Are you ghosted by many companies?? ATS Might Be the Culprit!!

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Are you ghosted by many companies?? ATS Might Be the Culprit!!

👻 Are you ghosted by many companies?? ATS Might Be the Culprit!!


🔎 Introduction

A few months ago, I was in full “job hunt” mode, and I had just graduated with good scores. Built a resume on Canva, added cute icons, and even a mini timeline to show my journey— for me, it looked like a beautiful, devoted piece of art. I sent it out to 35 companies. And to my surprise, the response??
Zero. Zilch. Nada. 🦗
At first, I blamed myself: “Maybe I’m not good enough?” But alert — I was more than qualified for that job. Turns out the problem was not me.
It was the ATS — the Applicant Tracking System.


🤖 What Is an ATS??

Have you ever felt like you’re applying to 100+ jobs and getting heard back from none? Like your resume is getting swallowed into some black hole?
Welcome to the crazy world of ATS — Silent Guards of the Job Market. If your resume doesn’t obey their rules, it will never reach human eyes.


🚨 The Hard Truth

More than 500 Fortune companies use ATS checkers to:

  1. Rank your resume
  2. Filter out anything that fails their rules

They don’t care if your resume looks cute — all they care about is keywords and structure.

These bots are like overworked, frustrated interns, scanning 500 resumes in just 5 minutes. They don’t have time for your creativity—just clarity, bro ✨.


📋 ATS Checklist

  • Keywords?
  • Basic formatting?
  • Sections like Skills and Experience?
  • ❌ Fancy fonts? Hard Pass.
  • ❌ PDFs with weird margins? Straight to Trash.

If your resume doesn’t get all ticks, Boom! You’re rejected. No feedback. No notifications. Just silence!

75%+ of resumes never make it to a human reader because they fail these filters.


🕵️ My ATS Wake-Up Call

I tested my resume on an ATS checker (I used EaseAiResume) and the results were brutal af:

  • 🔹 Complex formatting — out.
  • 🔹 Keyword mismatch — out.
  • 🔹 Fancy fonts & two-column layout — skipped my Projects section entirely.

It stung. But it clicked: I was designing for humans, not robots.


🎓 Simple Rules No One Taught You

Here’s what I learned the hard way (and nobody taught me in college):

  • 🔸 Use simple fonts like Arial or Calibri. Avoid custom ones.
  • 🔸 One-column layout only—columns, tables, and text boxes confuse bots.
  • 🔸 Clean file formats: .docx or plain PDF. Fancy margins = straight to trash.
  • 🔸 Job-specific keywords: If a posting says “Web dev,” don’t just list “JavaScript”—use “Web dev.”
  • 🔸 Ditch the graphics: No icons. No colors. No fancy visuals. Save those for LinkedIn.

After rebuilding and re-testing, I hit 90% match and knew I’d cracked the code.


💡 Treat Your Job Description Like a Cheat Sheet

Many people blast out one generic resume. The real game-changers? They tailor for each role because:

ATS looks for a match between your resume and the job post.

Borrow the exact language from the listing—honestly—and weave those terms naturally into your resume.


✨ Closing Thoughts: Don’t Let a Machine Decide Your Worth

Yes, it’s robotic and unfair. But mastering ATS strategy is part of today’s job hunt:

  1. Get past the bots
  2. Reach real hiring managers
  3. Land actual interviews

I revamped my resume, beat the system, and landed 3 interviews in one week. With an ATS-friendly resume, you’ll stop screaming into the void—and finally be heard.

Author

Anushka Gupta

Resume experts and career advisors helping job seekers succeed.

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