Bullet points or paragraphs? One page or more? Bright colors and fancy headers? What about the college clubs and societies? Hard skills? Soft Skills? Hobbies? The question of what should be included on a professional resume has a lot of answers across the internet and social media. Some answers make sense, while some seem limited to certain careers. Others are well… nonsense. What everyone seems to agree on is that the current job market is a stress-inducing and time-sucking mess.

While I am a professional resume writer, I don’t claim to know all the answers, but certain developments and emerging technologies taking stage in the modern job search production are important to know, especially for those trying to find a new position or career. Let’s talk about navigating recruitment software, what’s important, and how to avoid common missteps.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have arguably had the biggest impact on the current state of the search for new employment. ATS software is the eponymous gauntlet your documents must conquer to be seen. Once a company releases a job posting on an online platform like Indeed or ZipRecruiter, the applications start rolling in. All those submissions are then filtered through an ATS scan, and then, a much smaller amount goes to the hiring manager to read. Basically, a successful ATS scan is vital if you want an actual person to see your resume. ATS scans compare the info on your resume with the job description for the position you are seeking. So, the more skills, abilities, and accomplishments on your resume that align with the job description the better. 

However, if the scans don’t read your documents correctly, it doesn’t matter how good of a match your document is to the job description. You could still be screened out of the search, meaning a person never actually sees your resume and you end up getting one of those maddening form rejection emails. The best piece of advice I can give to make sure your info scans correctly is: the simpler the better. 

Once upon a time, having the fanciest and most visually impressive resume may have been important. Now–for most industries–intricate headings, graphics, and designs don’t really help and can even hurt. Applicant Tracking Systems scan common fonts, common formatting, and common section headers best. The word ‘common’ is key. Instead of using columns and headers, which can be misread by the scans, use a concise section by section format in a tried and tested typeface like Times New Roman that includes contact info, a professional summary, a list of relevant skills, a breakdown of your experience, and any education or professional trainings you’ve completed. 

Please note that I included the word ‘relevant’ when talking about listing your skills. The time hiring managers spend actually reading your resume is pretty short. My advice is to only include the skills, trainings, and experience that’s important to your current career goals. So don’t throw in your weekend childhood paper delivery job unless you’re still in the newspaper logistics business. 

If you need help deciding what skills and trainings to include, check the descriptions of potential target jobs. If a skill you possess is listed on the job description, that’s a good one to include and will help your resume scan well against that job description should you apply. As far as what to include in, and how to format, your experience section, some people use a list of bulleted points and others use a combination of paragraphs along with bulleted points. Neither formatting option shouldn’t affect the ATS scans, so feel free to go with your particular preference. I tend to use a short paragraph describing the overall role followed by a short list of bulleted points that highlight specific achievements that I want to stand out. 

A final consideration to make as you write is to objectively analyze your document as both the hiring manager and the ATS scan. 

What is your document saying? Sometimes, ATS scans will screen out documents containing dates older than 15 years, meaning having the year of your college graduation listed could hurt your chances of a successful scan. To be safe, when I need to list experience older than 15 years, I put it in an ‘Additional Experience’ section. This section is similar to the professional experience section, but leaves out any dates. That way, the important experience and skills are included while eliminating any potential age-related screen-out factors. Similarly, I don’t include dates when listing the different diplomas and degrees in an education section. 

How does your document read? While the ATS scan might not care if your language is repetitive and overly technical, the person reading it might. Read your document out loud. Have you used the word ‘managed’ a million times? Maybe switch it up and instead use some high-impact verbs like, championed, spearheaded, or mobilized. 

At the end of the day, be concise, clear, and direct. Imagine you are telling someone what you do, how it makes a difference, and how you’d like to grow. 

What do you think? Do you have any other resume writing tips? What’s your experience with the current job market been like? And while you’re here, be sure to stop by my CONTACT page and sign up for the newsletter!