Very Good Advice: The Resume and ATS

Resumes are a major topic again this round, so I thought I would create a post specifically about it. To be clear the Disney College Program does not require a resume, and I honestly suggest do not use one if you are not strong at creating them. As for the Disney Professional and Management Internships -you guys know the drill they are 100% required. Alright now that is out of the way I want to go over some pretty basic things starting with ATS.

First off, I know I lost a lot of you with what is ATS and for those who do not know it is an applicant tracking system used by a lot of major corporations including Disney. Just to give you a rough estimate of about how many Fortune 500 companies are estimated to use it the percentage is around 90%, and about 75% of candidates are rejected according to Peptel (a resume service). Meaning qualified candidates may in find themselves rejected from a job they may actually be qualified for, so here are some tips on how to not get stuck in the ATS trap.

• Make sure you are using an ATS friendly resume format 
• Here is a link to some ATS templates you can download for free here
• Ensure your resume mirrors specific keywords and phrases used in the job description you are applying for
• I used the word mirror for a reason do not copy straight from the job description
• As a note for Professional Interns tailor your resume for each job you are applying for if you need to. 
• It sorts content into individual categories
• Education
• Contact Information
• Skills
• Work Experience
• Do not use headers or footers they can alter your score in a negative way by simply getting in the way
• Do use acronyms especially if it is industry lingo for the job you are applying for
• Why? You do not know which one the robots are scanning for so it is better to use industry lingo 
• Do not stuff words into your resume that do not belong
• Do repeat words that are relevant to the job you are applying for
• Do emphasize both soft and hard skills on your resume 
• Take advantage of services like TagCrowd 
• You copy and paste the job description into the box, and it pulls out important key words to use in your resume
• Use bullet points!
• It creates less room for error when the resume is scanning for keywords
• Include your address
• Some robots will lower your score simply for not having one especially if the job is looking for local candidates 
• Ditch the objective 
• If you really feel the need to keep the objective make it bullet points 
• Keep your font to the standards this is not the time to get creative 
• Sans-Serif fonts are the best (Verdana and Tahoma) 
• Some robots will reject applicants due to font 
• Use social media to your advantage
• Look up people who have the same role you want within the company, and see what key words they used (or skills they have) on their LinkedIn pages. 
• Disney prefers PDF format for resumes
• Keep your resume one to two pages 

*Keep in mind it takes all that information and matches it against the job description then comes out with a percentage based on the results. Then the candidate with the highest percentages along with the most years of relevant experience will be moved onto the next stage. 

Now I know this seems a bit unfair as a technique for searching for candidates, but keep in mind it is not just Disney who does this you are going to have this issue with almost every company you apply for. Lucky for most of you candidates though Disney does have recruiters who also scan the resumes as well, and I want to emphasize the word scan -as it is just a scan a quick glance 30 seconds or less. 

Also on the note of the resume scan I am sure many of you are aware (if not well you are going to be now) almost all companies now do a social media check. Yes they will check your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and etc. so be aware of what you have on there especially if your accounts are not private. So, while you may have a photo with 500 likes of you drinking tequila shots in Cancun your future employer may not want to see that. 

I also want to clarify Disney is not random about making decisions about who moves on, and who does not they go through too many candidates to be random. They use ATS to filter out candidates that simply do not fit the requirements, and then those who pass move on to have their resume scanned by someone in recruiting. My best advice for anyone out there is stay calm sometimes these ATS systems are in no one's favor. 

Best of luck and pixie dust on applications!