How to Make Your Resume A.I. Friendly

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How to Make Your Resume A.I. Friendly"

Podcast: WSJ Your Money Briefing
Date: March 14, 2019
Host: JR Whalen (for The Wall Street Journal)
Guest: John Christiansen, Chief Intelligence Officer at Sparks Research

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Episode Overview

This episode addresses the emerging importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the recruiting process and offers actionable tips for job seekers to optimize their resumes for AI-driven applicant tracking systems (ATS). The discussion explores how applicants can adjust both the content and format of their resumes to increase the chances of making it past initial automated screenings and reaching human hiring managers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. AI in Recruiting is Here to Stay

• Industry Trend:
  • The use of AI and machine learning to review resumes is not only a present reality but a growing, lasting trend in recruitment.
  • Quote:
    "So not only are they moving in this direction, it looks like it's here to stay." — John Christiansen [02:57]
• Efficiency Gains:
  • AI enables HR managers and operations departments to identify quality candidates swiftly and effectively.
  • While AI helps standardize hiring and reduces manual workload, it can also result in missed opportunities when unique qualifications are not keyword-matched.

2. Resume Formatting for AI Systems

• Keep it Simple:
  • Avoid resumes with “frills, boxes, tables, or illustrations.” Artistic formatting can confuse AI systems that rely on reading straightforward text.
  • Quote:
    "If the feature functionality is not in the most basic word processing, a resume will blow up in the face of what AI is actually looking for in the actual text." — John Christiansen [03:45]
  • AI is searching for a continuous content stream, not graphics or complex formatting.

3. Keyword Optimizing Your Resume

• Tailoring for Each Job:
  • Analyze job postings to extract and mirror keywords and phrases.
  • Treat resume writing similarly to SEO for websites — match the exact language used in the job description to improve ATS matching.
  • Quote:
    "It's doing the same version of that [SEO]. So you want to make sure as a job seeker that your resume is tailored to the job description...that you're actually using the same terminology, the same exact words." — John Christiansen [04:26]
• Specificity Matters:
  • Don’t generalize. If a posting asks for “Python” or “multiple regression,” explicitly state those terms, not their general categories.
  • Quote:
    "You could say I have proficiencies in statistical modeling. But it's not speaking directly to what they know they want, which is these three or four specific areas..." — John Christiansen [06:18]

4. Role of the Cover Letter

• Human Touch:
  • With machines acting as the gatekeepers, the cover letter becomes vital, offering a direct line to the hiring manager to express fit, tell stories, and highlight cultural alignment.
  • Quote:
    "This is where you actually get to add some color commentary...and speak to how you fit to the company culture, to the job specifically." — John Christiansen [05:16]

5. Potential Downsides of Algorithmic Hiring

• Missing Out on Unique Talent:
  • Strict keyword matching can filter out candidates with unconventional but valuable qualifications.
  • ATS systems make “heavy assumptions” about what qualities are desired, sometimes overlooking beneficial outlier experiences.
  • Quote:
    "You're going to miss out on some of those possibilities...might inspire some thought. You're going to miss out on those things." — John Christiansen [07:04]
• Standardization vs. Inspiration:
  • While AI reduces bias and increases efficiency, it also narrows the definition of suitability, risking loss of diversity in experience.

6. Decoding Job Postings for Keyword Clues

• Where to Look:
  • Christiansen identifies four key areas in job postings for gathering keywords:
    1. Surface-Level Attributes: Observable qualifications (degrees, certifications, years of experience).
       • Example: “I have a bachelor's degree, master's degree in economics from Clemson University. You could call Clemson and confirm it. It's hanging on my wall.” — John Christiansen [09:07]
    2. Soft Skills: Less observable but critical (project coordination, people management); important to match the employer’s exact phrasing, as they may differ (e.g., “project coordination” vs. “project management”).
    3. Magnitude Language: Adjectives and adverbs indicating intensity or mastery (e.g., “significant background,” “strong skill set,” “mastery”).
    4. (Implied: Look for position-specific synonyms and preferred language throughout the posting.)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “If the function, if the feature functionality is not in the most basic word processing, a resume will blow up in the face of what AI is actually looking for in the actual text.” — John Christiansen [03:45]
• “It's doing the same version of that [SEO]...make sure that your resume is tailored to the job description...using the same exact words and the like.” — John Christiansen [04:26]
• “This is where you actually get to add some color commentary, give some stories, some real background, and speak to how you fit to the company culture, to the job specifically.” — John Christiansen [05:16]
• “Really what the machine's doing is it's standardizing that job and it's making some pretty heavy assumptions that the hiring manager or the HR...really know exactly what they want.” — John Christiansen [07:04]
• “They're kind of more or less four big clues. Right. So the first is what I like to call surface level attributes. These are things that you can see, you can observe.” — John Christiansen [09:07]

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Noteworthy Timestamps

• [02:25] — Introduction to topic: The rise of AI in hiring and its impact on job seekers
• [02:57] — John Christiansen joins; confirms permanence of AI-driven hiring
• [03:45] — Dangers of overly artistic or complex resume formatting for AI
• [04:26] — Explanation of resume keyword tailoring; parallel to SEO
• [05:16] — Importance of a personalized cover letter in the AI era
• [05:51] — Advice on explicit keyword optimization for specific job requirements
• [07:04] — Pitfalls of automated hiring and the risk of missing diverse candidates
• [09:07] — Identifying where to find relevant keywords in job postings

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Summary & Takeaways

• Keep your resume format simple and text-based.
• Thoroughly analyze each job posting for keywords and phrases.
• Tailor your resume for every job, using the exact language from postings.
• Be explicit and specific about skills, tools, and experiences.
• Use your cover letter to bring your unique story to life — beyond keywords.
• Understand the limitations of algorithmic screening and try to bridge the gap with clear, relevant content.

These insights equip job seekers to navigate an evolving recruitment landscape, improving the odds of breaking through the digital filter and making a strong impression on decision-makers.

Transcript

[ReliaQuest Announcer]

This podcast is brought to you by relioQuest. Cybercriminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation. RelioQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense AI that detects, contains and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now, and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at reliaquest.com that's R E L I A Q U E-S-T.com.

[Charlie Turner]

With your money briefing. I'm Charlie Turner in New York for the Wall Street Journal. If you're looking for a job, you should know that the use of artificial intelligence is a game changer in the job seeking process. And it's a good idea to learn how to make your resume more AI friendly. More on this in a moment. First, here are some money headlines. The latest measures of inflation are making it more likely that the Federal Reserve won't be raising interest rates anytime soon. The labor the department Wednesday said the Producer price index rose just 1/10% in February. Economists had expected a 2:10% rise for the PPI, a measure of the prices that businesses receive for their goods and services. On Tuesday, labor said the consumer price index rose 0.2% and just 1/10% excluding food and energy. The Wall Street Journal's Hurt on the street says that when it comes to the health care sector, investors might want to exercise caution. With the 2020 presidential election heating up, politicians on both sides of the aisle are certainly encircling the healthcare industry. The Trump administration is exploring whether to require hospitals, doctors and other healthcare providers to publicly disclose what they charge insurers for services, heretofore a closely guarded trade secret. Separately, the White House plans to implement a rule curtailing the use of prescription drug rebates in Medicare as soon as January. Not to be outdone, congressional Democrats have proposed expanding Medicare to everybody, thus overhauling the Affordable Care Act. Heard on the street says that while the financial effects of each proposal are unclear, however, any changes to health care policy are unlikely to be investor friendly. Still ahead, how to simplify your resume to make it more easily read by AI programs, boosting your chances that a recruiter will read it.

[JR Whalen]

There are plenty of ways to dress up a resume so it'll stand out in front of a hiring manager. But now that many companies are relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning to do an initial scan of resumes before it even gets to the hiring manager's desk. That creates a whole new set of challenges for job seekers. John Christiansen is Chief Intelligence Officer at Sparks Research and has some tips on making your resume AI friendly. So, John, how much of a trend is this, the use of AI? And are more companies moving in this direction?

[John Christiansen]

So not only are they moving in this direction, it looks like it's here to stay. I can confirm as far back in my personal observation, having seen versions of what's going on in applicant tracking back to about 2003, 2004, now that it's here, and HR managers and ops departments and the like are seeing how efficient it's making decisions and being able to get at quality candidates and actually giving HR folks the ability in more quality ways to work with HR managers, we're really seeing, excuse me, and hiring managers, we're seeing that it's here to stay.

[JR Whalen]

So I would imagine that any frills or boxes, tables or illustrations on a resume that might work in catching the eye of a human recruiter really would not work. When you're dealing with a computer, anything that's.

[John Christiansen]

That's artistic, anything that's beyond, essentially, if you were to look at it like, take the most basic word processor, if the function, if the feature functionality is not in the most basic word processing, a resume will blow up in the face of what AI is actually looking for in the actual text. It's looking for text, you know, content stream, that kind of thing. So it's not going to do very well with, as you know, a table and the like. It's going to read it like a foreign language and essentially the algorithm is

[JR Whalen]

going to blow it up in terms of what kind of text the computer and an AI program is looking for, what are some of the best tips for job seekers to put in their resume?

[John Christiansen]

So the top thing to do in looking at a job posting first is to start looking at the job description, looking for the keywords and tags and the like. Just like how SEO works for websites. If I were to search for marketing research firm or something like that, it's going to look. Google's going to look at all the websites and like to have the greatest match for that. Well, these applicant trackers are doing the same version of that. So you want to make sure as a job seeker that your resume is tailored to the job description, job requirements, that you're actually using the same terminology, the same exact words and the like, so that the keywords that they're looking for come up in your resume specifically.

[JR Whalen]

And now that machines are the initial gatekeeper. It makes a cover letter all the more important.

[John Christiansen]

Absolutely. This is really your opportunity to speak directly to the hiring manager. This is where you actually get to add some color commentary, give some stories, some real background, and speak to how you fit to the company culture, to the job specifically. And then give further examples about what, you know, they're looking for in the job. And it's where you really, you don't necessarily have to speak to an algorithm that's picking up keywords and you can actually really tell your story.

[JR Whalen]

You say that it's vitally important for someone to algorithm optimize their resume. What do you mean by that?

[John Christiansen]

In that search for keywords and phrases, a candidate really wants to get a resume tailored to the job itself, making sure that those terms are showing up within the job description, the specs, all the job competencies, make sure that the resume is hitting on those keyword items. So does somebody want someone competent in some very specific software?

[Charlie Turner]

Right.

[John Christiansen]

Is it? I'm looking for somebody who has experience in Python. Well, make sure you say that I work in Python.

[Charlie Turner]

Right.

[John Christiansen]

In data analytics and the like. Somebody might have something specific, like, I see a lot of times, multiple regression, econometric modeling, cluster analysis. They could say, you could say I have proficiencies in statistical modeling. But it's not speaking directly to what they know they want, which is these three or four specific areas of statistical modeling, because they know that's what they use. So if it's in that job posting that they're looking for, you want to make sure that you're getting your resume tailored to speak specifically to those tags that they're looking for.

[JR Whalen]

You know, for a hiring manager, they're looking for perfection on the part of the job applicant. They're looking for perfection on the part of the AI. Neither of those are perfect. And so, and so there's a risk that you're going to lose some people that kind of fall off the radar of the AI.

[John Christiansen]

And you know, something that just occurred to me kind of in the midst of where you're, you know, coming with that question, a lot of folks in HR and hiring managers, they, they think they, they know what they want. But now that you're kind of setting tags and keywords and those things to actually go through search and applicant tracking, you might miss some things that you weren't even thinking about. Right. That someone's resume might pop out to you and say, wow, I wasn't even thinking that I would need that for this specific role, because I had never Ever seen anybody with that type of experience? Let's say somebody on their resume says, I manage some massive project, some massive software integration from end to end, and it's a job in project management. Well, I never thought about how somebody initiates a project and then carries it all the way through the life cycle to the completion. And then integration, I didn't really think about how important that really was to what we're trying to do here at this company. So you're going to miss out on some of those possibilities. And also I would add too, some of the folks that have maybe more unique skills that you're not quite thinking about, that you wouldn't ordinarily think would be relevant, but might inspire some thought. You're going to miss out on those things. Really what the machine's doing is it's standardizing that job and it's making some pretty heavy assumptions that the hiring manager or the HR or the partnership between those parties really know exactly what they want. So you've got the benchmark benefit that it is, doing a lot of work, taking out of the rigor that the HR folks go through. But at the same time, the backlash is you're missing out on some potential things that you're not thinking about, and

[JR Whalen]

that can be really crucial in a very tight and competitive labor market that we're in right now.

[John Christiansen]

Absolutely.

[JR Whalen]

I want to go back for a moment to job listings, and one of the notes you sent to me is it's important to know where the keyword clues most often are found in an online job listing. How can you shed some light on that?

[John Christiansen]

They're kind of more or less four big clues. Right. So the first is what I like to call surface level attributes. These are things that you can see, you can observe. So I like to say that. So I have a bachelor's degree, master's degree in economics from Clemson University. You could call Clemson and confirm it. It's hanging on my wall. Right. Those are things that you can observe. These are things that might be length of experience or specific emphasis on some experience, your educational background, licenses. If you're a CPA and you're applying for a CPA job, you want to say you have a cpa, right? Those are observable things that we know are form and function that go to that job specifically. Then you've got less observable things that are more. More or less your kind of soft skills. You could say they kind of lump in. They're not as observable, but they're more or less implied. Right. So something more like people management or project coordination. Those are things that they have a lot of synonyms. Right. But the way they phrase that has specific context to the way they use language within that organization. So you want to make sure that you are speaking to you might refer to it as project management, but they might refer to it as project coordination. Okay, we'll make sure that it's speaking to project coordination. Then you kind of got more essentially the adverbs and adjectives that emphasize magnitude for a skill or task. So you've got things like if somebody says I want significant background in this or you know, a very strong skill set in this software program or mastery in this or has efficiently or effectively worked in teams. Right. That's emphasizing some level of magnitude that those folks are placing a high level of interest and intensity around that skill or that task.

[JR Whalen]

Alright, some great tips in applying for jobs in the AI era. That's John Christiansen, Chief Intelligence Officer at Sparks Research on the line with us. John, thanks for coming on the show.

[John Christiansen]

Absolutely. Thank you as well.

[JR Whalen]

And that's your money briefing. I'm JR Whalen in New York for the Wall Street Journal.

[ReliaQuest Announcer]

This podcast is brought to you by reliaQuest. Cybercriminals are constantly attacking. They want your data, they want your identity, they want your innovation. ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense AI that detects, contains and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at reliaquest.com that's R E L I A Q U E-S-T dot com.