Applicant Tracking Systems: After his partner was rejected from 20 jobs a week, man tests ATS, results shock many – here’s what he found

He found that the popular claim that “75% of resumes are automatically rejected” is not entirely true. Instead, he said, the real problem is worse—most resumes are never shown to recruiters. He explained that recruiters search for resumes in the ATS using keywords, job titles, and experience filters (like searching a database). If the resume does not match the searched words exactly, it will remain hidden. This, he clearly said, meant that job seekers were not rejected, they were invisible within the system.

ATS works like keyword search

One of the shocking results he found was that resumes that used the same job title as the job posting received 10.6 times more interview callbacks than resumes that used different wording. He said ATS systems literally match words. For example, if the job title says “Senior Product Manager,” using a different title such as “Product Lead” will reduce visibility. It also found that 99.7% of recruiters use keyword filters to rank applicants, making exact wording extremely important.
Another important finding was the “good resume problem.” He said creative resumes often perform poorly because ATS systems cannot read complex designs. He said two-column layouts confuse ATS because the system reads text from top to bottom in a single line, which mixes words up incorrectly. He also found that icons and emojis interrupt resume reading because the ATS sees them as strange characters rather than useful information. Unusual section titles such as “My Journey” instead of “Work Experience” make it difficult for ATS to understand resume sections, he said.

Keywords should be balanced

He discovered that many people put their contact information in headers or footers, but most ATS systems ignore these fields, making it impossible to identify candidates. Their testing showed that resumes need approximately 25-35 relevant keywords to achieve strong ATS match scores. He said that using too few keywords reduces visibility, but using too many triggers AI keyword stuffing detection, which can harm the app. He also noted that 83% of companies now use AI scanning, so old tricks like hiding keywords in white text no longer work.

Another surprising finding was regarding date formats. He said mixed formats caused the ATS to miscalculate work experience, sometimes showing 8 years as only 3. He said the most reliable format is the Month Year style, such as “January 2020 – March 2023.” He also found that .docx resumes worked best because they were read correctly by all systems, while PDFs sometimes failed due to technical issues. He said currently only 2-3% of job applications result in an interview, but many failures are due to simple technical errors, not a lack of skills. He concluded that job seekers do not always need to be the best candidates, they should first make sure their CV is visible in the system.

FAQ

Q1. Why don’t many resumes get a response from companies?Many resumes remain hidden in the ATS because they don’t exactly match the keywords or job titles recruiters are looking for.

Q2. What is the best resume format for ATS systems?

A simple, single-column resume that includes full keywords and is saved as a .docx file works best.