The ATS without the BS with Dirk Spencer

Overview of: ATS Workflow,
Resume Ranking, Resume Rejection, Recruiter Math, Apply Or Email, Resume File Types, Behavioral Questions, Time Permitting: The Resume and Eye Fixation
My Experience is with Workday, LinkedIn Recruiter, CBIZ, ICIMS, Jobvite, Oleeo, Taleo, Infor, Greenhouse, Max Hire, Phenom, People Answers. ATS Impacts Files Across Domains, files, video, teams, email, mobile, text, reporting internally or exported to Excel. ATS Rejection Notification Question! A VP asked: "Are candidates disqualified en masse or individually when using the ATS/RMS? Knowing it can be both, which is most common?
The exact proportion of en mass rejection notices versus individual rejection notices is complicated by a few things:
What work-around is applied to the that workflow is unique to each ATS.
- How many resumes have not been viewed when the job closes.
Then you have the ATS that does some sort of resume "ranking," and barring exceptions (below), a human has reviewed your resume. Check my attempt to share how
The better questions is, when would a recruiter not send an individual-rejection notices when reviewing resumes in real-time?
This is usually when 2 or more partners are “helping” evaluate resumes. If the recruiter rejects a resume in this situation, there is usually no option for the others to change it back. This is a common quirk of most ATS systems.
Then, if the job gets closed before a group of resumes can be reviewed, and the recruiter is told to close the job immediately, an en mass rejection will be done.
But realize, most recruiters go through each resume. Not because we are loving and kind people. Nope. We want the market intel available looking at fresh resumes in real time. You should see our spreadsheets!
Remember, more than half to 3/4th's of the applicants will not be qualified.

“Those” resumes will get the notorious 3-second resume-review. Boom. Done. Next.

On a 300 resume pool - ZERO will match 100%

IF you are lucky you can net 3 to 4 resumes at 50%

90%+ of the Resumes Rank at 0.0 or 0%

…. recruiter, we review resumes that never get ranked ...

ATS Rejection Notices En masse or Individually Depends on where we are in the sequence of the workflow and what workarounds are available.

Bottom line - a human pushes the rejection button after making an evaluation.

Doc or DOCX file are my recommendation, but some ATS are stipulating file types. Some request Word. Some request PDF. Pay attention.

When using Canva to create your PDF, you do so at "Download" - and you have 2 options. Test the option you select by copying your text to Excel. If you can read the content, you are good. If not, pick the other format.

Other file content options to avoid:
Stop Pictograms
Stop Unicode Symbols
Stop Company Logos
Stop Inserting Special Characters

If Your Canva PDF is an “Image”
We Cannot Copy Your Details

ATS Starts Doing Behavioral Interviews? Be prepared to ensure you can get submitted ahead of their deadlines.

1. ATS without the BS

2. Overview
1.ATS Workflow
2.Resume Ranking
3.Resume Rejection
4.Recruiter Math
5.Apply Or Email
6.Resume File Types
7.Behavioral Questions
Time Permitting: The Resume and Eye Fixation

3. My ATS Vendor Experience

4. ATS Impacts Files Across Domains

6. The ATS has a Programmed Workflow

7. Sample Ranking Systems

8. Rankings Provide Percentages

9. 300 Resumes
?
?
??
?

10. Resumes That Score 100%

11. Resumes That Score 50%
On a 300 Applicant Pool?

12. … 90%+ of the Resumes
Rank at 0.0 or 0%

13. …. we review resumes
that never get ranked

14. Recruiter Math
We love numbers

15. We Need 5 to 7 Qualified Candidates

16. We Review 20 to 30 Resumes at a Clip

17. The ATS & Recruiter Math
1.300 in the Pool
2.20 – 30 Reviewed at a Clip
3.5 – 7 Submitted to Hiring Manager
4.3 or More Interview
5.1 or more Offer(s)
6.0 Accepts - Repeat

18. Multiplied By the # of Open Jobs
1.(300 * 15) = 4,500
2.(>20 <30) * 15 = 450
3.(>5 <7) * 15 = 100
4.(3+) * 15 = 45
5.(1+) * 15 = 15

19. Less Like Juggling & More Like Tennis

21. ATS Rejection Notices
We Follow a Programmed Workflow

22. ATS Rejection Notices
There Are Work-Arounds

23. ATS Rejection Notices
En masse or Individually: It Depends
VS

24. This is the infamous 4 to 5 Seconds Resume-Read.
It is easy to find mistakes the ATS does not look-for.
ATS Rejections Individually
When It is Obvious You Are Not Qualified

25. ATS Rejection En masse
Per the Workflow “buckets”

26. ATS Rejection “Buckets”
“Groups” of Resumes Not Moving Forward
20
30
4

27. ATS Rejection Notices
“Job Closes”
Not Hired / Not Reviewed Rejected En Masse

28. ATS Resume Rejection: A Human Did It

29. EMAIL

30. DO BOTH
Recruiters Need You in the ATS.
Keep the email brief
Include contact details & resume

31. We Get Email

32. Emails Like This…

33. Versus Emails We Can Use

35. Resumes & File Types
Formats Matters

38. Name and Contact Together
You want
Your name
&
Contact
Info
Together

39. Copy Paste to Excel Test

40. Copy Name/Contact & Paste into Excel

41. Excel Text Paste Errors

42. Stop Pictograms

43. Stop Unicode Symbols

44. Stop Company Logos

45. Stop Inserting Special Characters

46. If Your Canva PDF is an “Image”
We Cannot Copy Your Details

47. The Best File Type to Use?

48. It Depends
ATS’s Are Stipulating File Requirements
Use what they tell you.

49. FILE TYPE PDF

50. Save Word to PDF

51. Canva to PDF
Two PDF Formats!
Select at Download
(Not during the save)

52. ATS Starts Doing
Behavioral Interviews?

53. A New ATS
Applicant Workflow
New for Applicants
Be Prepared

54. The Usual Contact Details
Full Name *
Email *
Phone number *
LinkedIn profile *
Resume / CV *
Please upload a PDF file with your resume in English.
Country of Residence *
What City are you currently located? *

55. Drop Down / Pick Lists Questions
Select all types of experience you_____
Years of experience working full-time with _______?
Years of experience working AI (Artificial Intelligence)______?
Years of full-time hands-on experience doing______?

56. Salary Confirmation Questions
What is your current MONTHLY salary? *
What is your minimum MONTHLY salary? *
What MONTHLY salary will you accept? *

57. Motivation Questions
How did you find us? *
What motivated you to fill this form and why? *
What are you looking for in your next opportunity? *
What could be improved in your current workplace? *

58. Behavioral Questions
Did you have an experience where something was falling
apart, no one asked you to do anything about it, and you
went ahead and did it and something good happened?
Did you have an experience where something was falling
apart, no one asked you to do anything about it, and you
didn't do anything, and what happened then?
Tell us about a case when a team has a different
solution from the one you proposed, how did you handle
the disagreement?

59. Behavioral Questions
Give us an example in your work experience when
quality and accuracy was extremely important. How did
you handle it?
Tell us about a time where you did not pay enough
attention to detail. What happened then?
Tell us about an experience where you did not know
what to do and how you handled it.

60. Behavioral Questions
Tell us about an experience when all was acting against
you. How did you handle the situation and what did you do
to achieve the goal?
Typically, if a group is "against" you, you have to realize, it is
not you, its them. They are lashing out at you, but they are
going through something unrelated to you.
Have you ever being in a situation where you have to finish
your work on a specific time and you were not able to meet
the target date? How did you handle it and what did you
learn from the experience?

61. Scholarly Resources:
Finding Your Flow / Positive Psychology
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
(ME-High)
(Chicks-Zent-me-high)
American Hungarian
Author/ PhD
Martin Seligman
Godfather of
Positive Psychology
American Author/
PhD

62. Thank You

63. Dirk Spencer
Senior Recruiter
Sourcing Expert
4-Time Author
Origami Enthusiast

64. Previous Life
Civil Service Career
GS-12
Series 334
“Computer Specialist”
Secret
Top Secret
Payroll
Charge Back
LANs
Robotics
Commercial Off the Shelf
Civilian Career
Commercial IT
“Systems Analyst”
“Process Analyst”
Lobbyist Software
B2C Sales
Higher Education
[Currently]
Recruiting

65. Recruiting Industry Experience
SaaS
Electric Vehicles
Driverless Transport
Robotics
Global Payments
Sales
Cyber Security / AIM
IT
Technology
Hospital e-Health
E-Commerce
Hotel / Hospitality
Portable Energy
Banking
Telecom
Network Services
FMCG
Military Defense
Tax Accounting
Sales

66. My Recruiter Stats
•18K 1
st
degree connections
•9M network reach
•11K resumes viewed over any 200 day moving average
•11 ATS products
•7 Job boards
•4-books published in 200+ countries on Amazon Worldwide

67. My Contact Information
LinkedIn Open Networker
[email protected]
[phone]

69. Connect on LinkedIn

70. My Phone Number

71. My Email

72. My Author Page

73. My Presentation Decks

74. My Hobbies on YouTube

75. Buy Me a Coffee

76. THE EYES HAVE IT

77. Eye Fixation-Point
Drives “Text Scanning”

78. Control the Fixation-Point

79. Use White Space
to Control the
Fixation-Point
This forces the reader to “See” the first
2-3 words (10 -13 characters)
on each line of the resume

80. Stop Indenting Bullets

84. Control the
Focal Point
& leverage the
•Verb
•Noun
•Number
Content
Format
Control the
Focal Point
& leverage the
•Verb
•Noun
•Number
Content
Format

85. LEFT
ALIGNED
All of IT

86. Average
Eye Scan
Pattern

87. MOST
Important
Details
This
Side
LEAST
Important
Details
This
Side

89. Resume is the Key
The Software is the Keyhole
Whether there is or is not an AI or algorithm the software
“housing” the resume (ATS, CRM, Job Board, Resume
Aggregator) they are digital documents read by a human with
their eyes.
Make it easy on the human’s eyes.
Make your expertise obvious.

90. Serif Fonts Are Not Monitor Friendly

91. Sans Serif
Sans Serifs Are Monitor Friendly

92. Use every search engine to get the best examples:
“words-to-avoid +resumes”
Search Keywords That
Kill Your Credibility

93. Cross check the job boards to ensure total coverage:
•words-to-avoid +resumes CareerBuilder.Com
•words-to-avoid +resumes Monster.Com
•words-to-avoid +resumes Indeed.Com
•words-to-avoid +resumes LinkedIn.Com
Words That Kill Your Credibility

94. Word Classifications to Avoid
•Adverbs
•Adjectives
•Hyperbolic Language
•Hyperbole
•Sarcastic Phrases
•Cliches
•Slang
•Buzzwords
•Vague Terminology

95. STOP
Underlining

Italics
RaNdOm BOlGiNg
These things work against text rEaDaBiLiTy

96. A few Things
to Check Now

97. Proactively Check the
Resume for These Things
•Manger vs Manager
•Wrong Phone Number
•Old Phone Number
•Ex-partner Phone Number
•Old Address
•Contractions
•Text abbreviations
•“I” (Avoid all uses)
•Bullet Consistency (Drop Down Options vs Special Character)

98. Stronger Resume Content Tips
•Re-write content to avoid words ending in “ing”
•Find “That” and delete (or replace it)
•Remove slang (it is not universally adopted and it ages poorly)
•Find the “and” to break statements into 2 distinct pieces of
content.
(It allows the reader to find the “their” thing they care about
easier.)