By Barbara Safani

We’d all like to believe that when we send our resume via a job board or a company Web site that there is someone eagerly waiting on the other side ready to read every word of it. But these days, job applicants are lucky if an actual person is reading any of it, at least on the initial screening.

As companies continue to be inundated with resumes, more and more employers are turning to applicant tracking systems (ATS) to manage the sheer volume and weed through all the applicants. What does that mean for job seekers? I spoke to HR professionals,recruiters, and hiring managers to find out.

• Why do companies use applicant tracking systems?

In today’s market, there can be thousands of applicants for one position. According to recruiter Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, “ATS allows me as a recruiter to manage far greater amounts of information and track every communication I have with a job applicant so nothing is ‘forgotten.’ ” Unisys HR Consultant Sharon Sizgorich notes that ATS offers a “consolidated view of all applicants against a job and the ability to build and track pipelines of talent. In addition, applicant tracking systems can help recruiters better manage the various stages of the interview process and comply with legal requirements for tracking applicants.”

• How do applicant tracking systems work?

“When searching my database for candidates to fit a particular job posting, I’ll select an important keyword or phrase directly from the job description, and enter it into the ATS,” says recruiter Roxanne Williams. “The ATS will then search the database and return the resulting resumes to me, and this process can be repeated numerous times with different keywords or phrases.”

• What document formats can applicant tracking systems scan?

According to our experts, most systems can scan text and Word formats; some cannot scan Word 2007, PowerPoints, or PDFs.

• What should job seekers do in order to get their resumes noticed by the ATS?

Customize the resume for each position. Megan Pittsley, a career counselor and recruiter, advises job seekers to “extensively tweak their resume for every job and make sure you weave common keywords throughout the resume as often as possible.”

Keep job titles fairly generic. Kathleen Steffey, founder and CEO of Naviga Business Services, a sales and marketing based recruitment firm, suggests avoiding using job titles that are too specific. “If you are a sales professional who is conducting new business and prospecting 99 percent of the time, just keep your title to ‘Sales Professional’ or ‘Business Development Representative.’ Stay away from titles that are too specific like National Accounts or Client Relations.

Keep resume formatting to a minimum. Dan Kilgore, principal of Riviera Advisors Inc., notes that “certain design features such as italics, bolding, and underlining can substantially increase the error rate as the system converts the data.” Radical resume designs similarly are also off-limits because anything the ATS wasn’t programmed to look for will not be recognized. One suggestion might be to electronically submit your resume in Word and in a standard format, and save the “pretty” one you formatted for the live interview, since most of these characteristics were made to make the human reading experience more pleasant and exciting.

Avoid functional resumes. Ashley Gouge, VP of Client Development and Implementation for Pinstripe Healthcare states that “functional resumes are very difficult for parsing technology to read” and recommends using the more traditional chronological format for optimal results.

Include full keywords and their abbreviated formats. Recruiter and BestJobHuntGuide.com owner Roxanne Williams adds, “some of the words or phrases listed on the job description can also be abbreviated; for example, Sarbanes Oxley can be abbreviated as SOX and accounts payable is often referred to as AP. Play it safe and include both versions in your resume.”  While those using applicant tracking systems can point to many benefits of using these systems, some also acknowledge the drawbacks. Amber Jolley, a staffing consultant with Whitaker Technical Services, notes: “The main drawback is that often your resume isn’t seen by a ‘live’ person if it doesn’t make it past the ATS screening process. While there are many advantages, the real downfall with ATS is that they are not able to quantify the ‘intangibles’ that candidates bring to the table or skills that may be equivalent or transferable enough to make their resume worth reviewing.”

1. Email your resume. Don’t fax or snail mail. With everyone data basing information, having your resume in an electronic format is essential. With that in mind, remember to have. Post your resume on this site. This new and inexpensive feature lets you post a 10 line synopsis plus your resume.

2. Write a Keyword searchable resume. Whatever your expertise, remember that the job may exist a week or a month from now and we have to find you at that time. What are your skills and experience and how can someone locate you electronically if they need to? Package yourself for how business is done now.

3. Network. Network. Network.Talk to people you’ve worked with and worked for. Collect information and be generous with it

4. Don’t forget the niche job boards, too. Everyone knows the major boards but forgets how few recruiters and companies actually subscribe to them to find your resume. And those boards are expensive for their users and have a low success ratio! Remember to scour the niche boards and free services for companies and recruiters who have available positions

5. Your job is finding a job and not watching Judge Judy! Maintain your discipline, your weight (or use the opportunity to get into shape), keep your wardrobe in good shape and get into the market. Come to our networking group on the first Wednesday of the month. to connect with others who can help you.

6. Think about reducing your salary expectations now. You have 1 month of severance, $15000 in the bank, spend $8000 per month and don’t want to touch the equity in your home. How long can you afford to be looking for work? Start looking to reduce your expenses and lower your salary expectations. Reducing your expenses gives you staying power in the market and can minimize the feeling of desperation that can show up on your interviews (and hurt you). Lowering your salary demands can open extra doors for you that will help keep you sharp and that you may accept if thing remain tough. One way you can figure out how long you can afford to be out of work is by using the tools in “Organize Your Job Search NOW! available at www.GetYourselfHiredNOW.com

7. Prepare your references. More companies and search firms are doing referencing than ever before. Prepare your references in advance and provide them to recruiters if they ask for them.

8. Prepare answers to tough questions. Don’t know what they might be for your field? Order  a book or e-book for help.

9. Update your resume on job boards on a schedule.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
TheBigGameHunter@cisny.com

© 2009 all rights reserved.

© 2004 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

Receive a complimentary subscription to his job search ezine, No B.S. Job Search Advice at www.JeffAltman.com