Author: Chris Ciunci, PrepU Career Strategy Team Reading Time: 6 minutes
In Part 1, we exposed why 75% of resumes fail ATS screening and the AI arms race reshaping hiring. Now let's get tactical. This guide walks you through creating an ATS-friendly resume that actually gets past the robots.
Step 1: Decode the Job Posting
Every job posting contains a keyword hierarchy that ATS systems weight differently. Copy the entire job description into a document and categorize keywords:
Primary keywords: Job title and terms repeated 3+times. If the position is "Senior Financial Analyst," use that exact phrase—not "Finance Professional."
Secondary keywords: Required qualifications, specific software, certifications. These appear in the "Requirements" or "Must Have" sections.
Tertiary keywords: "Nice to have" skills and culture fit terms.
For a Marketing Manager position at a SaaS company:
Create a keyword bank with 15-20 terms. Place 40% in your professional summary and most recent role, 40% across other experiences, 20% in skills.
Step 2: Choose Your ATS-Optimal Format
Use this exact structure:
Format requirements:
Step 3: Craft Your Professional Summary
Your summary is an algorithm's executive summary. In 2-3lines, establish who you are and naturally include primary keywords.
Weak: "Motivated professional seeking opportunities to leverage my skills in a dynamic environment."
Strong: "Marketing Manager with 5 years of B2B SaaS experience driving demand generation campaigns that increased qualified leads by 47%. Specializes in marketing automation through HubSpot and Salesforce."
The strong version incorporates keywords while providing quantified context. Write this section last so you know which keywords still need inclusion.
Step 4: Optimize Your Experience Section
This section determines your ATS score. Each position needs:
Transform responsibilities into keyword-rich achievements:
Before: "Helped with data analysis projects" After: "Analyzed customer behavior data using Python and SQL, identifying churn patterns that informed retention strategies reducing cancellations by23%"
Formula: [Action Verb] + [Task with Keyword] + [Quantified Result]
For recent graduates, translate academic work professionally. "Group project on marketing" becomes "Led4-person team developing comprehensive marketing strategy for local nonprofit, including market analysis and competitor research implemented by client."
Step 5: Strategic Skills Section
Your skills section catches keywords not naturally placed elsewhere. Organize by category:
Technical Skills: List exactly as they appear in the posting. Include both acronyms and full names: "Search Engine Optimization(SEO)"
Professional Skills: Industry-specific competencies like "conversion rate optimization" or "marketing qualified lead generation"
Skip generic soft skills. Instead of "communication," use "executive stakeholder presentation."
Step 6: Education and Additional Sections
Include degree, major, university, graduation date. Recent graduates should add relevant coursework with keywords: "Relevant Coursework: Financial Analysis, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Management"
Additional sections for keyword placement:
Step 7: The ATS Testing Protocol
Before submitting, verify these elements parse correctly:
Common fixes:
Create versions for different ATS systems. Workday values contextual descriptions. Taleo needs exact keyword matches. Greenhouse requires LinkedIn synchronization.
Step 8: The Final Checklist
Content:
□ Professional summary includes primary keywords
□ Most recent role contains 40% of keywords
□ Every bullet has action verb + specifics + results
□ Skills section mirrors posting language
Format:
□ Single column layout
□ Standard fonts
□ Consistent MM/YYYY dates
□ Standard section headers
□ Regular bullet points
Technical:
□ Saved as .docx
□ No headers/footers/textboxes
□ No images or graphics
□ Contact info in body
□ File named "YourName_Resume"
Customization at Scale
Build three master versions for your target roles, then customize the top 20% for each application:
Always customize:
Keep constant:
This maintains the customization ATS systems expect without burning out.
Critical ATS Parsing Rules
Modern ATS systems fail resumes for specific technical reasons:
Date parsing failures: Mixed formats (03/2022 vs March 2022) break chronology algorithms. Use MM/YYYY exclusively.
Keyword context requirements: "Python" alone scores lower than "Python for predictive modeling." Always provide context.
Section header recognition: Creative headers like "My Journey" cause entire sections to be skipped. Use standard terms only.
Compatibility issues: Tables, columns, and text boxes create parsing errors in 40% of ATS systems. Single column only.
The Human Factor
After passing ATS, your resume needs to impress humans. Read it aloud—does it sound natural? The sweet spot is 70-80% ATS optimization while remaining engaging for human readers.
Signs of over-optimization:
Remember: ATS gets you in the door, humans make hiring decisions.
Beyond Manual Optimization
The reality of modern job searching is that the AI arms race isn't slowing down. While this guide gives you the foundation, manually optimizing for every application is unsustainable when you're competing against candidates using advanced AI tools.
At PrepU, we've weaponized AI to help students win this arms race. Our proprietary AI analyzes job postings and automatically optimizes your resume with perfect keyword density for each specific ATS system—turning hours of manual work into minutes. While others struggle with manual optimization, PrepU students submit perfectly tailored resumes for every opportunity.
Ready to stop fighting ATS and start dominating it? Learn how PrepU's AI tools help students win the resume arms race.
Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash
