Webinar: Beating Applicant Tracking Systems– Live Resume Q&A

Want more info? Go to IvyExec.com 1
Beating the Ruthless ATS: Live Resume Q&A
Staci Collins, Senior Resume Specialist, Ivy Exec

2Want more info? Go to IvyExec.com/Resume or email us at Resumes@ivyexec.com
About Staci
• Senior Resume Specialist at Ivy Exec
• 15+ years as Executive Career coach
• 7 years in consulting with Accenture, Ernst & Young
• 7 years Staff and Adjunct Career Adviser at Haas
• 1,200 managers and professionals coached globally, 100+ at Ivy Exec
• MBA in organizational behavior from Haas; BA in anthropology from Harvard
• Specialist in technical career changers, consulting, high tech, healthcare, and
non-profit - and finding the career & fulfillment you seek

 ATS Value & Why So Important
 Current State/How they Work
 What are the Top Questions about ATS
 What do you Really Need to Know (Myths & Facts)
 Content
 Format
 Good & Bad Examples/Sample
 Process Tips/Wrap-Up
 Q&A
 Elite Services
Outline

Poll Question: Are you most interested in ATS for applying to companies or
posting on job boards or both?
Poll Questions

 A.k.a. Talent Management Systems (TMS) or Recruitment Software in UK
 Standard HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) module
 Most Major Corporations Use them
 Expanding into small and medium sized businesses
 Job &resume boards (Monster, Hotjobs, Career Builder) have partnerships
 Most Recruiters In-House and External use them also
 VC’s are Investing in next generation, e.g. jobscore.com,
theresumator.com, jobvite.com, catsone.com, talentbin.com, bright.com
ATS Value & Why So Important

 Data extracted from submitted resumes or CV’s on job boards
 Linked with HRIS
 With modern ATS’s, upload plain text as well as pdf or doc
 AI tools and NLP, intelligent guided semantic search capabilities
 Cloud based platforms
 Global cloud development complicated with strict data protection laws
 Moving to encompass social media activity
 Small and medium sized businesses systems older and more difficult
Current State/How they Work

 Should one prepare a separate resume just for employers who use ATS?
 How to get through ATS with career changes, resume gaps?
 Can they read PDF’s?
 Does it read LinkedIn tags or graphics or special formats?
 Should I use word clouds?
 How do I format it best so that I come out on top?
 How do I know what keywords to hit? Where should I put them?
 Is it used for senior positions, 20+ years?
What are the Top Questions?

 Data is EXTRACTED into fields
 ATS doesn’t know what to do with functional resumes
 What matters most to ATS is uniqueness or "rarity" of keyword or keyword
phrase; keywords and phrases must be specific to a particular job ad
 Systems rank on how closely job seeker's resume matches each keyword
and phrase and how many keyword phrases the job seeker's resume
contains
 Recruiters don’t like most ATS’s either and run LinkedIn searches initially
on single field, e.g. Job Title box
What Do You Really Need to Know (Myths/Facts?)

 Poll Question: Are you currently job hunting?
Poll

 Is it better to have a resume in a familiar format (e.g. comfortable) or a
unique format (e.g. to stand out)?
 a) Can ATS read pdf resume b) Can ATS read contents inside a table in
resume?
 Effect of newer "visual" CVs versus old fashioned historical text resumes
 I have heard that planting key terms in your resume in text formatted with
white or no tint can overcome screening systems. Yes?
ATS Questions (Formatting)

 Don’t submit doc or pdf (if only one option).
 Create plain text resume; no graphics or tables or lines or fancy bullets
 Put plenty of white space “air” between your jobs
 Use sans-serif Font like Tahoma, Verdana, Arial
 No italics or bold or color; plain bullets okay
 Use simple terms, “Work Experience”, “Education”, “Career summary”
 Always start with Employer’s name, then Title, then Dates; can be on
consecutive lines
 Customize your LinkedIn url name so it’s unique and memorable
Format

 Should one prepare a separate resume just for employers who use ATS?
 How to get through ATSs with career changes, resume gaps?
 do ATS count the number of times a keyword is mentioned on a resume
and rank those resumes highest with the most mentions?
 How can I usefully include a keyword that is a software name or skill on
my resume if I don't have that skill or knowledge?
 How do you know which keywords ATS look for?
 Do you advise working with Wordle or other keyword tools?
Your ATS Questions

 Uniquely identify yourself and use it consistently across materials/platforms
 Use market job titles: Function/Level or vice versa…Security Director; Sr.
Marketing Manager; Director, Finance
 Ask if recruiter was looking for me via 4 key phrases, what would they say?
 Use common function/process abbreviations and spell it out, both
 Use and reuse the exact keywords and keyword phrases of the job
description
 Keep a copy of whatever you send in case you change your resume
Content

 Poll Question: How many years of work experience do you have?
Poll

 Is ATS used for senior management level positions? Jobs that require
more than just objective analysis of the english language?
 How does this effect experienced professionals? People with 20+ years of
experience
 Should more "experienced applicants" (read as older)" be aware of any
specific ATS traps?
ATS Questions (Seniority)

Bad Sample

Good Sample
Work Experience
CREDIT GLOBAL, Springfield, NQ
2004 – 2013
Vice President, Global Relationship Manager, Emerging Verticals, Market Development
2011 – 2013
Closed global agreement for Pacific Express (PE) business by leading partnership negotiations start to finish, delivering on
strategic objectives. Received Sales Blazer Award & Most Significant Business Award for PE global partnership.
•Account Management: Executed multi-year, high strategic value agreements with projected volumes of $75MM + by
partnering with customer executives
•Global Partnership Development: Closed two additional global agreements, not originally planned, by highlighting value of
relationship through direct communications
•Marketing Partnership: Married two networks ($2$ and c2c), gaining buy-in for innovation from CC exec mgmt
•Global Product Launch: Enabled 22 on-time and within budget, simultaneous prepaid launches globally including
US, UK, and India by building cross-functional teams for each region
•Cross-functional Team Leadership: Met time and revenue targets on launch of 1st reload connection between CC & PE, as
business owner for PE PMO directing team of 15
•PE became 1st non-bank to receive Credit Global license in US
•Completed on-time business requirement documents & “go-to-market” plan (BRD) for p2p
•Led Credit Global team on all joint planning, partner strategies and workstreams
•Business Development: Executed commercial agreement with Pacific Express business solutions projected $10M in referral
fee income in year 1. Site went live on time and on budget
•Partnered with PE counterpart and CC commercial team to negotiate deal, map out tech requirements and launch plan for small
business referral network

 Who knows what happens when it goes into ATS?
 Find “warm lead” entry to hiring manager
 If working with recruiter, let them submit you first
 Go thru a contact or recruiter before ATS
 Handling salary questions: can enter 99999
 Better to enter in ATS after an initial contact
Process Tips

 No way round them, but use them as late as possible in your search
 Try to find other ways into the applicant pool via your networks or
recruiters
 Make a plain text version of your resume and clean it up
 Company-Title-Date and repetition of keywords, keywords
 Keep copies
 Use market titles, not company ones
 The older the system is, the bigger it is, the more one-size-fits-all, the
more difficult time you’ll have working it
Wrap-Up

The Ivy Exec Senior Resume Writers
Staci Collins
specializes in making visible the invisible accomplishments of especially technical career
changers. She has over 15 years of partnering with 1100 executives, directors and senior
managers to achieve their career goals. She has consulted in change and coached 60+ senior
managers at Accenture and Ernst & Young, many now partners. She earned her MBA at
University of California - Haas and BA at Harvard.
Laura Hill
is an expert in designing career strategies and job search campaigns. Her industry experience
includes 10 years as a career/outplacement coach and recruiter, as well as 10 years in banking
with JPM Chase. She has been published in The New York Times, The WSJ, and Forbes, and
has been a featured expert on CNBC's The Wall Street Journal Report.
Liz Colodny
has held leadership roles in talent acquisition/staffing across many industries, ranging from
consumer products (PepsiCo) to professional services (Towers Perrin) and financial services
(Citigroup). She received her BA from the University of Chicago and MBA from Northwestern -
Kellogg.

The Ivy Exec Elite Resume Package
The Elite Package is a comprehensive evaluation of your career and
accomplishments which includes a career diagnostic, a fully rewritten resume
and a coaching session focused on overcoming any professional roadblocks.
 In-depth intake session with your certified senior resume writer
 Gain valuable insight on how to articulate your skills and accomplishments
when interviewing
 A finalized and re-written resume
 An enhanced Ivy Exec profile & 3 months of All Access membership
 A full hour of Career Coaching (which can be used for a cover letter)
To set up a 15 minute appointment to inquire about next steps, please email
resumes@ivyexec.com

Thank you!
For more information, please go to
IvyExec.com/Resume or email us at
Resumes@ivyexec.com

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Webinar: Beating Applicant Tracking Systems– Live Resume Q&A