Philip Hicks ⋅ Petersburg, TN Parsons Corporation ⋅ 30 years experience

I found a great resource at https://www.jobscan.co/ which allows you to compare your resume against the job description for which you may be considering applying. It is free for the first few attempts, and then it is free when you start an account.

The scan provides a match rate percentage and gives some initial reviews for skills/keywords match, job title match, education, match, and some other items of interest.

As far as getting past the company ATS systems, an idea is to search out the roles you want. Find the job descriptions and then find the keywords within those job descriptions.

As an example, you can go to https://www.wordclouds.com/ and paste the job description text (look under "File" for "Pasty/Type text" to develop a word list (see "Word List" which will identify the number of times a word is used. You'll need to sift through the words which are not skills and abilities which shouldn't take too long, and you'll have your keyword list for a resume and/or LinkedIn profile. There are many other free word count systems online for free which will provide keywords for use.

The keywords and using an ATS compliant resume should provide the ability to get past the company systems. Some ATS compliant resume templates are available at https://www.jobscan.co/resume-templates.

Mark Young ⋅ Salem, NH Raytheon Technologies ⋅ 17 years experience

Retired from the US Army 30 June 2018 (20 years active duty)

Working at Raytheon in Tewksbury MA.
I have also worked at UPS, Lucent Technologies and Comcast.

I work in Cyber at Raytheon Technologies. If you are interested in employment at the organization then please e-mail me @ mark_r_young@raytheon.com and I can assist you by getting you an internal referral. Additionally, I highly recommend getting certifications such as CompTIA Security+ or CISSP if you want to work in the cybersecurity field.

Best,
Mark

Jennifer Goodman ⋅ Fayetteville, NC Aramark ⋅ 7 years experience

My company doesn't use AI to screen resumes, so it isn't all organizations. As mentioned above though, networking is going to be your best bet. Use the search filters on LinkedIn to find people that work for the company - this could be someone in HR or someone in the role/department you're targeting. You could also do a search for a military recruiter or military program manager to find someone like myself that works exclusively with military connected candidates. Definitely make sure that your resume is tailored to the position though and clearly shows that you meet the basic qualifications and that you have the experience needed to succeed in the position.

Deb Yeagle ⋅ Tampa, FL Plan To Win, Inc. ⋅ 39 years experience

Hi James-
ZipJob has a free resume checker and formatting tips for helping your resume to get past the ATS keyword match. Check it out here:
https://www.zipjob.com/blog/ats-resume-test/
Good luck!
Deb

Karen Frank ⋅ New Canaan, CT IBM ⋅ 15 years experience

Two things - use your network to see if you know someone in the company you're targeting and use key words frequently (scattered and not forced) in your resume. They will search for key terms and frequency to determine relevance.

Jeff Martin ⋅ Ashburn, VA The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ⋅ 25 years experience

I’d suggest that you network at the target company or industry. Use LinkedIn to find people already working there and reach out to them. Ask them the process they used to get hired and ask them to help you navigate the hiring process and if they are willing, ask them to submit you as a referral. These activities require much more time on your part but in my opinion would greatly increase your chances for success. Good luck!

Todd Cloutier ⋅ Woburn, MA Raytheon Technologies ⋅ 1 years experience

Hello James,

You can also copy and paste the entire job description and key words from the position onto your resume. Copy and paste it from the description to the bottom of your resume, make it the smallest font size, and then make the font color white. This will ensure that you have everything in the job description, all key words, and it will fool the algorithm. Additionally, you can also just type all of the key words into your resume regarding your past or current positions.

Best,

Joe Engle ⋅ Indianapolis, IN Electrical/Software Eng. + MBA ⋅ 30 years experience

Hello James. GOOD QUESTION! I am sure many people want to know "How to get past the AI robot...and have your resume reviewed by a person?"

Well, here is how the system works, for big companies and small. Due to efforts to reduce costs, you can assume that ALL resumes are scanned before a valuable person reads them. That is just how it is today. The best you can hope for, and your goal, is to get selected by the AI scan, and get put in the resume pile that is humanly reviewed, for an interview!

OK, so how to get selected by the AI scan?
The AI looks for job required words, short phrases, and acronyms (like 'programmer' or 'JPL'). So you have to include, in your resume, words, phrases and acronyms that are important for the position! The phrases and acronyms will be well known in the industry and position being applied for. These are included as either standard bullet points, or in a list. For example if you are applying for an auto mechanic position, maybe use the words 'mechanic', 'turbo', and acronyms like 'SAE', 'ASE', 'ODB2 interface' in the resume.

See advisor John Porell's answer for a good example of this for a programmer.

TIP: Look at a job posting that you like and you will probably see phrases and acronyms that the employer is looking for!

Thanks for the question and good luck,
Joe

Jerry Welsh ⋅ Middleville, MI Master Military Transition Advisor/HPS GPO ⋅ 30 years experience

James,
I would follow Michael Quinn and hook up with some of his workshops on networking and branding. In today's market a lot is done on line behind the scenes, but networking and informational interviewing rather than dropping resumes into email slots to be run through AI. Your best bet would be to hook up with industry specific or career specific groups either on LinkedIn or Facebook work groups and started "branding" yourself. You seem to have some valuable skills in the commercial nonmilitary market, key is to become know on line and on the phone. Commercial folks like to help service members who are calling looking for assistance in career research, note career research not job hunting. One will most often land you with someone to conduct a good informational interview the other will be send a resume to our WEB. Here are a couple of quick reads.
Remember that you are part of the 0.5% of Americans who serve their country. You are very well respected, but the chance civilians have been part of the 0.5% simply means they will not understand your language or experiences-without translation. Thank you for your support and sacrifices. God Bless https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/come-prepared-transition-process-gap-between-civilian-jerry-welsh/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-more-right-jerry-welsh/

John Porell ⋅ East Hartford, CT Travelers Insurance Co. ⋅ 20 years experience

HI James,
Love the profile picture :) while I can't tell how other industries do it - I work in the Insurance industry in IT. Typically after a portion of a resume they add a list of key words. Below is an example - it list the Employer and dates then the position and relevant tasks or accomplishments then a list of keys words associated with the position. While these words may have no meaning to you I think you could substitute relevant technologies, tools or processes that describe the activities during that period. I have also received resumes with a large section at the end that list key words grouped by things like Technologies, Tools, Leadership or others but I find it better when associated with the time period.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (HCSC), ​Chicago, Illinois 03/2017 – 06/2018
Java Developer
● ​Designed and developed a Spring Boot web application for Providers Registration under TDD
● ​Managed and implemented a 270 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) application
● ​Developed multiple REST APIs
Technologies: Java, REST, Ivy, Javascript, Angular 4, Pivotal Cloud, Ajax, Hibernate, Spring Boot, Redis, Eureka, Node.js