Surpassing ATS and Optimizing Your Resume via ChatGPT

Hi. This is an article that highlights some of the practices that I follow while creating resumes.

In this article, I discuss about the types of resumes which are generally used by candidates and how they get screened by ATS (Applicant Tracking System). We will then use ChatGPT to optimize the content we add in our resume and use the provided job profile to generate a few keywords with the estimated impact of it on ATS.

Types of Resumes

Single Column

Matty's Resume - Overleaf, Online LaTeX Editor

Double Column / Multi Column

Modern CV/Resume template - Overleaf, Online LaTex Editor

Dealing with Applicant Tracking Systems

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. In simple terms, it is like an OCR Scanner on steroids. Companies receive a lot of resumes, and instead of looking at resumes manually, they use ATS as an automated solution to screen resumes. An excerpt from PathMatch Blog: You Got Bot’d: Why Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Reject Your Resume

An ATS does more than just scan your resume for a “yes” or “no.” They do a lot for the hiring managers, including accepting the resumes automatically as they come in, organizing them into the system, sorting them how the hiring manager wants them, and tracking the progress of each applicant as they move along the hiring funnel.

But unless your resume moves past the initial screening that the Applicant Tracking Systems have in place, the only real interaction you’ll have is that automated “we regret to inform you…” email. That’s right; those emails are rarely written by a human either – that’s another ATS special.

So what does an ATS do, and what can we do to receive the mercy of ATS?

Receiving Mercy of ATS: Ensuring that the ATS is able to Read the Resume

Double and multi-columned resumes look appealing to the eyes, but ATS does not have any eyes. As I mentioned earlier, it is OCR scanning on steroids. Single-columned resumes, on the other hand, are much more ATS-friendly. For better compatibility, wherever it is supported, upload your resume as a Word document (.docx).

While there are certainly paid services for checking how ATS-friendly your resume is, we can make an approximation test to see how well our PDF or Word file is being processed (scanned) by ATS. Convert PDF to Word online for free. Put your PDF file here and see how well it is getting converted to text.

I prefer to maintain two resumes;

• One resume solely for the purpose of applying for online jobs where ATS will be used: This resume is a single-columned resume and ATS friendly.
• Another resume is for in-person interviews: Whenever I am sure that a human will see my resume, I prefer to go with a double/multi-columned resume as it looks appealing to the eyes.

Notice me, Senpai ATS: Including Keywords.

After ATS has scanned your resume, it applies criteria to determine whether a candidate is rejected or not. Fortunately, It is not a complex process as of now. (Maybe someone can use ChatGPT APIs or host their own LLM solely for the purpose of determining whether a candidate is worth our company or not. I just hope that my article stays relevant till then). Based on the Job Description (abbreviated as JD), there are certain keywords that are searched by ATS.

In the below section, we will discover methods to do so. A few guidelines are provided in this article.

ChatGPT to the Rescue

Generating Keywords from Job Description

I have selected a Job Description from LinkedIn (Connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to praise/criticize my writing abilities) and have included a conversation with ChatGPT. Computer Scientist - II. The prompt that I have used is of the following format

There are situations where some keywords that ChatGPT has generated can not instantly make sense: A question of the form, "How am I supposed to use this in my resume?" can occur. In such cases, ask ChatGPT to give some examples.

My Conversation with ChatGPT for generating keywords

Improving Existing Content

In this article, I will not be demonstrating how one can tailor their current resume perfectly for each opening as I don't have enough experience to this date (hopefully, I can do it in the second part of this article, which will come… I don’t know when). I will provide the prompts that you can use to make your work experiences as clear as possible. The standard procedure is to provide information related to one section of the resume (like skills, projects, and work experience) and then use the below approaches as needed.

• Using Bullet Points: I prefer to use the "make it resume-like" prompt. We can also specify the number of points which are required and the complexity of words used.
• Make it sound like This can be useful to simplify or complicate your work experience depending on who is seeing the resume. Something like "Make it sound in a manner which would make sense to a marketing guy."

Using Role Prompting to Generate Questions and Validate Answers

After creating the text and improving the existing content section, we can supply it back to ChatGPT and ask it to assume the role of an individual. By enacting the role of this individual, ChatGPT can help us generate questions that we can expect (hopefully) in real interviews as well.

The format for such a prompt can be as follows

In a similar manner, we can provide the questions and answers to ChatGPT and ask it to enact the role we wish to evaluate our provided answers.

Resume Creation Websites

A few websites which I have found and used (to some extent) are as follows:

1. Gallery - Templates, Examples, and Articles written in LaTex - Overleaf, Online LaTex Editor: If you know LaTex, then this is probably all you need to write good resumes. Lots of templates are available, not just for resumes but for cover letters and more.
2. Free Resume Builder - Create & Download Easily | Resume.com: I use this to create single-columned resumes, as I just find the user interface to be simple and easy to use. There is no restriction on how many edits I can make and download the PDF.
3. Resume Builder for 2023 | Free Resume Builder | Novorésumé: This is a tool for creating beautiful double/multi-columned resumes. It has some limitations in the free version, but the templates they provide are just.... beautiful.
4. Resumes & cover letters design templates | Microsoft Create: If you are hellbent on creating a resume using Microsoft Word (I am not judging you), then Microsoft provides templates for creating resumes
   

Closing Notes

Job hunting is tedious and a highly complex and significant problem to solve. From asking riddles to DSA (Data Structure and Algorithms ) questions, the methods of interviewing and the metrics used to rate candidates can change. What doesn't change is your resume; people need something to know who you are.

It can cause some anxiety when you are asked to describe yourself (in-person or in a resume), ranging from impostor syndrome (what have I done in my life that is worth telling) to just plain panic. View yourself objectively, determine what the other party (to whom you are introducing yourself) needs, and give them what they need. The better you can do this, the more chances you have of being successful.