What is an Applicant Tracking System?

An Applicant Tracking System is software which employers use to find out if a candidate's CV meets all their requirements.

A specifically designed software can do it in a matter of seconds. It is a computer which checks your CV and not a human being. All the necessary information about a jobseeker is entered into a computer. It may include the job position, required skills, education and qualifications. The employer may also be interested in your hobbies and interests. Based on the above information, the computer creates a client profile. It scans documents for keywords which must be included in your CV. Then the employers can choose to offer this client the position that they advertise.

For example, having a range of these words can identify candidates' skills and experience. The chosen keywords that are uploaded to the computer must coincide with the ones used in CVs. This determines the candidate's suitability for a particular job position. If applicants have all the necessary skills but do not describe them using the above words, they will not be shortlisted.

There are many ATS systems that a company can choose to start their candidate selection process. There are open-source and commercial versions available. Sometimes companies create their own ATS. They can design these systems that are tailor-made for their recruitment process.

Who can use ATS?

These systems are equally beneficial for both employers and applicants.

Companies

The process of selecting the right candidates for the position that they offer can be time-consuming. If the CV is not done in line with their business requirements, applicants may not be invited for an interview for the wrong reasons. They may have all the necessary skills and vast experience in a particular field. But their CVs may not impress employers. One should also take into consideration the fact that employers may receive hundreds of CVs every day. They cannot physically cope with reading all of them before the deadline. So, to check manually if CVs are professionally done, may prove to be slow and inefficient.

Moreover, many CVs are difficult, if not impossible, to read. Wrong layouts, sizes, fonts and descriptive texts make it difficult to understand them. This prevents the recruiters from determining if this is the right candidate for the position that they advertise. Using ATS simplifies the process of shortlisting candidates. Out of hundreds of applications, employers may be left with just a few.

Job seekers

ATS may also be useful for those who apply for a particular job. It can help the candidates to identify the areas for improvement in their CVs. If the document is not compatible with ATS, it will be rejected. If it happens, job seekers must read carefully the description, provided by the recruiter. They must focus on the keywords that are relevant to their experience and skills. They should pay attention to what is expected of them if they get the job. It is important to find information about the company and emphasize the input into the organisation's operations. An important factor is describing your duties in previous workplaces. They must contain words that would be recognised by the computer. These data will be entered and stored in an electronic format. The computer then determines which candidate may be ideal for the company.

Very often the job applicants do not know why they have not been invited for an interview. They may have a great deal of work experience and can be a valuable addition to the company. However, they are not given a chance to show it to the recruiter. The solution is to redesign their CVs and insert some information which will be identified by ATS as useful for shortlisting. Subsequently, candidates may be invited for an interview.

Advantages of Using ATS

Here are some advantages of using ATS in the recruitment process:

• It saves time dramatically compared to manual reading.
• All the information about the candidate is stored in one place.
• Allows easy access to the information for recruiters.
• Eliminates the use of paperwork.
• Saves money on the manual recruiting process.
• ATS does all the work in selecting the right person.
• A specifically designed algorithm picks up keywords to meet the job specifications.
• No need for employers to send any messages to candidates, all is done automatically.
• Frees time for employers to do other tasks.
• Rejects about two-thirds of CVs that do not conform to a professionally written style.
• Shortlists candidates.
• Automatically sends invitations to candidates to attend an interview.
• Allows comparing CVs of different people to make a final decision.
• Creates posts on social media platforms to attract job seekers.
• Posts job positions on several platforms at the same time.

Is ATS an Answer to Successful Candidate Recruitment?

Nothing is perfect in this world. Unfortunately, sometimes this system does not select the right candidates. This may happen because it relies fully on the keywords mentioned in a job description. If a candidate uses other words, it may not recognise them. But it is still worth using ATS to find out which keywords you should use in your CV. At present, a vast majority of companies are still using this system as the first step in starting a candidate selection process. In future, with further software development, it will become more efficient and precise.

At least, what is certain, is that this system will not continue scanning your CV if it finds out that the layout is wrong and not readable. There will be no point in continuing to look for the rest of the information.

Firstly, the relevant CVs which match particular job descriptions are chosen by the computer. Then the employers will still process them manually to find the right candidate. In fact, ATS does not fully replace human beings. It just makes work easier for them by focusing only on the right people. It goes without saying, that this system simplifies the process of choosing a potential employee.

Only well-designed, grammatically correct CVs with the right choice of words will be directed to the recruiter. This will not take a long time to read the text and decide which of the candidates must be chosen to attend an interview.

How to create an ATS-compatible CV?

Based on the above information, the question arises of how to design a CV which will not be rejected by ATS:

• Design a recognised layout for your document.
• Use the necessary keywords that will match those in a job description.
• Emphasize your strengths.
• Use specific word collocations to describe your duties in previous jobs.
• Identify the company's targets.
• Deal with acronyms and abbreviations.
• Describe your input into the company's operations.

You can find a lot of advice on how to create a perfect CV on the Internet. However, sometimes it is still difficult to do it as there is a lot of information online. Some people are still confused and do not know what format to choose and how to proceed with creating the document. Another factor is that it may also take up a lot of time and effort to find the right sample on the Internet. Then you must spend some time trying to devise the correct one.

After having spent a lot of time, it may still not look professional. You may still be sending your CVs to many companies and not having a single interview. In this case, it is advisable to use the services of professional CV writers who know exactly how to do it.

Our professional CV writing service produces ATS-compatible documents. We test our CVs against multiple systems to make sure that they meet all the necessary requirements.