5 Tips for Using the New Jobscan Tool for Résumés
The word is out! We're proud partners with Seattle-based Jobscan and WorkSource Seattle-King County staff are already using the tool with customers.
Here are just a few tips on how to make the most of the resource--if you're a job seeker yourself, a staff person or career coach, or just curious! Special thanks to James Hu, CEO at Jobscan.co for this great info.
First of all... Why Resume Optimization Matters
Applicant tracking systems are only your enemy if you don’t know how they work. The more effectively you tailor your resume for a specific job, the better your chances are of getting an interview. Jobscan’s resume analysis tool helps you become an expert in crafting your resume for Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Jobscan is pleased to be a part of the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County’s WorkSource services delivered to customers.
1. Consider Word Count
A lot of people don’t realize that a cluttered resume containing too much extra information could actually cost them the job. Many ATS use something called signal-to-noise ratio. Signal-to-noise ratio is a comparison between relevant and irrelevant information. The more irrelevant information in your resume, the lower your resume will rank.
With this in mind, always shoot for a shorter resume with less text. If you have less than 10 years experience, you should aim for a one-page resume. There are, however, exceptions like academia, which requires a curriculum vitae (CV) that can be more than one page.
2. Use Measurable Results
Jobscan’s resume analysis tool can tell whether you have measurable results in your resume or not. Five or more measurable results are recommended.
Measurable results are what set the great candidates apart from the good candidates. A good candidate might simply list their job duties below each job. A great candidate will describe their contributions to the company using percentages, dollar amounts and time periods.
For example, “increased sales by 50 percent in 16 months” sounds a lot better than, “managed multiple accounts on a daily basis and worked to improve sales”. Most candidates can list what they did, but few list measurable accomplishments.
3. Shoot for an 80% or higher Match Rate
The resume match rate is a score, on a scale of 0 to 100 percent, of how well your resume matches up with the job description you selected. At Jobscan, we have found that a rate of 80% or higher is ideal.
remium users have access to live scoring, which gives you suggestions for soft skills and hard skills to improve your rating as you make updates to your resume.
Your match rate is based on hard skills, education level, soft skills and other one-word keywords.
Again, the more Jobscan learns about you, the better it can help you. Filling out your profile (located in the drop down menu) with information like your industry and position in the job search process, will give you more specific and specialized tips.
4. Include Skills/Keywords
Jobscan has a skills comparison function that uses the skills on your resume to compare against those in the job posting. Most ATS use keyword frequency as a factor in the way that they rank.
Keep in mind, there is a fine line between using a keyword more than once and keyword stuffing--be sure to stay on the non-keyword-stuffing side of the line and wordsmith the skill naturally into a brief sentence.
When you scan your resume, Jobscan pulls out every skill from the job description and tries to match it with the skills in your resume. However, not every skill is as important as the next. Jobscan puts much more emphasis on hard skills, and so should you. Hiring managers and recruiters search for hard skills in ATS, such as “data analysis,” much more often than they do soft skills, such as “passion” or “verbal communication.
5. Take Advantage of Job Recommendations
When you scan your resume and a job posting using jobscan, a list of jobs related to either the job posting or your resume (your choice) will be automatically generated. These job opportunities come from Indeed.com. You might not even realize which jobs you are best-suited for until you take a look at the jobs recommended for you!
Don't forget... Utilize Your Scan History
Another great new feature to Jobscan is the scan history capability. Scan history saves your previous scans, allows you to star jobs you’re interested in, makes previous version of your resume and job descriptions available to you. Scan history makes a big difference in your job search by keeping different versions of your ATS-optimized resume on hand for easier tracking.
Each row of your scan history is grouped by a unique job description. You can “view related scans” or “hide related scans” to check out past scans for the same job. You can also record which jobs you ended up getting an interview for.
To access your scan history, locate the drop down menu on the upper right position of your home screen. About halfway down, you’ll see “Scan History”.
A successfully-tailored resume is the surest way of getting through ATS. Jobscan’s resume analysis tool is an easy and thorough way of creating the perfect tailored resume for every job.