• Jaylyn Jones landed over 12 interviews without tailoring her résumé for ATS scanners.
• Jones, a recruiter, emphasizes showcasing job competence over keyword stuffing in résumés.
• She shared which advice she found least helpful when she submitted her résumé through the scanner.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaylyn Jones, a 32-year-old recruiter based in Pittsburgh. It's been edited for length and clarity.

One of the biggest job-seeking myths I've heard is that aggressive Applicant Tracking System (ATS) scanners will filter out applicants whose applications are formatted a specific way. That's just not the case.

I've been a recruiter for three years, and about a year ago, I started hunting for a new role. When I was applying for new recruiting jobs in 2024, I took my personal experience using ATS systems into account and proved that I didn't need to tailor my résumé for ATS scanners to land a position.

Here's how I formatted my résumé to stand out among the rest.

I've used ATS scanners to recruit people for jobs

My first recruiting job was at JP Morgan from 2021 to 2024, in which I used Greenhouse, a popular ATS system, to help streamline the recruiting process.

Greenhouse rejected or flagged candidates based on straightforward questions like "Are you over the age of 18?" and "Are you authorized to work in the US?" However, no applicants were filtered out by keywords or formatting. If 1,000 people applied, I saw 1,000 applications.

I could manually search for keywords if I wanted to look for someone with specific experience, but that didn't get rid of applications that lacked that keyword.

On my résumé, I focused less on keywords and more on showing my ability to do the job

I went bullet-by-bullet on every job description and made sure there was something on my résumé that showed my competence in that area.

When reviewing my résumé, I'd simply ask myself, "Would a reasonable person look at what I have on my résumé and say, "Yes, they can do this job?" My strategy worked; I got interviewed by over 12 companies, and I got hired to recruit at a tech company in less than three months.

In my current role, I receive a lot of résumés that are filled with a page worth of keyword fodder before getting to actual experience. Once it reaches the experience section, that part is just as filled with buzzwords. When I see a résumé like this, it's not a red flag. I see it as somebody who has not been given the information and tools to be successful.

Jobscan gave my résumé a failing score

Recently, I plugged the résumé that landed me my most recent job into Jobscan, an online résumé scanner that ranks how strong a résumé is, just to see what the platform would say.

The biggest critique I received was that I was missing keywords. For example, the scanner said something like "the job description says the word "recruiting" 13 times, but your résumé only says it twice." Then it prompted me to add the keyword more times.

It was also very particular about language, such as bumping my score down for saying I was a "campus recruiter" at JP Morgan instead of a "university recruiter." It gave my résumé a 16% score.

As a recruiter, I honestly didn't see any tips from the résumé scanner that would be useful for a job seeker. If anything, it can be harmful to an applicant's success if they're more caught up in using the word "evaluate" than actually citing their experience evaluating.

My biggest tip is to focus on providing evidence over keywords

So many job seekers are having such a difficult time in this market, and they're doing everything they can possibly think of to be more successful, but if you're going to use AI, don't be sloppy.

A common ChatGPT prompt that job seekers might use is "Tailor my résumé to this job." AI often responds to this by shoehorning keywords from the job description into haphazard bullet points. Using keywords isn't helpful without proper context.

I prefer uploading the job description and using the prompt "analyze my résumé for any gaps in skills or qualifications based on this job description, and make suggestions about what to change." This might cue you to add any missing skills that the job post is looking for.

The right prompt allows job seekers to own their experience, not just blindly trust ChatGPT. This helped me during my job search.

Editor's note — A representative from Jobscan sent the following comment to BI : "A Jobscan Match Rate isn't a grade on your career; it's a risk assessment against a frustrating system. A low score doesn't mean you're unqualified; it means you're at high risk of being invisible to the automated or manual filters that 88% of employers admit will vet out good candidates. Based on third-party research and our own surveys and conversations with job seekers and recruiters, Jaylyn's job search experience is certainly an exception to the rule."

If you are professional with helpful résumé tips you'd like to share, please email the editor, Manseen Logan, at [email protected].

• Patrick Lyons was laid off from Microsoft twice and worked there for a total of six years.
• Despite layoffs, Lyons maintained financial stability through side businesses and severance.
• Lyons advises pursuing monetizable passions to mitigate the impact of potential layoffs.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Patrick Lyons, a 29-year-old ex-Microsoft employee, based in Austin. It's been edited for length and clarity.

After five years at Microsoft, the last three of which I was a technical product manager for Microsoft Teams, I felt fulfilled and completely secure in my job.

I learned new things every day, pushed boundaries, and collaborated with brilliant minds. I saw how people needed me and called upon me at work for my expertise, and it brought me a real sense of purpose.

I had also been running three side businesses outside of work for several years, namely an online fitness coaching company. This allowed me to pursue my fitness passion while having bidirectional income streams. I had no plans for anything to change.

Then, in October 2024, I woke up to an early call from my VP letting me know that my role had been permanently eliminated due to business restructuring. I was shocked, but my next thought was, "How can I get rehired?"

During my unemployment, I enjoyed my hobbies

The next day, I started looking at Microsoft's internal job portal, which I'd only have access to for two more weeks. I didn't have any success in that period, so I started applying to jobs at other companies while keeping an eye on Microsoft openings.

Despite the stress about my sudden layoff, I was financially stable because of my businesses and a generous severance.

I spent the next few months applying to jobs and pouring my time into hobbies like improv comedy, fitness, and movies. It was one of the best times of my life. I started having such a good time away from work that a big part of me started questioning if I shouldn't go back to corporate at all and just fully commit to my fitness businesses.

I kept finding myself coming back to how much I missed Microsoft

I missed the ritual of logging into Microsoft Teams, doing my job, and collaborating with the same great people. I loved feeling as though I was really contributing to something larger than myself.

Microsoft's work culture is unbeatable. The idea of a growth mindset was tangible in our daily work, and our expectation was not to be a "know-it-all" but a "learn-it-all." I was surrounded by brilliant minds who wanted to help me become just as brilliant, not put me down for making mistakes or questioning the status quo.

A few months into unemployment, a former mentor of mine at Microsoft forwarded my résumé to a hiring manager, and I got rehired at Microsoft as a program manager for Azure, a cloud computing platform.

I got rehired and laid off in two months

When I returned to Microsoft, I treated my job the same as before, but I doubled down on my communication to make sure I was always on the same page with my team and superiors. It might sound counterintuitive, but I felt even more job security this second time around, because Microsoft had invested a massive amount of money into Azure.

Two months later, I woke up to a nearly identical message inviting me to a meeting where I would be laid off again. It was so jarring. I've already started applying to jobs again, but to be honest, I would still go back to Microsoft if I had the chance.

Even though Microsoft can be political at times, as there is a clear hierarchical structure in which you often have to cater to leaders' preferences, I feel as though I've learned how to navigate it. I can't always just "do" things; I need to consistently present and seek out buy-ins from various leaders.

My advice for people going through layoffs

I've stayed so level-headed while navigating two layoffs because I have diverse income streams.

My businesses allow me to completely support myself and remain in a comfortable financial position. However, I'm still choosing to seek out full-time employment because of health insurance and my desire for multiple streams of income.

I don't think it's possible to be lay-off proof, but you can limit the ability of a layoff to cause harm to your life. If you have something outside of work that you're passionate about that you can realistically monetize, do it.

If you have a unique layoff experience you'd like to share, please email the editor, Manseen Logan, at [email protected].