume end goal is to clearly communicate that you are suitable for the position so that anyone reading your resume would see the obvious fit.