ATS…AND YOUR
CLIENTS’ SUCCESS
Joan Murrin
Director, Dual Career Network
University of Iowa
2012 International Higher Education Dual Career
Network (HEDCN) Conference
ATS
Stands for……
Automated Tracking System
But is often referred to as
“Applicant Tracking System”
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
 Definition:
“The original ATS was designed as a workflow and
document management system for resumes…
Over time these systems became easier to use in
the filtering, management, and analysis of
candidates.”
Josh Bersin, Bersin & Associates, 2011
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
 We have emerged from simply COLLECTING resumes in
a database (simple process management) to PARSING key
words, ANALYZING resume contents, and RANKING
applicants by generated scores (complex analytics).
 Originally created to handle sheer volume of applicants.
 There is approximately 82% market saturation of these
systems today.
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
What does ATS do to the odds
of our clients being hired?
Remember, ATS designed for HR efficiency and
not necessarily to find the perfect candidate.
and…
ATS is error-prone.
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
which means…
Hiring authority doesn’t need to look at all
submitted resumes anymore.
Poorly written resumes/CV’s or those with fewer
relevant key words get sorted to the bottom of
the list.
Help your clients understand their competition!
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
Examples
of ATS
currently
used:
LinkedIn
Softscape
Oracle
Authoria
Peopleclick
HRSmart
Hirebridge
Kenexa
and more….
PeopleSoft
Careerbuilder
Yahoo!
hot jobs
The Ladders
Indeed
SuccessFactors
Monster
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
1.
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7.
How to optimize your clients’ odds:
Write document in Microsoft Word. No pdf’s or .docx.
No headers or footers or page numbers.
No graphics or symbols of any kind.
No tables or fields.
No fancy formatting or resume/CV templates. Use
common fonts such as Times New Roman or Courier.
Select one size of font; no bold or italics. No all caps.
Be consistent in the way you enter your information.
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Contact information comes first. No PO Boxes.
Do not combine different data under one section heading.
Always end company name in Inc., Co., LLC, etc. Includes
dates of employment.
Separate each work entry by a blank space.
Place skills under periods of work experience to support the
system efforts to calculate experience in a particular concept.
List each position in the same company as a stand-alone
entry.
Thanks to Lisa Parker
Parker-CPRW, Southern Georgia
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
And the challenge for us is to…….
Help our clients write a customized ATS-format resume
for each job they apply for when appropriate.
Utilize specific language in a job description to include in
a customized ATS-ready resume.
Client also needs to have a “pretty” resume/CV to hand
out as a hard copy.
AUTOMATED TRACKING SYSTEMS
NOW WE’LL LOOK AT SOME
HARD COPY EXAMPLES……
For further information,
Contact Joan Murrin
joan-murrin@uiowa.edu
319.335.3791