Ragged Riches

Let’s start this article off with a story about my old places of work. I had worked at a fashion magazine/shock site for a minute. Up until then, it was the most toxic workplace that I ever worked in. It had a massive issue with in-crowd bullying and my bosses were the most vile women I’d met in fashion.

They were shallow. They were exclusive. And they made sure I knew that I was not in the in crowd. Nothing I could say or do was good enough for them. I got laid off near Christmas from that company. I got hired at another company shortly after—and I was killing it, back then.

Then, my old coworker walked through the doors.

My jaw dropped as I watched her sit down, resume in hand. All I could think was, “Oh no…”

At the time, this workplace was very healthy. Hell, it was my Candyland. And I didn’t want to deal with the toxicity of my last workplace. So, I went to my manager and said, “If you hire her, I quit.”

Her resume was thrown in the trash. And while this story was a standout in my career, it’s not the norm. Most job hunters know that their resume never even makes it to HR’s hands, but they don’t always know why. Ever wonder what’s going on? Let me enlighten you.

Your resume is being scanned by ATS and it doesn’t have the right keywords.

Here’s the big, bad granddaddy secret of job hunting in the 2020s: your resume is being filtered out by AI bots. If you haven’t heard about this already, there’s a platform called ATS, or Applicant Tracking System.

The ATS system is meant to make HR’s job less difficult by weeding out candidates that don’t have the right experience. So, here’s what it does:

• It scans your resume looking for relevant keywords to the job posting.
• If it doesn’t have the right keywords, your resume is automatically eliminated from the pile of candidates.
• If your resume doesn’t have the right education level, your resume is also usually eliminated from the pile of candidates.
• This greatly narrows down the number of applicants Human Resources has to sift through and interview.

Simply put, if your resume does not have the same keywords that show up in the job description, you likely won’t get an interview. If you’ve been working with the same resume across the board, you likely have been shooting yourself in the foot.

ATS is a cruel, picky program category. So, take a look at your resume. Does it fit ATS standards? Do you have the right keywords in there? My resume-writing and recruiter friend, Gina Del Russo, explained to me, “Simply rephrasing your experience to a more ATS-friendly format can make a world of difference.”

She was right. She rewrote my resume and I was able to get interviews after being left unemployed for years. If you aren’t using ATS-friendly writing, you’re not going to get far.

The job in question is a “ghost job.”

Did you ever notice how many companies seem to be hiring constantly? It often happens for the same position, over and over again. The truth is that most of these job postings aren’t real. No one is getting hired for them. They’re “ghost jobs,” and they’re sadly a sign of the times.

Ghost jobs are fake jobs that are posted for a variety of reasons, including motivating current workers, keeping a steady supply of potential workers if a major team player quits, or using the posting as a bargaining chip to help keep workers who are very burnt out.

According to a new blurb by The Guardian, 40 percent of all companies have posted a fake job. 85 percent of those fake jobs also interviewed people for these fake positions. So, if you weren’t hired for a job that you interviewed for, it could very well be that you simply were picked for a ghost job interview.

It’s important to recognize that certain platforms tend to post ghost jobs more than others. Indeed and LinkedIn are notorious for this. If you want to apply for a job, go directly to the company’s site and call to confirm that they’re hiring. Those jobs are more likely to be legit.

Employers checked your social media and they’re not happy.

Did you recently pull a me and talk about your hard drug use on social media? That’s a bad sign. Careerbuilder says that approximately 70 percent of employers check social media as part of their screening process.

I’m honestly split on the ethics of this. On one hand, I find it messed up that companies might decline to hire you because you’re a clubkid who posts photos of yourself clubbing on the weekends. When it comes to these types of things, what you do on your off time should be YOUR private business.

On the other hand, I understand why companies might want to check social media posts for political extremism. Hiring extremists can be a genuine liability for companies because of the public scandal that can come from it. Extreme beliefs can also be a sign that your fellow employees won’t be safe near them.

If you’re hunting for a job, now would be a good time to scrub your social media. A good rule of thumb is that you should always do this if you are applying for a white-collar job or if you want to be a teacher.

You’re applying using “Easy Apply” forms.

Believe it or not, those “Easy Apply” buttons on Indeed and LinkedIn are not your friends. Along with being likely to be ghost jobs, some companies use it as a test to see if you’ve read their instructions.

Some companies will tell you where to email your resume ON the job posting, but will leave the “Easy Apply” button there as a test. If you applied with a single click, you might be harming your chances at an interview because it’s a sign you didn’t read their instructions.

There’s a criminal charge on your record.

ATS doesn’t just filter out candidates via keywords. It can (sometimes) also automatically filter out candidates via background checks. If you have a misdemeanor or a felony, that may be reason enough to get your resume scrapped.

Your best bet is to be upfront and honest about your criminal record. Explain why, be earnest, and hope for the best. Don’t worry, I have a whole article on career advice for felons if you’re in this position.

You didn’t spellcheck your resume or put the right dates on it.

Believe it or not, a lot of HR companies and software kits filter out applicants based on their spelling and grammar. If your grammar or your spelling is incorrect, the programs used to weed out resumes may actually automatically remove yours.

This can be a double-edged sword, because sometimes, the spelling error is actually the name of a company. (That’s happened to me before!) Either way, you might want to run a spellchecker on your resume just in case.

You’re missing references on your resume or application.

References are one of those things that companies don’t mess around with. Most companies will not ask for references, but some will. If you are applying for a company with references, make sure to note that they are available upon request.

That little note can help ATS systems pick up on you and hopefully get your resume to human resources staff members.

You didn’t put your education on the resume.

Yep. This is an ATS resume software issue. If you’re getting the impression that HR never got your resume, it likely deals with the omission of your education. As a college dropout, I get it. I’m debating adding the school I attended to my resume because it’d still show something rather than nothing.

With that said, education isn’t everything. These days, companies are more amenable to hiring high school grads than ever before. As long as you can prove your experience rocks, you should still have a chance at a hire.

Finally, you might have a blackball in your field.

Though rare, it is possible for a person to be totally banned from an industry. This often happens when you did something egregious, such as blatant racism or a major mistake that is considered to be unforgivable in your field.

If you were blackballed, your resume may have gotten pushed past ATS. However, it got stopped when HR searched up your name online. In most cases, you will know that you’ve been blackballed because people will tell you that you’ve had a fall from grace.

This isn’t a “references” thing. Your references can’t usually outright say that you were a bad hire. That’s technically illegal in most states. It’s a full-on reputational issue, and that means you have a much bigger problem on your hands.

How you recover from a blackball can vary, but one thing’s for sure: employment will likely elude you for a while.