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10 Tips on Optimizing Your Resume for

APPLICANT TRACKING
SYSTEMS
www.skillsyncer.com
 01 TAILOR RESUME TO THE
JOB REQUIREMENTS
Use keywords and exact phrases
from the job description
throughout your resume and
online application. Keywords are
scored both by how often they
appear and the extent to which
they get used in context.

02 USE COMMON SECTION

HEADERS
Use common names for your
section headers (Education, Work
Experience, Certifications,
Skills). Using a less common
heading may result in that section
or the entire resume being parsed
incorrectly.

03 CONTACT INFORMATION

Resumes must include up to date

contact information—which
includes your name, city, state,
phone number, and email address.
These should appear at the top of
your resume
skillsyncer.com
98%
of Fortune 500 companies use an
Applicant Tracking System to
source applicants resumes to
manage high volumes of job
applications. ATS will
electronically scan your resume,
score your qualications based
on the description for that
position, and rank your
application. Recruiters rely on
them to make their screening
process more efficient.

SkillSyncer.com
04 DESIGN FORMATTING
Some design elements are safe such as
bolded text, lines and borders,
and color shading. Your resume
doesn’t have to look “blah” or "dull" to
be compatible with ATS software.
06 WORK EXPERIENCE
FORMATTING
Never start each job with dates of
employment. ATS systems look for job
title first then company names, and
lastly the dates.
skillsyncer.com
05 DATE FORMATTING
Include months with years; this is
particularly important if you held jobs
for less than a year. ATS systems
calculate years of experience using
month & year. Also be consistent
throughout the resume with date
formatting.
07 DO NOT CRAM OR STUFF
KEYWORDS
Don’t wordstuff by adding in hidden or
white text to trick the system. There is
potential for you to be black-listed for
this type of action.
08 09
WHEN TO USE AND NOT
USE CHARTS, GRAPHS , URL LINKS
TABLES AND IMAGES
If you have information you want to Some ATS may read a live link as a
convey, there’s nothing wrong with virus or phishing attempt. Leave live
using a chart or graph as long as you links out of the resume you submit
also type the same information in your through ATS, and type the text as the
bullets, which will be read. actual link.

50

40

30

20

10

0
Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5

Item 5 Item 1
10 TESTING ATS
COMPATIBILITY
20% 20% Since an ATS converts your resume to
plain text, you can double-check on
your resume’s compatibility by saving
it as a plain text file and reviewing
how it looks.
Item 4 Item 2
20% 20%

Item 3
20%

skillsyncer.com
 Bonus Tip!
Complete all elds in an online application,

even those that are not required. Recruiters

may use those elds as lters and, if left blank,

your application might not make it through the

system.

SkillSyncer
resume & keyword optimization tool

scan and optimize your resume