This is a common sense article about using keywords on resumes. Keywords can be very important but don’t overuse them. https://www.coursera.org/articles/applicant-tracking-system
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In other words, game the (keyword matching) system to get your resume past the automated screen, but don’t make it look like you are gaming the system so that the human who reads your resume after it passes the automated screen will not get a negative impression of you as someone trying to game the system.
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Guess what- the folks who write these “get your resume past the automated screen” articles usually have NEVER used an ATS system, have never been a client of a provider of a system who gets to specify what they do and do not want in terms of features, and know that the best clickbait around is “how to trick the ATS”.
I am not a believer in “gaming the system” because for most people, they have no transparency into how the client (the company) is using the technology. So what are they gaming- pretending they have a CPA when they’ve just “fulfilled the coursework required to sit for the CPA exam”??? How dumb is that? Someone wrote an article a few years ago telling students to make sure to write “CFA” somewhere on their resume if they wanted a job in finance because CFA certification was a frequent keyword.
We’d have a contest to see the most ridiculous use of the term “CFA” in resumes trying to game the system. The exam has three parts. So someone who writes “planning to get a CFA” or “Studying to sit for the CFA” is outsmarting whom here? The machine? Sure. And then a human scans the resume, realizes the applicant has NOT passed all three parts, hasn’t even taken part 1 yet- and then pushes the very satisfying “send Turndown email” button on the dashboard.
How can you game a system when you don’t know what the controls have been set to?
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It gets a lot more fuzzy when the keyword references something that is not a certification, license, etc. that is clear cut as something that one has or does not have.
For example, a job listing for a computer software job may list keywords of programming languages, technologies, etc. without clearly stating what level of skill in them is required or desired. So any applicant with any level of skill in those keywords applies, and applicants with any level of skill in those keywords make sure that the keywords are on their resumes.
This isn’t gaming- this is listing one’s skills and competencies which is the actual purpose of a resume. What’s fuzzy is posting “Exposed to…” for a programming language, which once the resume gets to a human is getting tossed- if in fact, the role requires competency with that language.
People who read resumes for a living aren’t morons.
You seem very bitter about ATS systems. Most companies use them as relatively efficient filing cabinets. They are not the enemy! You cannot outrun a weak job market, but pretending that the problem is an automated system– which is typically set up to make sure that an applicant who lives in Colorado and won’t relocate does not take up the time of a human being trying to fill a role in Georgia which has a five day a week onsite requirement. This is not fuzzy. This is wishful thinking on the part of frustrated applicants- who do not understand the enormous competition for some roles right now. And “Exposed to” for a role which requires subject matter expertise won’t cut it.
If a company uses that system, the applicant wants to, at the very least, not have their application automatically rejected. Yes, people have to game the system.
Using the career center, networking, researching, cold calling, keywords, sending a batch of cookies, or whatever people feel is “gaming the system.” It’s easy to expand on this. Some might argue that sending their child to an elite university is gaming the system too. 
And the logic behind this is what exactly? People are now paying services (essentially bots) to apply to any post which has one or two “relevant” keywords. The applicants in no way are qualified for most of these jobs but the bot doesn’t care. The services boast about how quickly their technology “scours” the internet.
I don’t understand the thinking behind “I don’t want my application automatically rejected”. If the applicant doesn’t bother to read the job requirements- and doesn’t meet the job requirements, does it matter at which point in the process they are rejected???
People are comforting themselves that “last week I applied to 346 jobs”. A paid service applied to 346 jobs, none of which are appropriate for that person. Is this a winning strategy or somehow psychologically satisfying?
I can tell you that NOBODY ever likes my “join a professional association in your field” advice because it feels so hard. Last week someone I counseled joined one of these (got their career services department to obtain a “student discount code” for them even though they had already graduated), showed up at a “lunch and learn” in their city, and got three invitations to “pop me an email and let’s find time to talk about your job search”. This is not gaming the system- this IS the system. This doesn’t require privilege or having daddy’s tennis friends hand you a job. This doesn’t require keywords (except for the initial google search for “professional associations in museum management”).
I go to these roundtables frequently. That’s how I keep up with colleagues, former colleagues, people I like enough to chat with over coffee but not enough to actually stay friends with. And the students/new grads stand out. In a good way. Initiative. And the ones that have a terse but clear elevator pitch: “I’m interested in an entry level role in Talent Management, and can leverage my Psych degree to add value when assessing soft skills and group dynamics”– they REALLY stand out. They aren’t competing with 1,200 other resumes that responded to an online post. They are competing with themselves– show up at an interview or on a Zoom with as much energy and focus as they demonstrated by attending a professional event and getting an offer is easy-peasy. Ivy League or Eastern Genovia State University? Won’t matter.
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How do we deal with this issue? My S22 did get a post grad job that he starts in a few weeks, but while applying, I think this was a problem for him. He was honest to god ready to move just about anywhere for a job in the field he wanted to work in. He applied all over the US (minus Florida - too hot and humid). But his resume would show school in MA and home in VA. How do you demonstrate that no, you don’t currently live in Georgia, but you’d move there for the job?
S22 has a job now - and it’s in a location that he doesn’t particularly want to be in. He’s planning to give it at least two years of trying before he decides it’s not the right fit. But if he does decide that, and if my S25 is willing to look far away from home, how do you communicate that in a resume? I suppose they could put some kind of verbiage in a cover letter, but will the cover letter even get to a person to read if the matching tool has already decided they live too far away and likely won’t move?
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No, more about purple squirrel job listings that list numerous “requirements” that are not realistic to find in any one applicant, so applicants who meet any subset of the “requirements” apply, without knowing which are truly required.
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This is where networking (talking to actual human beings) trumps technology. When he reaches out to his first manager (who has since left the company but is still in the industry) to say “I’ve learned so much here- thank you for your mentorship! If you hear of anything that might be a fit for me I’d love to know about the opportunity. I am happy to relocate!”
I am working on a very, very tough assignment right now. It would be easy to dismiss the job description as unrealistic– or being chock-a-block with “requirements” that aren’t really requirements but that’s not true. The company’s concession to reality is that the person will be able to work remotely from anywhere in the Continental US with adequate internet connectivity. But honest to god, the person we find will actually NEED all of the stuff we’ve specified that they need.
In my experience, the purple squirrel is an urban legend. Candidates like to claim that’s why they’ve been rejected and if it makes them feel better- go in peace. 20 years ago I needed to hire for a very complex role– and the “finishing touch” was that the person needed to be fluent in Russian. You could say “wow Blossom you’re a moron” but outsiders didn’t/couldn’t understand what was going on in our Eastern European operation and why Russian fluency (for a role that was NOT based in Russia) was so critical. Found the person. We’d have hired him anyway for a different role- that’s how exceptional he was- but he majored in Russian Studies as an undergrad. So NOT fluent in contemporary idiomatic/slang Russian, but close enough in literary Russian so that a 4 month immersion program done concurrently with his training and onboarding would get him there.
Sometimes companies actually know what they are looking for. Even though you could accurately describe me as a moron at times.
Most of this complexity does not exist for new grad positions where kids are being hired into a pool.
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Perhaps all of the requirements are real requirements in the one assignment you are describing.
But I have seen situations (of junior to mid-level jobs) where the requirements in the job listing were not the actual requirements for applicants to reach the interview or be hired. In those cases, the listed requirements were just a purple squirrel wish list, of which only a few were actually required.
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Of course. I’m just making the point that most ATS systems are not being designed to systematically disadvantage your kid (or your kid’s friends). Which is the implication around the “purple squirrel” meme. That somehow nobody exists in this universe who meets the actual job requirements. And that’s generally not true.
We should discuss relevant issues for new grad hiring here. At least that is what is of interest to many people here. And in our recent experience, posted job ads don’t elicit responses when a resume is submitted more than 2-3 days after initial posting date, if you are not from a well known university etc — I Certainly wouldn’t be surprised if there are different GPA cutoffs for different schools etc. I have seen different hiring processes for kids from different schools. I have seen a large amount of difference if you have someone who can refer you in vs not — things are glaringly different — this is at large companies — just to get called for the interview. You are not called even when you score a 100% on the automatic OA that is sent out to you — you know because you haven’t failed any of the test cases that are embedded in the prompt . Things are not as clean as they are portrayed.
Nobody is interested in my “relevant issues” for new grad hiring. Submitting resumes to a generic job board (Linkedin, Ziprecruiter, etc.) is like shouting into a whirlwind.
And yes, there are different GPA cutoffs for different schools. That’s why rigor matters. A philosophy major from Swarthmore or an engineering major from Cornell are NOT being evaluated in the same way as a philosophy major from Eastern Genovia State or an engineering major from random “not ABET accredited” college.
Sometimes I’m talking to myself here. I guess I need a better hobby. Nobody wants to hear that rigor matters. It’s more fun to complain about AI rejecting your kid (some of these systems were designed in 2005– and other than a few tweaks remain the same so not sure why AI is relevant), and it’s TONS more fun to complain about elitism and nepotism.
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I wouldn’t say that rigor is the issue for an institution like Rutgers (and it’s funny that you brought up philosophy specifically, since Rutgers is one of the top schools for that).
I am not talking about comparing philosophy majors at swarthmore with engg majors at Cornell. That is a strawman. It is pointless discussing about pointless things.
I am talking about, as an example, math and cs majors at Rutgers, with close to a 4.0 (Summa) applying for jobs on the company’s own website either not getting a response at all, or not getting a response after a perfectly done OA that is automatically sent out.
Why are you posting on a thread I started if you find my posts pointless?
Bringing random hiring situations that have nothing to do with hiring out of college seemed pointless to me. If it seems relevant to you,‘I apologize. Please go ahead.