4 Simple Tips to Get Your Resume Past the Robots

Did you know that 98% of applicants don’t even make it to the interview stage? With odds as terrible as these, your job search isn’t going anywhere if you focus all of your time on online applications and then sit and wait to be called for an interview. Get your resume past the robots with these simple but effective tips:




1. Tailor your resume to the job.
It’s a lot of work to update your resume for each job that you apply to, but it’s becoming a necessary step—especially if you don’t have any connections with someone at the company. Software programs scan your resume to look for keyword matches with the job description and if you don’t have a high enough percentage of similar words you won’t show up as a match.

2. Use simple language.
Resume writing is very different from the kind of writing you did in school. You’re not trying to hit a high word count and you actually want to avoid adding “fluff” and using big words. Use simple language that gets your point across quickly, ideally with the fewest words possible. Don’t make the reader search for your marketable skills and results hidden within lines and lines of text. If you can say it in five words, instead of ten, do it.

3. Choose a simple format and avoid images and non-standard fonts.
A traditional format is still best for most career fields. Online platforms and resume reading software programs don’t know what to do with pictures and graphics, and they can even have trouble with non-standard fonts too. If you’re not an artist or a graphic designer, choose a simple template that presents your most marketable and keyword rich skills at the top—ideally in a bulleted list, not in paragraph form. The upper half of the page is your “prime resume real estate” which means that your most relevant content should be in this area.

4. Don’t dwell on experience that is not recent.
Focus your energy on your most recent role(s). The further you go back in your work history, the shorter your job history should become. If you have less than eight to ten years of employment to list, you should have a one-page resume. If you have over ten years of experience, you should have no more than a two-page resume. In general, we don’t recommend including more than about ten years of work history though because no one is going to spend time pouring over what you were doing 15 years ago, and in some cases this can work against you if you’re targeting an entry-level or even mid-level role.

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