Do I need to worry about my resume being ATS compatible?

To start we need to understand what ATS is. ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System, a web platform that helps recruiters and hiring managers track candidates and manage their job listing. When candidates upload their PDF resumes into these systems, the system tries to automatically fill-in some fields on the candidates profile such as their job history.

The ATS system does not provide a score or weigh in on the quality of the candidate. No hiring manager would let a system automatically reject candidates, as it might reject a candidate that doesn’t match on paper but is actually an excellent candidate for the role. It would be especially silly to reject a quality candidate just because the system couldn’t automatically read the resume PDF.

— a Manager of Product Design