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Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

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Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#11

Post by vonmoltke »

vtange wrote: post #6

Don't spend too much time worrying about this. There's a reason why companies use ATS and that's to filter out a large volume of applicants. Even if you formatted well, you'll need to have enough keywords, etc. to win against the crowd. Your time is better spent working on networking. My current job came from a friend's referral and honestly, I'm sure many companies will take a referred candidate over a candidate who…

That only really works for companies local to you. Plus, it ignores that at many large companies a referral just means an extra tag in the ATS that might or might not help you bubble up.

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#12

Post by noer »

patio11 wrote: post #5
vthallam wrote: post #3

Its tough to prepare a universal format for all ATS to parse and if there is one, they would have been promoting that format all along. Some ATS keep first name, last name, email as the only mandatory fields and in that case a basic resume where you keep the name as the first thing on top would work. But most of the others ask for your visa status, ethnicity and various other things, so that has to be manual work aga…

FWIW: it is extraordinarily unlikely you will be asked your ethnicity during the job application process at any US employer. Universities, sure, all the time, because they intend to racially discriminate against disfavored groups. Employers who do that lose large lawsuits.

Employers in the United States over a certain size (I think it's 50 employees, but i could be wrong) are required to report demographics of their applicants to the Federal Government. The responses must be voluntary and they cannot be tied to any specific applicant (so, they can't see that applicant A listed themselves as White and applicant B listed themselves as African-American).

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#14

Post by namelezz »

patio11 wrote: post #5
vthallam wrote: post #3

Its tough to prepare a universal format for all ATS to parse and if there is one, they would have been promoting that format all along. Some ATS keep first name, last name, email as the only mandatory fields and in that case a basic resume where you keep the name as the first thing on top would work. But most of the others ask for your visa status, ethnicity and various other things, so that has to be manual work aga…

FWIW: it is extraordinarily unlikely you will be asked your ethnicity during the job application process at any US employer. Universities, sure, all the time, because they intend to racially discriminate against disfavored groups. Employers who do that lose large lawsuits.

> It is extraordinarily unlikely you will be asked your ethnicity during the job application process at any US employer.

That's a big lie there.

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#15

Post by dragonwriter »

patio11 wrote: post #5
vthallam wrote: post #3

Its tough to prepare a universal format for all ATS to parse and if there is one, they would have been promoting that format all along. Some ATS keep first name, last name, email as the only mandatory fields and in that case a basic resume where you keep the name as the first thing on top would work. But most of the others ask for your visa status, ethnicity and various other things, so that has to be manual work aga…

FWIW: it is extraordinarily unlikely you will be asked your ethnicity during the job application process at any US employer. Universities, sure, all the time, because they intend to racially discriminate against disfavored groups. Employers who do that lose large lawsuits.

> it is extraordinarily unlikely you will be asked your ethnicity during the job application process at any US employer.

Untrue.

> Employers who do that lose large lawsuits.

Employers who ask it during the application process usually do it in a manner which allows the data to be tracked in aggregate but separated from the application through the hiring decision process, and retain clear documentation of this process and its execution so as to be able to defend themselves against any charges of inappropriate use of the information in hiring decisions.

Many employers are required to report this information in aggregate, but I'm not sure that they are the only ones who track it for their own information.

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#17

Post by softawre »

pknerd wrote: post #16

_Shameless Plug_ A while back I wrote a Python script automating Job applying procedure for Glassdoor. It worked for a guy who got the job. If one finds it interesting, contact me at kadnan at gmail.com. Both trial and paid version available

You have a paid version of a python script? Curious how that works.

`print('Paypal me 20 bucks please!')`

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#18

Post by coolmitch »

midnitewarrior wrote: post #8

I've read that .doc/.docx/Microsoft Word format is the most desired. I've had recruiters tell me this, and I've seen posts on reddit about this. It all comes down to metadata and formatting -- the automated resume parsers do a lot better with Microsoft Word, especially if you use the templates.

FWIW, I think word formats are most desired by recruiters because they can be easily edited to ie. remove your name and add skills the recruiter thinks will get it recognized. I'm pretty sure word formats are pretty unamenable to parsing, aren't they?

Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?

#20

Post by wtracy »

coolmitch wrote: post #18
midnitewarrior wrote: post #8

I've read that .doc/.docx/Microsoft Word format is the most desired. I've had recruiters tell me this, and I've seen posts on reddit about this. It all comes down to metadata and formatting -- the automated resume parsers do a lot better with Microsoft Word, especially if you use the templates.

FWIW, I think word formats are most desired by recruiters because they can be easily edited to ie. remove your name and add skills the recruiter thinks will get it recognized. I'm pretty sure word formats are pretty unamenable to parsing, aren't they?

I agree 100 percent that recruiters prefer Word docs because they're easier to tamper with. (A recruiter once asked me over the phone if I had my resume in a format other than PDF, then said it was okay because he had a way to edit it anyway!)

That said,

> word formats are pretty unamenable to parsing

Compared to what? Almost all resumes show up in .doc or .pdf format. Maybe the occasional snowflake will submit an HTML file, a WordPerfect document, or a .swf file.

Candidates submitting raw text (or something like JSON) are going to be few and far between. (Although RTF is actually straight text under the hood, and I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more often.)

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