I have resume clients who are often confused about the terms and definitions of ATS, SEO, and keywords. Some clients think that there is a certain set of standardized words that you insert into your resume to be seen after you upload your resume to an online system. Here’s a simple breakdown of the terms and how recruiters in the job placement industry use these resume elements.
ATS stands for Automatic Tracking System. The ATS is the software application (often cloud-based) that recruiters use to receive, host, classify, and document applicants who apply for specific job applications. Recruiters also perform a procedure called a Boolean search in the SQL (Structured Query Language) database to find applicants with keywords or key phrases in their resumes. Boolean Search is a faster, automated method to reduce the number of actual resumes that recruiters have to read by identifying the “most qualified candidates” in the system by including keywords.
SEO is the acronym for search engine optimization. Using an Internet browser (eg Google, Bing, Opera) to find information means implementing Boolean search using keywords to find pages or documents optimized for search engines. The search engine will search for websites with the keywords or phrases and the sites with the “most” of those keywords or phrases will appear in a queue of results, with the most optimized websites at the top of the list.
Recruiters use the same Boolean search process in an ATS resume database as an Internet search. Once the recruiter searches, either across the entire database or just among the applicants in the specific job application, resumes with the “most mentions” of a keyword or phrase will rise to the top of the results queue. Recruiters don’t have time to read 100, 200, 300 resumes, so they rely on SEO keywords to find the “highest qualified” candidate based on the highest number of mentions of those keywords on the resume. They’ll take a look at the first five to ten resumes in the results queue, and if those candidates meet the minimum qualifications, they’ll either proceed to interview them or send the resumes to hiring managers for a decision. The remaining 90, 190, or 290 resumes will likely never be read and will be marked en masse as “other more qualified candidates.”
Keywords are words or simple phrases directly relevant to a job seeker’s career, skills, experience and/or education. For example, computer programmers should list all the programming languages they use as keywords. Logistics professionals should use the words supply chain, logistics, supply, warehousing, and inventory as keywords, with metrics to describe their job tasks and accomplishments. Marketers should include keywords related to revenue, sales, marketing, advertising, and revenue streams. Property managers should include metrics for rental units, rental property values, descriptions of how they manage or provide facility maintenance, and vendors who contract for repairs as keywords and phrases.
Executives (C-suite) should not confuse words like “leadership”, “guidance” and “support” as keywords – they are vague and subjective. Corporate executives and/or CFOs should have action verbs as keywords and phrases, such as development, research, accounting, finance, investments, mergers and acquisitions, supervision, management, director (of something) and/or project or program management.
Action verbs at the beginning of a bullet point must be followed by a documentable, objectively written action with a result. An example, loaded with metrics, would be: “Managed > $20 million in service contracts, current and future deployment projects, including aircraft support equipment, office supplies, and electronics; managed and supervised contracts worth ~ $2.14 million for required parts and services, $3.02 million in aircraft ground support equipment requirements, and >$10 million in electronic and future deployment components.”
Knowing what these terms mean and how to use the processes to your advantage will help you write more objective, keyword-laden, action-based descriptions of your career and experience. The more keywords, phrases, target language, documentable metrics, and easy-to-read spikes in your resume, the faster recruiters can find you, consider your strengths, and pick up the phone to interview you.
Dawn Boyer, owner of D. Boyer Consulting, offers advice on writing, editing, publishing and print-on-demand resumes. Contact her at Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit dboyerconsulting.com.
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