Myths about "ATS Score" and "Resume Score"
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Nothing gets me more upset, more angry, than companies and consultants peddling the mythical "ATS score" for your resume. There is no such thing and there is no industry standard.
In fact, people are absolutely freaking out about how all their applications are reviewed by AI and automatically rejected if they don't have the right keywords matched exactly, spelling and all, to the job description. That simply isn't how it works.
What ATS systems often do filter out are the things you click on in the application form. For example, if there is a drop down for "US Citizen" or "Legal Resident" and for some reason the company requires a citizen for the role, ATS does a great job of filtering.
It is also possible for hiring managers to filter by keywords such as "Python" or "Salesforce" if the job absolutely requires experience with it. Such actions are done sparingly.
Finally, soft skills are NOT used as filters. Do NOT put "detail oriented" in your resume just because the job description says it. If the role requires extreme detail orientation, then go ahead and put it in.
All that is to say to tools that give you a "ATS Score" or "Resume Score" are blowing smoke. Companies risk violating laws if they use ATS to screen people out with no human oversight. Here is an overview of various laws in place or in the works: https://hagerexecutivesearch.com/executive-search/new-ai-hiring-laws-state-requirements/
AI is also known for social biases, since AI is trained on publicly available data, the training data tends to be biased towards the written word. Anti-discrimination laws say that a company can't just say "AI did it" if they unfairly discriminate against a protected class.
In conclusion, companies tend to be cautious about the use of AI to screen people, and it's far more important that your resume looks and sounds appealing to a human than be a word salad that is tailored for the ubiquitous AI ATS.
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Nothing gets me more upset, more angry, than companies and consultants peddling the mythical "ATS score" for your resume. There is no such thing and there is no industry standard.
In fact, people are absolutely freaking out about how all their applications are reviewed by AI and automatically rejected if they don't have the right keywords matched exactly, spelling and all, to the job description. That simply isn't how it works.
What ATS systems often do filter out are the things you click on in the application form. For example, if there is a drop down for "US Citizen" or "Legal Resident" and for some reason the company requires a citizen for the role, ATS does a great job of filtering.
It is also possible for hiring managers to filter by keywords such as "Python" or "Salesforce" if the job absolutely requires experience with it. Such actions are done sparingly.
Finally, soft skills are NOT used as filters. Do NOT put "detail oriented" in your resume just because the job description says it. If the role requires extreme detail orientation, then go ahead and put it in.
All that is to say to tools that give you a "ATS Score" or "Resume Score" are blowing smoke. Companies risk violating laws if they use ATS to screen people out with no human oversight. Here is an overview of various laws in place or in the works: https://hagerexecutivesearch.com/executive-search/new-ai-hiring-laws-state-requirements/
AI is also known for social biases, since AI is trained on publicly available data, the training data tends to be biased towards the written word. Anti-discrimination laws say that a company can't just say "AI did it" if they unfairly discriminate against a protected class.
In conclusion, companies tend to be cautious about the use of AI to screen people, and it's far more important that your resume looks and sounds appealing to a human than be a word salad that is tailored for the ubiquitous AI ATS.
@admin Thank you very much for this information. I wasn't aware of those laws also applying to AI and ATS Score decisions.
