It’s tempting to press the Easy button in developing your new resume. Microsoft Word offers templates for job seekers and dozens of websites offer resume builder services. In either case, chances are your trust is misplaced.
Unfortunately, most of these templates and services result in documents that are not compatible with applicant tracking software (ATS) systems. ATS systems—of which there are hundreds—have become smarter in recent years, but they still have problems when trying to parse resumes. This leaves job seekers frustrated and wondering why they can’t get interviews when their qualifications are a strong match for requirements. For example:
- If your name and contact information is in the header of the document, ATS can’t read it. This means the system will ignore your submission.
- If your margins are too narrow or your font is too small, many systems will have trouble reading your document.
- ATS will not parse information included in text boxes and they misread columns and tables, so any data contained in them can be lost or misunderstood.
- ATS will ignore all pictures, graphics, and many/most design elements, so your resume will not appear as you intend to the human reader.
And there’s more. Many systems will now ignore resumes with live links because of data security concerns. Dates of employment must be appropriately proximate to job titles to avoid confusion. The list of disqualifiers and potential problems is long.
For the best, most consistent results, resist the temptation to use resume builders and develop your new career documents with simple, straightforward formatting in MS Word. Use your Word document for online job applications as a best practice unless otherwise instructed to use another format (e.g., PDF).
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