Our Blog

Career Tips

TIP #7 – Embrace the ATS

EMBRACE THE ATS: There’s no way around it. Even after you have determined your goals, established your brand, and prepared compelling career documents, you must get through the ATS before you get to a recruiter. So make certain your resume doesn’t get stuck in the ether by following these guidelines:

Ensure your resume is in an ATS-friendly format. Infographics, text boxes, and complex tables do not translate well.
Write with precision, economy, and correct grammar.
Reflect valid keywords in context. Randomly inserting keywords in a list yields a lower score.
Quantify your significant accomplishments.
Be certain to identify on your resume “required” qualifications as noted in the job description.

If you follow these simple rules, you will greatly improve your ATS score, getting past that first gatekeeper, and getting seen by the recruiter and hiring team.

Contact Wayfinder Career Services to discuss your career goals.



[email protected]

Tip #6 – Upgrade Your Skills

Get those industry certifications. Take extra classes. Network with other professionals. For example, if you are a product manager in software development, consider getting a product management certification, a Scrum certification and/or an Agile certification.

TIP #5 – Economize Your Resume

The name of the game in resume writing is Be Brief, Be Bright, Be Gone. No one reads densely packed paragraphs, so stick to concise but impactful bullets. Lead with an action verb that conveys an image of you in motion. Also, quantify your accomplishments with numbers as much as possible.

TIP #4 – Keywords and Optimization

Your resume must include applicable keywords from the job description that are used in context. This is because the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) matches your resume against the job description and then ranks you against your competition. If you don’t score high enough, a recruiter will not see you. To be elevated above your competition, you’ll need to optimize your resume for every job...