What Is An ATS?

There is so much confusion about ATSs. Every single day recruiters try to explain the inner workings, with varying degrees of success. As one of those, I’m so tired of repeating myself! Instead, I’m writing this handy little cheat sheet so I have something to sprinkle all over the internet like common sense confetti whenever this issue comes up.

ATS? It’s in the name.

ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. It’s a System that Tracks Applicants. That’s it. That’s the acronym. Not “automated”, not “ATS system”, or any of the other wild definitions people come up with. Applicant. Tracking. System.

THE ATS?

Well, which one? Seriously there are over 200 companies who currently have some kind of ATS on the market. Some are highly customizable and targeted to large companies, like Taleo Enterprise Edition. Others are free for smaller start ups or sole proprietors, like Breezy HR. The specific ATS a company may use is based on lots of variables, including cost, number of users, and features. The way an ATS is CONFIGURED can also vary widely – I’ve personally used a few of the same systems at different companies and had to learn all over because the implementation was so different.

So What’s An ATS For Anyway?

Exactly what it sounds like! A system to track applicants. Seems simple enough, but many ATSs do that and more – before we get into details, let’s review the general life cycle of hiring:

Role Created –> Inbound Applicants/Sourced Candidates –> Interviews –> Offers Created/Extended/Accepted or Declined

I recently created a 5 video playlist that explains these steps in further detail – what many job seekers find most surprising is how much “OTHER” stuff we do in our ATSs, that is above and beyond reviewing resumes. Check it out HERE.

At each step of the process, the ATS is used to document everything. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of the actions recruiters might take any given day:

Open new requisitions. These are the job postings that are published on a company career page, and possibly other places too. Many companies integrate with LinkedIn, or Indeed, or other web scrapers that might re-share a job post. Opening new roles may be complex themselves – with multiple approvers, checks and balances for compliance, and other steps before it even makes it to the internet. All activity tied to that requisition is easily viewed/filtered for reporting purposes. With few exceptions, hiring doesn’t happen without a verified business need / approved headcount / open role (so much for the old hidden job market, huh?)

Review incoming applicants. This is the step that gets talked about the most. Interestingly, it’s the part I spend the least amount of time doing when I’m in the ATS. This IS an important step of course, but far from the ONLY purpose of the ATS. Reviewing applicants is usually highly manual, with recruiters quickly reviewing large number of resumes or applications at once against certain criteria (usually Basic Qualifications). Successful applicants are usually forwarded to a business reviewer (typically the Hiring Manager or a delegate) for a second look. SOME systems will utilize “knock out” questions – these are typically “yes/no” decision tree type questions, tied to basic qualifications. For example, an application question could be “are you eligible to work in the US without sponsorship?” If you answer NO, you will be automatically dispositioned from the position. Basically that means you’re now in “rejected” status. Fun fact, most ATSs (all I’ve used) have a status, and it’s “rejected”. You’re still attached to the requisition. You never LEAVE the requisition. You are there, forever, in “rejected” status.

Add sourced candidates. Sometimes this happens in a CRM that “talks” to the ATS. Some systems (especially for compliance purposes) require a prospect to apply. Recruiters can send that invite to apply directly from their CRM/ATS to help streamline the process of getting their candidate attached to the requisition for hiring manager review and future activity

The interview process. Recruiters request review. Hiring managers request an interview. Coordinators schedule interviews and create feedback links. ALL of this typically happens within the ATS. Some notes are automatic: “submitted to Joe Smith for resume review” Others are typed out: “called CANDIDATE to discuss interview prep materials and confirmed schedule. Also discussed comp expectations of $X, candidate anticipating competing offer by date”. These entries are typically time/date stamped which is very helpful when reviewing previous history for a candidate.

Offers. Offers are created, extended and recorded in the ATS. Negotiations, approvals, all the back and forth that happens during offers is typically done in this system. It creates not only the required paper trail, but also generates the official documents that can then be emailed or delivered via a dedicated candidate portal.

General Documentation / Search. Y’all. Every time I have a conversation with a prospective candidate I should be writing it down. I’m not always great at this, but the expectation / general rules around this is DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. We have a saying in recruiting – if it’s not in the ATS, it didn’t happen. Track. It. All. Smart recruiters will also START new searches in our database – previous candidates, silver medalists on similar roles, former referrals… ATSs are a literal goldmine of passive talent that at some point, were interested in your company. Why would you NOT search for and try to reengage those folks?

But What About…?

Knockout questions! Yes – SOME systems are enabled with a yes/no decision tree, as I mentioned above.

Ranking! Sure, some ATSs will apply a “match” score – typically a percentage. I have personally used ONE version of ONE ATS that had this ranking (Taleo) and it was awful. 100% matches were basically keyword stuffed nightmares and we regularly hired 20-40% matches because we would actually review the resumes to decide for ourselves. Absolute trash and I hate these. If there’s a good one out there, I haven’t used it.

3 am rejections! Too fast, random, or middle of the night updates are almost always a result of one of two things – knockout questions, OR a role that is no longer accepting applications. Ideally a role is REMOVED from the career site when it’s got an offer extended or even accepted. But systems fail, or recruiters forget to hit a button – things happen and while it sucks for the job seeker, it’s hardly “proof” of a bot. Some systems are set up to send a disposition email 12 hours after being rejected, so maybe the recruiter reviewed yours at 3 pm! OR, maybe they’re actually working at 3 am. In another time zone. Perhaps they’re simply a night owl – I’ve definitely pulled some weird hours during the only quiet time I have to get things done!

But my friend/career coach/resume writer/LinkedIn influencer said! Sure they did! And I bet they believe it. I don’t necessarily think anyone is INTENTIONALLY lying about how ATSs work to make a buck… well maybe a couple of people I won’t name here. But generally speaking, I think the folks spreading this misinformation actually believe it – which is kind of heart breaking when there’s so much actual data to the contrary. My best advice to any job seeker who is worried about finding “the truth”, is to go straight to the source. I talk a bit about questions you can ask in this LinkedIn post. Don’t even listen to ME – listen to the recruiters at the companies you want to work at! They know best.

Additional Resources

Many recruiters have talked about this topic until we’re blue in the face. Some of my fave links (including my own!) included here:

Marc Cenedella / Nate Smith, CEO of Lever – Secrets Of The ATS is an in-depth conversation between Marc (CEO of The Ladders) and Nate where they discuss some of the common fallacies around ATSs. Lever is a very popular and well-liked by recruiters system.

Dominic Joyce, Founder of CV Upgrade – Dominic has a great video that walks through step by step how a recruiter navigates their ATS platform. At 5 minutes long, it’s a quick yet thorough tour through a commonly used ATS. Check it out HERE

Kristen Fife, Senior Technical Recruiter – Kristen is a well respected and tenured recruiter in the Seattle market who’s been in the industry since we were accepting paper applications. Her article on the ATS, Keywords, and Knockout Questions is a deep dive into common processes in US companies. Find it HERE

Christine Assaf, Human Resources Consultant – Christine wrote one of the best pieces I’ve ever read on the “75% of resumes aren’t seen by a human” myth. Essentially, there is no actual PROOF that this is accurate – yet people share it constantly like we’ve actually seen this happen in the wild… Reader, we have not. Check out her AMAZING breakdown HERE

Yvonne Robinson-Jackson, Executive Career Coach – In this nearly hour long video, Yvonne does a DEEEEEP dive into the ATS. Check out this video for more insights into the backend of these various tools/processes, including some screenshots from Bullhorn, a common system. Find it HERE

Amy Miller, hey that’s me! 🙂 – honestly y’all I’m so tired of talking about this. That’s why I wrote this post, and am putting all my content in one place!! Starting with The Truth About The ATS Playlist – 11 videos where I break down different topics covering everything from applications to boolean searches.

There are lots of amazing professionals out there sharing their knowledge – I’ll update this post regularly with new links/content as I come across it.

Ok Fine. But Why Do You Care, Amy?

Y’all I wish I didn’t some days 😉 It is exhausting having this conversation over and over again – BUT – I started this blog and channel BECAUSE I want better for those who need support. I had to learn so many things about my career and job search the hard way. Now that I am in a position to share my expertise, I will shout it as long and loud as possible so other job seekers don’t struggle through the same uncertainties and frustration I did. I have helped thousands of job seekers through one on one coaching and more recently, scaling my YouTube channel and blog – this is the same advice I have given my adult children, who have successfully navigated their own early career challenges.

If you’re reading this, I want the same success for you. There are many things job seekers should spend time on when seeking their next role – worrying about the imaginary ATS bot isn’t one of them.

But wait – THERE’S MORE

Here’s the dirty little secret. I want y’all to have the cheat codes because ultimately it makes my job easier.

There. I said it.

If you understand how recruiting actually happens, you’ll create the resume / application content that makes it easy for me to move you through the process. If you follow my guidance on interview prep, your odds are significantly higher that you’ll get an offer. If you take my advice on negotiating and understand how compensation works, you’re more likely to accept my (really good) offer without a bunch of exhausting back and forth that actually starts pissing off the hiring managers (hint, they get mad at both of us).

I started blogging and eventually creating videos because I really DID (and do!) want to be the recruiter I needed when I was younger and didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I have to admit though… all these years later… it just makes damn good business sense.