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Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

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Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#4
I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means.

On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly)? You here about job postings getting thousands of applicants and it seems like it would be impossible to go through those by hand.

On the other side, I see lots of posts from recruiters saying ATS's do not judge resumes and everything is done by the recruiter. These posts seem to be very skeptical of anything saying it will optimize your resume for ATS's because there is no need to actually do that.

Would love more perspective on this issue.

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#5
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

[deleted]

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#6
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

The ATS won't judge a resume, but it will parse it and display in an easier format for the recruiter to browse through.

If your resume does not parse well (for example, a PDF with two columns can sometimes mean the right column text ends up above the left column text) the recruiter will have outdated / wrong information in front of them when they make the decision to do a screening call or not

I know because my cv had two columns for the longest time, and I kept getting recruiters call me "how's it going at " and they had my latest cv

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#7
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

> On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it

When you have 1,000 applications for a job you don't care much about false negatives (having the system reject candidates you might have wanted). Instead you want the software to give you 100, or even 30 resumes to sift through in the hope of phone screening half of them, interviewing only a few, and getting someone who can do the job as quickly as possible.

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#8
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

Recruiters that say ATS does not judge are full of crap. Unless you get a referral, or you get manually hand picked from the pile, ATS will decide if someone actually reads your resume. If your resume is a 100% match and you still do not get a call then there are other factors to consider. The organization posting the job is full of full of crap. I have been automating the job searches way before the pandemic. Now, I maybe get a call or two with 100+ job applications. If someone can afford to stay out of a job, I would say watch from the sideline until things cool off. It is not you that is the problem. Anyway, tools such as this can be very helpful vs ATS.

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#9
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

ATS optimisation is absolutely critical these days, at least in tech.

With the amount of applications you receive, the easiest first step is looking for a way to exclude someone. If your ATS can't even parse someone's CV properly, that's a great way to exclude it from consideration.

The next level is keyword matching. If your ATS can't find any of the keywords from your listing in the CV, another easy exclusion.

The whole system is completely bs, for both sides, to the point that personal referrals become more and more important. But if you don't play the game, someone else will, and you lose out.

Re: Resume Matcher – An open source, free tool to improve your resume

#10
post #4

I'm generally confused by how much "ATS-friendly" matters, or what that even means. On one side of the coin, it logically makes sense that ATS systems would help recruiters pare down the list. I'd assume there is some auto-rejection happening, but how sensitive is it (getting rid of clearly unqualified candidates vs. rejecting marginal candidates vs. actually qualified but still rejected due to not being ATS-friendly…

I feel like when I apply for jobs via tech recruiting firms I sidestep this nonsense because I almost always get a resume lined up. It seems obvious to me that ATS is just like whiteboard interviewing, just a tool to trim down on candidates based on silly metrics. In my case I do plenty of web dev, if I am writing any algorithm from scratch I am most likely doing something wrong if its not available to me in some fashion.
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