Resume keywords, rejection, and a little help from the ATS
Ah, 2020. The year of many things, including unemployment and general angst around resumes and job applications. At one point or another this year, so many have experienced a furlough, unemployment, and if you’re still at work, extreme anxiety about what might happen next.
Rejection always hurts, but in this economy, it hurts a little more—especially when you’re wondering where your next paycheck is coming from. Right now, it seems like there are more hopefuls than open positions to go around—and landing that big interview can mean everything. But who decides which candidates get that first Zoom call? More often than not, it’s a computer. And the sting of rejection cuts deep when you apply on a Saturday morning, and receive an automated rejection email on Sunday night (which, for the record, has happened on separate occasions to both founders of this website).
As a writer of websites (and many other digital things), there’s always a push-and-pull between SEO (Search Engine Optimization) key words and creative freedom. Great writing, while it might indeed be great, isn’t likely to have all the keywords in the headline. SEO vomit is not how to make great digital content, but it will make you BFFs with Google. Which is, admittedly, pretty cool too. Through a lot of trial and error while on furlough in 2020, freelance-writing a lot of website copy and hastily applying to a lot of jobs, I made the connection: this is also true with your resume.
Contrary to my naive assumption that a human being carefully considers my resume, hand-picking it from the top of the heap, steaming cup of coffee in hand, appreciating all the effort and accomplishment it shows—more often than not, it’s actually just a computer.
Companies large and small get so many online job applications that they use an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to make the first cut. It analyzes the keywords in your resume against the job description and skills list. That means if the job description asks for Photoshop and you put Adobe Creative Suite, your skills won’t count.
Someday, when the robots are smarter than we are, they’ll be able to figure all that out. But for now, a lot of career coaches and experts tell us that we’ll have to trick the ATS into putting our resume first. There are tools like Jobscan and Resume Worded that’ll help you pack all the keywords from the description onto your resume, so you can land that second round of recruiting: the interview.
Of course, I was just over here dreaming about the next big opportunity and didn’t figure this out until months after sending out job applications willy-nilly. I did not create my resume to please an algorithm. I spent hours designing it in Adobe Illustrator. The type specs are meaningful. The personal statement is very graphic. Adobe definitely hides some keywords when it’s competing with a Word doc. But humble brag: it’s like, really pretty.
Sending that resume out often yields no result, but on the rare occasion that it reached a human, it made a good impression. Of the hundreds of applications I sent, I met three great mentors this year—in retail, advertising and talent management. They all credited our first meeting to the design on that resume.
But when applying to a role at a tech giant that I really, really wanted, that pretty design was pretty much useless. I was cut so many times. The rejection really stung. Finally I grabbed a word doc, pasted the basics in, and crammed it with keywords. Then something amazing happened: I landed the interview.
This particular big-tech company (I’m omitting the name since that’s a best practice, although you might guess) is notorious for how they interview. The process is very buttoned up. They ask challenging, behavioral questions. They want specificity. They want you to memorize their HR one-sheet on behaviors & culture. I prepared for a week beforehand. When the big day rolled around, I felt ready. This was it.
Then I experienced perhaps the most profound misalignment I’d ever had in my professional career. Without going into the details, I can assure you it was most definitely not the right fit. I left the interview stunned—how could this have happened? This is my dream role at a hugely successful company.
I felt so deflated after that interview. All the excitement, possibility, and pride at having landed the interview was gone. While all the keywords were aligned, my heart wasn’t and it showed.
The lesson? You might please the algorithm, but it might not please you.
The whole time, I’d been coming from a place of desperation and anxiety, rather than purposeful job-searching. I was so obsessed with getting past the robot at the door that I realized too late: this is a party I don’t want to be invited to. Maybe someday, a similar role on another team will be the right fit. But until then, I’m happier sending something out there that’s true to who I am—because then, I’ll never have to wonder if it’s for me. I’ll already know.