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How to Use Keywords to Navigate Applicant Tracking Systems

If you’re looking for employment, you’ve probably lost count of the number of online job postings you’ve answered. When you apply to an online posting, you may receive an email from the company acknowledging the receipt of your resume and noting that the document is currently under review. And then . . . crickets.

Tumbleweeds.

Weeks (and possibly months) pass without any additional contact from the company or hiring manager.

To understand this unfortunate, all-too-common issue with online applications, it’s important to consider how companies evaluate the resumes that applicants submit online. Does the image of an overworked hiring manager come to mind, anxiously sifting through emails and reviewing thousands upon thousands of resumes?

That image is partly correct.

Yes, the volume of resumes that companies receive in response to a single job posting is often overwhelming. And though it is true that finding the ideal candidate for a job is very strenuous, hiring managers use specific tools to make the recruitment process more efficient.

One of these tools is the applicant tracking system. If you’re not receiving responses from companies when you submit your resume online, then an applicant tracking system may be the culprit.

These systems automatically screen resumes well before they hit the hiring manager’s desk (or inbox, as the case may be). Applicant tracking systems identify the most suitable candidates and discard the resumes of those whom these systems classify as underqualified.

By eliminating the resumes of unqualified candidates, applicant tracking systems reduce the number of resumes that hiring managers have to review.

Keywords and Applicant Tracking Systems

An applicant tracking system determines the degree to which the information in an applicant’s resume matches the requirements outlined in the job description. The factors that these systems consider include occupational skills, employment history, past employers, and educational background.

The system then assigns a score to each applicant. These scores are used to determine which applicants will move on to the next round of hiring and, subsequently, which resumes the hiring manager will actually see. So, this basically means that your application may be eliminated from the pool of qualified candidates before it ever is reviewed by human eyes.

On top of that, these systems are not perfect and occasionally disqualify candidates who are actually ideal for the position.

Don’t lose hope!

Although these systems are growing more and more sophisticated (and sometimes cost companies millions of dollars), there are also many helpful techniques that job seekers can use to ensure their resumes get past the seemingly insurmountable barrier of applicant tracking systems.

Given that applicant tracking systems scan resumes for information related to the job posting, applicants must also learn to optimize their use of keywords within their resumes.

Keywords (in the context of applicant tracking systems) represent the primary job responsibilities and professional skills that are required for a position (e.g., “customer service,” “analytical skills,” or “strategic management”), as well as the appropriate employment history, years of experience, and education.

Applicant tracking systems use keywords to form a link between a candidate’s qualifications and the requirements outlined in the job description.

To identify the keywords you must use in your resume, your first step is to look to the job posting itself. The most relevant keywords will be the terms and phrases that are repeated throughout the description. The name of the position itself is a great indicator of the possible keywords that should be used (e.g., if you are applying for a position as a financial analyst, then these two terms should be considered relevant keywords).

Keywords can also be unique to certain fields. For example, in the case of information technology, a keyword may include the names of specific programming languages.

In some fields, certain acronyms are very common (such as “CPA,” which stands for “certified public accountant”). A great trick is to use both the spelled-out version of the term and the acronym itself. The hiring manager may have programmed the applicant tracking system to scan resumes for the acronym or the complete term. By using both, you can rest assured that you’ve got yourself covered.

However, a simple laundry list of keywords won’t cut it. When assigning a score to a resume, applicant tracking systems place more weight on keywords that are contextualized and are used in conjunction with other related terms.

And, yes, while you should use keywords in your resume, do not overload your resume with them. Try to ensure that the placement of keywords is appropriate and natural. Finally, remember: an applicant tracking system will not be able to process a keyword if it is misspelled, so always double-check that your spelling is correct.

Conclusion

Although issues such as formatting also play a big part in overcoming applicant tracking systems, you’re now a master of one step of the process: using keywords to help get your resume to the hiring manager’s desk.

 

4 Writing Styles to Help You Ace Every Essay

Writing styles are like fashion styles. How you dress helps others understand who you are, describes a particular sentiment to those who see you, and signals a subconscious message to be interpreted by others. How you write will give similar signals to others that help them understand what you’re trying to communicate. Also, like fashion styles, writing styles have particular times and places in which they should be employed or restrained. It’s inappropriate to wear white to a wedding if you’re not the bride; similarly, it’s inappropriate to use certain writing styles for specific types of writing.

Luckily, writing styles are a little more cut and dried than fashion styles. There are four main types of writing: expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative. Each serves a specific purpose and differs from the others in particular ways. Knowing the difference between the writing styles is useful in essay writing because your essay must serve a precise purpose. By understanding the subtleties of the writing styles, it will be a lot easier to determine which style to employ based on the purpose of your essay.

Expository Writing

Expository writing is used when you want to explain or inform, making it a very popular writing style for essays. Generally, the writer must first formulate a topic, outline the evidence, and further explain the idea to demonstrate a particular point about the topic at hand. A thesis statement is utilized to outline the topic, followed by body paragraphs held together by transitions. Often, evidence is stated in the paragraphs, and an introduction and conclusion are provided.

Very simply, this style is employed in academic writing to outline the main points of a topic. The writer explains a specific subject from beginning to end. The writing should be clear, supported by facts and logical reasoning. A common form of expository writing is the compare-and-contrast essay, which outlines the similarities and differences between two subjects. The writer can either alternate explaining similarities and differences in separate paragraphs or explain all the similarities in several consecutive paragraphs, followed by all the differences.

Descriptive Writing

The main purpose of descriptive writing is to describe a subject to form a clear idea in the reader’s mind. This writing style draws attention to details to outline the topic. Writing a descriptive essay requires clear and vivid language to accurately describe the subject. The senses become very important in descriptive writing because they help to bring ordinary moments to life. The reader should be left with a vibrant understanding of the topic at hand.

Students are often required to write descriptive essays to explain a particular experience they may have had or an event that has taken place. This type of essay is a little bit more creative than the expository essay, allowing the writer to draw on lived experience and lively language rather than relying on dry facts. Here, the more specific and detailed the writing is, the better, and wordiness is not frowned upon as it is in expository writing.

Persuasive Writing

This type of writing allows the writer to take a stance. Rather than objectively explaining a topic or painting a picture for the reader, persuasive writing is used to demonstrate a very specific opinion on a topic. That means attention to word choice is imperative, as weak or incorrect word usage can make or break a persuasive essay. In this style, authors attempt to get the readers to side with them, share their particular opinion, and even sometimes take action on it.

Often, this type of writing is used for controversial topics that split people into groups based on their opinions. This allows writers to take a specific stance and outline their particular opinions. Even though the writing can and should be biased, the outlined arguments must all be logical and must be feasibly proven. Therefore, persuasive writing requires extensive research so that the writer can back up an opinion with reputable sources.

Narrative Writing

Generally, narrative writing is less common in the academic world because the narrative style exists to tell stories. Whether it’s a true story or not is irrelevant; fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry are all types of narrative writing. In reality, all types of writing exist to argue a specific point. So even though narrative writing is a more creative type of writing, it is still an argument and should be treated as such.

What do you want the reader to believe? That’s what you should ask when writing a narrative essay.

Narrative essays are generally used when writing anecdotal or personal essays. In the academic world, this usually takes the form of creative nonfiction. The writer should introduce the topic and lead the reader through the story by explaining what happened next until the story comes to a logical conclusion. That means it should have a clear structure. This type of writing is also used for book reports, outlining the story from beginning to end.

Conclusion

Really, the four types of writing are named aptly: expository writing explains, descriptive writing describes, persuasive writing persuades, and narrative writing narrates. All the different writing styles serve their own purposes and are thus useful for different types of essay writing. That means they never go out style (pun intended).

 

9 Proofreading Tips for Revising Your Essay at the Last Minute

A Quick Checklist for the Procrastination-Prone Student

It’s two o’clock in the morning.

For hours, you’ve been frantically writing a paper that is due tomorrow. By some sweet miracle, you’ve managed to stay away from Netflix long enough to finish writing the first draft of your paper.

You breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to crawl away from the perils of your desk toward the safety of your bed. But alas, you do not make it.

Instead, terror strikes your heart. You gasp and clutch your shaking hand to your sweaty chest, for you’ve just realized that the battle is not yet won. Though you’ve finished writing, you still face one more daunting task: you must proofread your paper.

How will you do it?

You open your web browser, and though it takes almost all the willpower you have left, you resist the urge to post a Facebook update about your progress (“Currently trading in my sanity for a degree in philosophy. On second thought, likely never had any sanity in the first place”). Instead, you go straight to Google and frantically start searching for proofreading tips that will allow you to get more than three hours of sleep tonight.

Search no more, my friend. Though they won’t replace a substantial edit by a pair of fresh eyes (nothing can), these proofreading tips should help you remove the most glaring errors from your paper. Finishing that home stretch while retaining your precious mental marbles just got a bit less stressful.

But first, a disclaimer: If you struggle with the rules of grammar and punctuation, even the handiest of proofreading tips may not help you polish your paper. Unfortunately, these tips will only be helpful if you’re familiar with the errors you seek. A short-turnaround proofreading service may be something to consider if you don’t have confidence in your own editing or proofreading abilities. With that in mind, here are some proofreading tips to try.

Consistency Proofreading Tips

Ask any editor, proofreader, or college professor what irks them most about student papers, and you’ll likely find that inconsistency takes the cake. No matter how you slice that chocolate torte, writing something five different ways in the same paper is just plain wrong. The best way to eliminate inconsistency, especially after a long night of writing, is to tackle each potential inconsistency error one by one.

1. Check Capitalization and Acronyms

Names, terms, titles, and headings should all be written the same way. To find inconsistencies, scan your document for every usage of a term, and make sure each instance is written the same way. Acronyms should also be used consistently. Each acronym should be defined the first time it is used, and it should replace the term it represents for every use thereafter.

2. Check Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes

It can be easy to mix up hyphens (-), en dashes (–), and em dashes (—). They look so similar! Check out this guide to using these pesky punctuation marks, then use Ctrl + F to search your document for each instance of hyphenation and dash usage. Pay special attention to hyphenated terms!

3. Check Spelling

Check the language setting of your word processor. Is it set to U.S., U.K., Canadian, or Australian English? To make sure the language is consistent throughout, select the entire body of text in your document (which you can easily do by pressing Ctrl + A), and choose the correct variety of English. Though this should help you find inconsistencies in spelling, be aware that Word will not catch all spelling inconsistencies. For example, realize and realise are both accepted spellings for the same word in Microsoft Word’s U.K., Canadian, and Australian English dictionaries. The same goes for words like labor/labour and labeling/labelling. To avoid inconsistencies, search your document for both versions of words that may be spelled inconsistently.

For specialized terms that Word doesn’t recognize, after checking the spelling using an online dictionary, add the terms to your Word dictionary so that every instance of the correctly spelled word is recognized. That way, only words that are actually being spelled wrong will be labeled as such.

4. Check Formatting and Headings

Read each of your headings individually, and make sure they are all formatted consistently. Then check that the indentation and spacing are the same across all paragraphs. Remember that most style guides recommend using only one space after a period, not two.

Other Proofreading Tips

Consistency obviously isn’t the only worry when it comes to proofreading. Grammar and punctuation errors are usually lurking in student papers—especially those written in a rush. If your grasp of grammar is decent, you should be able to solve most of your own problems. The trick, of course, is finding those problems. Here are three proofreading tips for detecting the errors that your eyes habitually overlook.

5. Print Your Paper

Though this will not be a feasible option for long papers, like dissertations, it can be a useful tip for shorter documents. (You’re definitely not trying to proofread your dissertation at the last minute anyway, right?) Giving your eyes a break from screen time can help make them more aware of errors that they missed before.

6. Change the Appearance of Your Paper

If printing isn’t an option, consider doing something else to change the appearance of your paper. Copying the content into a different document without formatting is one option, as is temporarily changing the font size or style.

7. Read Your Paper out Loud

There are two potential downfalls to this technique. The first is that reading a paper aloud actually takes much more time than most students allot for such a task, and the second is that it can be difficult to focus long enough to read the entire paper. These are the very reasons why reading your paper out loud is a handy proofreading technique: doing this forces you to slow down. It also helps stop your brain from automatically skipping words.

8. Find a Study Buddy

While not technically a last-minute tip, exchanging papers with a study buddy can be very useful when it comes to ironing the kinks out of your final draft. Make friends with a classmate at the beginning of the semester, and then send your papers to each other for a quick read before submission. One more disclaimer: make sure your study buddy is an adept proofreader!

9. Give Up . . .

. . . On doing it yourself, that is. If you’re running out of time and still not feeling confident about your final draft, for important assignments, enlisting the help of an expert editor may be the best proofreading tip of all.

 

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