More and more companies and recruiters are using Artificial Intelligence tools to screen resumes.
How many are “more and more”? About 60 percent. As a job seeker, it’s now up to you to create a resume that will “make it through” an AI review.
Actionable tips and strategies to “pass” the AI resume test:
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The keys are your keywords.
AI’s algorithms scan resumes for keywords related to the job description: the skills and experience needed, mostly.
To make sure your resume makes the grade, study the job posting carefully and then make sure to include relevant keywords. For example, if the job notice says the position requires “project management skills,” use phrases in your document such as “project management,” “project coordination” and “team leadership” as appropriate.
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Industry-specific “jargon” is your friend.
In addition to watching your keywords, use industry-focused jargon. Why? AI is programmed to recognize these industry-specific terminologies, so making sure you use industry-focused phrases and words will greatly improve your chances of passing AI’s filters.
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Make your text “boringly” plain.
A last step before hitting “submit,” make sure to check how it looks in plain text. In fact, it’s best if you submit it in plain text.
It’s very easy to take your completed resume and change it into plain text. Indeed.com has a terrific and quick step-by-step tutorial. The resulting document will look very odd to you: the text itself is blocky and there are no paragraph returns, for example. But AI “loves” resumes in plain text and you truly do want to give AI what it loves when it comes to your resume.
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The body of your resume actually goes above your contact info/header.
We’ve been taught for decades that our name and contact info goes at the very top of our resumes: at the “header.”
Yet AI has a very hard time reading contact info when it’s placed in a header. Your resume WILL look “weird,” but it’s best if you place your contact info in the body of your document. AI then can easily access your name, email address and phone number.
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Make sure to list your work experience from most recent to oldest.
In other words, list your job experience in reverse chronological order.
You probably already do this – placing your most recent work experience first. But we thought it important enough for you to do so that we’re adding it here. In fact, AI resume screeners often make recent experience a priority when evaluating candidates, so building your document in this way increases your chances of passing AI’s muster.
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Avoid graphics, tables and columns.
As mentioned above, AI’s algorithms “prefer” boring. Graphics, tables, etc. can look “confusing” to AI, so it’s best to stick to (plain) text-based formatting with clearly defined/headlined sections that help AI understand your qualifications.
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All other resume requirements still apply:
Tailor your resume to each, specific job to which you apply. Make sure to highlight your achievements with quantifiable metrics such as numbers/percentages and specific results. Doing so showcases your accomplishments and also highlights how much you solved your former employers’ problems and helped them reach their goals.
We’re always looking for great people for our clients’ open positions. Check out Debbie’s Staffing’s current openings and apply to those that intrigue you.
And, even if you don’t see anything now, send us your resume anyway because we constantly fill positions with folks in our database in positions that never even make it to our online job board.