Was talking with a friend about applying to jobs and I did a bit of searching after they brought up getting auto-rejected by resume scanner systems, and from what I saw:
- None of the major applicant tracking systems have features for auto-rejecting candidates based on resume content. They can only auto-reject based on screening questions (i.e. reject if you answer "No" to "Do you have a Class B Commercial Drivers License?").
- Some systems like Eightfold will scan resumes and classify them and present them as a stack-ranked list.
- Most of these systems are either using LLMs/machine learning ingestion, which you cannot optimize for because the models are not reverse-engineerable.
- Recruiters are constantly angry about having to explain to people that this is not a thing that happens.
As always, the best advice for writing a resume is to consider which humans will actually read it and include sections for them:
- Recruiters want to immediately see if you're in the ballpark, then will skim to see if you're worth talking to. The first info in your resume should sum you up in 5 seconds, and then be closely followed by info that covers your capabilities.
- HR wants to know your job history + titles so they can gauge where you're at in your career and what they should offer you pay-wise.
- Hiring managers want to know the results you've delivered in the past—they're buying labor from you and want to see what it is they're buying.
- Interviewers want to know things you've done that they can ask you to talk more about to illustrate whatever skill they're testing you on.
