If you submit your resume to a mid-sized to a large company, there is a very good chance they are using what is known as an applicant tracking system. Why do companies use applicant tracking systems? There are various reasons, but the main reason is to find qualified candidates to fill an open position quickly. Let’s take a closer look at how an applicant tracking system (ATS) works.

Keep It Simple

When you apply for a job online, your contact information, experience, educational background, resume, and cover letter are uploaded into an ATS database. The data can then be conveyed from one part of the system to another as your application moves through the hiring process.

An ATS lets recruiters review your application, send you automated messages letting you know your application was received, and let you submit online tests. ATS let hiring managers schedule interviews and send rejection letters. It also allows human resources departments to use the same information to put you on the payroll once you’re hired. So it’s quite simple, ATS streamline the application and hiring process for employers.

The numbers of applicants to a single job can run in the hundreds or thousands depending on their size and where they are recruiting. An ATS sorts through all those applications in less time than a team of human resources employees could. Read on.

Streamlining the Process

Using an ATS saves time and money for the companies that use them. When your resume is uploaded and classified in a database, it makes it easily available and searchable for recruiters and hiring managers. Because information is automatically collected and organized digitally, companies don’t have to pay for employees to sort and file paper applications.

Some ATS can also save you time. Many employers use systems that allow you to upload your vital data, work history, education, and references directly to your profile on sites like, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and LinkedIn. While you should customize your application materials for different positions, being able to forego the tiresome process of retyping your data for every application saves you time.

ATS Allows Companies to See Where Their Recruiting Works

ATS let companies track where you found the job posting, regardless of whether it’s from a job board, straight from a company website, through a referral, or somewhere else. This data can be valuable information that lets employers focus their recruiting on the areas they are the most successful while scaling back in the areas that show few results.

What an ATS Can’t Achieve

Many human resources professionals dislike ATS for one simple reason; ATS don’t understand intangibles. When an ATS scans your resume, it may fail to see what a human could because it only focuses on the keywords it has been assigned. That is why it is so important to be sure your resume has the right keywords to give you a greater chance of being interviewed.

To Sum Up

When you submit your resume, there is a high chance of it being scanned by an ATS, or it could wind up directly in a hiring manager’s email. In either case, it’s good policy to make sure your resume is the best it can be.

What happens to your resume after you submit it? Let’s say that you have been searching various job websites and finally find the perfect position to apply for. You attach your resume to an email and then shoot it into cyberspace. What comes next depends on the company’s policy and its size.

A week passes, then two, and you still haven’t heard back from the company you applied with. “You are an ideal fit for the job”, you say to yourself. So why haven’t you been contacted? It’s because an AI has failed to understand your merits.

Where is My Resume Hal?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just plotting to kill everyone on a space station; it also approves or rejects your resume. AI is widely used in recruitment through ATS (Applicant Tracking System). If you are like most people, you are surprised to find out about the use of Artificial Intelligence in screening resumes. Why? Because they are unaware of what happens to their resumes after they apply for a specific position. They don’t know about the status of their resumes after they have applied or what that process entails. Almost all large companies and over half of mid-sized companies use ATS to sort and prioritize resumes. Let’s take a deeper look to understand.

Okay, Really, Where’s My Resume?

Regardless of the application method, your resume gets stored on the prospective employer’s search-engine-like database management system, known as an ATS ( Applicant Tracking System ). These resumes can be kept for longer periods looked up when the need occurs in the future. According to Flexjobs, your resume can be stored indefinitely.

The Employer Has My Resume, Now What?

When your resume is loaded into an ATS, the software dissects the content, categorizes it, and puts your resume into its database. At this point, most resumes fail to advance because it is not written or formatted in a way that an ATS can read and extricate data. That is why it is vital to have an ATS compatible resume using keywords for which it is searching.

Hiring managers ordinarily access an ATS to seek out potential applicants for an interview. In order to find the right set of applicants, the hiring managers use various parameters for screening like experience; companies worked for, proximity to the business, and skills through identifying keywords. If you don’t have the right combination of any of these things on your resume, then you are unlikely to be contacted for an interview.

To Sum Up

If you want to ensure that your resume makes it past an ATS and gets you interviews, then make sure that your resume has the right keywords and formatting.

If you are having trouble getting interviews, it could be that your computer skills are lacking. Do you list things like Windows XP or Yahoo among your computer skills? Is the operating system and software at your current job over a decade old? It’s time to update your computer skills to land a job and add some new ones as well. Why? Employers expect you to have a certain level of computer skills regardless of the position for which you are applying.

What Computer Skills Do I Need on My Resume?

What computer skills do you need on your resume? The short answer is those that are relevant. If you are applying for a job in banking, listing medical software skills makes no sense. How do you know which software is relevant to most positions? The list of computer skills below is relevant to most jobs today. Having any of these skills on your resume will increase your chance of getting hired.

Microsoft Office

You may have used Microsoft office years ago, so make sure you are familiar with the most current versions of the software below.

• Excel
• Word
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• Access

Most companies use Windows, so it is natural that they would also use Microsoft software. If you haven’t used the latest versions of the above programs, it would be worth the investment to purchase them and practice.

Google (G-Suite)

If you haven’t used any of the G-Suite, you are behind the times. Google has pulled even with Microsoft as the most commonly used software. Employers expect you to know G-Suite in the same way that it was expected you would know Microsoft Products.  The good news is that most of the G-suite products are free for individuals, so there is no reason not to use them. Google Drive gives you 15 gigabytes of storage for free, but additional storage costs money. Here are the core programs in G-suite:

• Google Calandra
• Google Docs
• Google Forms
• Google Drive
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides
• Google Trends
• Google Chat
• Google Hangouts

If you want to get a leg up on other candidates, you can get a subscription to Google Workspace for $6 a month to learn other Google products like Jamboard or Keep without having to pay a hefty subscription. Many companies are migrating to Google Workspace, so it would be a wise investment for you to make.

Email

There are really only two choices that most companies use when it comes to email: G-Mail and Outlook. If you use one of these email programs but not the other, it is a good idea to learn the one you don’t use. As we already stated, most companies use one or the other, and the more you know about them, and how to get the most out of their use, the more likely a potential employer will see you as an asset. Email is still a vital tool in business, and having detailed knowledge about it as a computer skill will give you an advantage over your fellow job candidates.

Social Media

If you think MySpace is still a viable social media platform, then you are defiantly out of the loop. The popularity of a specific social media platform may be fleeting.  Here are the social media platforms with staying power:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Here are some of the platforms either on their way out or in the dustbin of social media history:

• Pinterest
• Myspace
• Google Plus
• Vine
• Friendster

Listing knowledge of the former group of social media platforms as part of your computer skills is good; using the latter is not.

The Bottom Line

If you want to be valuable to a prospective employer having up to date skills with the most popular software and social media platforms is the way to go.

Are Cover Letters Necessary?

To many, a cover letter may seem like a relic from the past when people used to mail or fax their resumes to a prospective employer. In this digital age, you may find yourself asking- are cover letters necessary? The short answer is yes, but to understand why requires a larger explanation.

A Cover Letter Shows You Mean Business

While using a cover letter may seem like it’s outdated, and some hiring managers won’t bother looking at your cover letter, it still shows you’re serious about the job you are applying for, just as many hiring managers will read it as don’t. To those who read your cover letter, it will speak volumes that you took the time to write a cover letter. The fact you wrote a cover letter will set you apart from candidates who couldn’t be bothered. It shows initiative and professionalism that says you will be an asset to the company that hires you.  Going the extra mile will never hurt your chances of being hired.

Even if a hiring manager does not read your cover letter right away when they are trying to decide who to hire from all the resumes they revived, they will read your cover letter to help them make that decision. Having a cover letter when few or none of the other candidates do will be a plus in your column.

Applicant Tracking Systems Scan Cover Letters

Most people are unaware that their resumes are scanned by applicant tracking systems (ATS), a type of artificial intelligence that works like a search engine searching for keywords in documents. Even those who are aware of ATS  don’t realize that cover letters are scannable also. Using a cover letter gives you a chance to fit in a few more keywords so that an ATS notices you. Companies no longer search primarily for education or experience; they use ATS to search for skills.

By increasing your list of skills through a cover letter, you increase the chance that your resume gets chosen to be sent to a hiring manager.

A Cover Letter Relays Who You Are and Why an Employer Should Want You

Not only does a cover letter show professionalism and help get your resume chosen by an ATS, but it also relays who you are as well. When hiring, one crucial question is if people will want to work with you. A cover letter is your chance to briefly explain why you are the best fit for the company in positive language. While this point will be expanded upon during your interview, a cover letter will help establish a tone that a resume alone can’t. A cover letter gives you the chance to brand yourself and help push a hiring manager to feel that you are a person with which others will want to work.

A Cover Letter Previews Your Writing Ability

If the position you are applying for requires a lot of emailing and composition, then it behoves you to include a cover letter with your resume. It will be the only chance you will have before being hired or passed over to showcase your writing ability and could be the difference between being hired or passed over. Be sure your grammar and punctuation are perfect before submitting your cover letter. Your writing ability will get a chance to shine in a cover letter, but keep it brief; a hiring manager doesn’t have the time or the desire to read a novella.

To Sum Up

A  Cover letter is an excellent chance to set yourself apart from other applicants, explain why you are the best candidate for the job, and help get you past an ATS. Are cover letters a thing of the past? As of today, no, they are the thing that will put your application over the top.

Three Compelling Reasons to Use a Content Writer

If you are on the fence about writing your own content, the correct decision is don’t do it. Why? Here are three compelling reasons to use a content writer instead of doing it yourself.

Errors

If you or your employees have to focus on their main duties, writing content for your website can become a tedious project that only gets half of the attention it needs. When you don’t give your full attention to a project, and it’s time-sensitive, then there are going to be errors. What kind of errors; the obvious kind of errors like spelling, punctuation and grammatical. A professional content writer will avoid these common mistakes made by people who just don’t have the time to write but do it anyway.

Having errors in your website’s content will certainly hurt your brand. People who visit your site will see the errors and get the impression that your company is unprofessional and does shoddy work. Creating brand loyalty is a long term process, but it can be quickly undone if potential customers think you’re a fly by night company.

Keywords

A professional content writer is familiar with working keywords into a web page or blog post; an employee with some experience or education in writing is not. That employee may have majored in English literature, but they are lost when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). A content writer will know the ideal number of times to use a keyword. It is important to search engines like Google that your content is not packed with keywords just to attract attention. That kind of keyword use will lead to your site being downgraded or even blacklisted by Google or Bing.

There is also the matter of working the keywords into content without them seeming unnatural or stilted; after all, what goes on your website is being put there for public consumption. A visitor to your site won’t stay very long if the content they are reading is loaded down with the same keyword over and over.

Engaging Content

If you not only want a visitor to spend time on your site but also to return, engaging content is a must. Do you really have anyone on your staff who can produce content that will hold a visitor’s attention? Can they write about the same subject multiple times without it seeming repetitive? If the answer is no, its best to let a professional content writer do the writing for you.

One of the major factors in how Google ranks a website is its traffic. If you have attention-grabbing, informative and useful content on your website, you can expect that it will draw increasing traffic. When your traffic increases, so will your ranking with Google, which leads to more traffic. You can think of good content as digital compound interest in your account. This point is significant and strong enough to be the sole reason for hiring a content writer.

To Sum Up

Using a professional content writer or content writing agency will save your company a host of negative issues down the road. Not only will a professional content writer help you avoid mistakes, but they can also create the kind of content that will keep visitors coming back to your site on a regular basis.

Brian Bailie Jr Writing Service Can Create Engaging Content for Your Site

If you are interested in creating useful and informative content for your website, call us or fill out our contact form. We can save you and your staff time and help you avoid the kind of errors that will hurt your brand.

How long has it been since you updated the content on your website? If you only update your main page once every three or four years and don’t have any blog posts, your site will not do as well as it should. With that in mind, here are four reasons content impacts your SEO efforts.

It’s All About SEO

You may be asking at this point, “what is SEO?” In short, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the practice of using keywords, content, and backlinks to be noticed by crawlers from search engines such as Google and Bing. If your content isn’t geared for SEO, you may as well not have a website. Let’s look at some ways content boosts or hurts your SEO campaign.

Keywords

Keywords are the bedrock of any SEO campaign. Search engines look for keywords entered in a query and search websites across the internet and then display a list of sites with a balanced amount of keywords based on the query. If you don’t have content that reflects the latest trends in your field or industry, you will fall far behind your competitors. Your competition is likely aware of the importance of content and is posting new blogs on a weekly or daily basis. They are researching what their (and your) customers are searching for on Google. If you don’t know your customers and don’t know what keywords they are using in queries, then you need to start right away. Remember, the more content you have on your website, the more keywords.

Google

It’s not easy to get your website ranked with Google; it can take months, even years, to really get it ranked on the first or second results page. Want to improve your chances with Google? Frequently post content. Google is looking for sites that have fresh and relevant content; by posting once a day or several times a week, you are going to be noticed by Google. It may take a few postings; some say that the magic number of blog posts to get noticed by Google is 21, but no one knows for sure. What does that mean? It means to be consistent in posting content on your site and be sure that it is informative content relevant to what your company or organization does.

Be an Expert

One of the things that search engines consider is if your site has established itself as an authority on a given subject or field. As you post informative and valuable blog posts to your site, your site’s reputation (and yours) as an expert grows. Blogging about things like news in your industry or field will help to solidify your site’s reputation as an expert. Keep posting quality content frequently on the same subjects, and your reputation as an expert grows with the search engines. If you garner enough of Google’s attention, you will eventually be indexed by Google, which is sure to place your site higher on their results page.

Frequently Posting Content Increases Traffic

If you want to have people visit your site more than once, give them a reason to return. It’s a simple but powerful concept; if you want to boost your SEO results by increasing traffic, then post new blogs on a regular basis. Make sure that the posts are well written, informative and even entertaining. If you follow those steps, then you will see more return traffic to your site.

Brian Bailie Jr Writing Service Can Provide Great Content for Your Site

If you are interested in creating engaging and informative content for your website, call us or fill out our contact form. We would be happy to discuss creating content for your website.