Applying for jobs in a highly competitive, digital world is the pits. We all know this by now. Standout resumes that sit in a pile of thousands upon thousands, can feel very discouraging to us mere applicants, maybe even at times preventing us from actually applying.
And we can contribute most of this to companies such as Indeed, or varying similar internal job portals, who use applicant tracking systems (ATS), or basically a system that ranks resumes according to how many keywords they contain, all based on qualifications deemed necessary for the job. Resumes with fewer keywords are less likely to appear at the top of the pile, making applicants who submit them less attractive as candidates. And usually, if you don't hear anything back, it's likely has to do with the fact that your resume wasn't picked up by the system.
Un. Til. Now.
On Feb. 22, TikTok user @robco339 shared a hack that (allegedly) has us beating this funky ATS system at its own game.
The hack is simple: Copy the qualifications listed in any given job listing and paste them at the bottom of your resume in white text. Save the resume as a PDF, submit it, and, boom, you're done.
He explains in detail:
"OK, here's a quick tip to get your resume at the top of the pile. What you want to do is you want to copy and paste all of the qualifications that they say you need online, you want to post those on the bottom of your resume, right. Miniaturize it, post it at the very bottom. Then what you want to do, is make the lettering white, so that you can't see it. Then, you save your resume as a PDF, so no one can click on it and highlight it."
He continues:
"What that does, when you send your resume in, their algorhitym will pick your resume first because you have all of the qualifications. They won't be able to see that you have all of those qualifications and it's exactly what they have on the website because it's all white."
And if you're like me, right now you're probably like:
Needless to say, the comments went up in flames.
Some realized it went over a few heads:
Some shared their success:
Others weren’t impressed:
And even expressed caution:
Recruiters came to weigh in:
But overall, most just want a chance:
Since posting, the video has racked over 110K likes with no sight for slowing down. Do you plan to try this hack?
Watch the full video here.
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