r/jobsearchhacks • u/Separate_Flower7368 • 17d ago
60% of Job Seekers Want ATS Systems Banned. They’re Right About the Problem and Wrong About the Solution.
54% of job seekers now want ATS systems banned outright.
I spent 20 years using these systems on the hiring side. Here is my honest take:
They are right about the problem. The silence, the black hole, the complete absence of any human confirmation that is real, and it is genuinely bad.
But banning the ATS does not fix it. A recruiter with 400 applications and no software does not suddenly become more humane. They become more arbitrary.
The fix is understanding how the filter actually works well enough to make sure it is filtering you in, not out.
28
u/Rasty90 17d ago
counterpoint: if we banned ATS we would have a smaller pool of candidates that would actually get hired, or you know... hire more people to screen CVs? it feels unnatural for an IT like me to suggest to step away from automation, but it's clearly not working
-5
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
I hear you but the "hire more people to screen CVs" part is where it falls apart in practice. Most companies aren't sitting on a pile of money they're choosing not to spend on HR. A small company with 2 recruiters getting 400 applications for one role can't just hire 3 more screeners for that one opening. The math doesn't work. And bigger companies? Their recruiting budgets got slashed in the last two years. I've watched teams go from 15 recruiters down to 6 covering the same volume. You're not getting more humans in that room, you're getting fewer.
Banning ATS doesn't create budget. It just means the same recruiter is now manually scrolling through a spreadsheet and making faster, messier, more biased snap decisions. At least the ATS is consistently looking for the same things. A tired human at 4pm on Friday is not. The real problem isn't the tool, it's that companies have convinced themselves that hiring is an area where you can cut costs without consequences. You just push the cost onto candidates in the form of silence and bad experiences.
The fix isn't banning software. It's funding the hiring process like it actually matters to the business. Which most companies refuse to do until they've lost enough good people to finally notice.
15
u/Rasty90 17d ago
if a company cannot afford to stay afloat then it can just sink? the same way a person can just be replaced and fired, because i can have empathy for a human, but not for a company
7
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
Honestly? Not wrong. Companies demand loyalty from people while treating hiring like a logistics problem they don't want to pay for. Then they act surprised when talent dries up or culture collapses. The whole system is broken in a very circular way. Companies underfund hiring, good people fall through the cracks, they end up with worse hires, performance suffers, then they cut more budget. Rinse and repeat. You're right that a company isn't a person. The empathy only flows one direction in this relationship and everyone pretending otherwise is just doing PR.
8
u/WeinerBarf420 17d ago
Why do you write so chatgptly
6
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
Sometimes it's just called higher education and some norms in public speaking, but hey, feel free to call it whatever you want. If you prefer to be called dude and slang, that's alright, we might not be a good fit. Best!
-4
u/WeinerBarf420 17d ago
There's a large separation between how a typical academic types and how AI types.
1
u/iLuvArizona 16d ago
Oh they can absolutely afford it. When you think about how much of your surplus value is stolen by your employer, it's really mindboggling.
0
u/gottatrusttheengr 17d ago edited 17d ago
The only thing banning ATS would achieve is companies would hire only referrals or sourced candidates.
4
u/Special_Watch8725 17d ago
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is what’s actually happening in many places.
7
u/Jazz4825 17d ago edited 17d ago
How do the filters work? Are they looking at years of experience, titles, names of companies, tenure at companies, mainly key words? Do key words have to be presented in context of deliverables?
I read that they detect AI generated resumes. So if you use AI to get key terms from the job description, best to personalize/humanize what you submit. A lot of AI trite language, in addition to the tell tale em dash. Please confirm.
I also read that companies are overwhelmed with applications from the mass output of robot generating applications that just throw resumes into the pile.
3
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
Yeah pretty much all of the above. Keywords are the biggest filter, but context matters more than people realize. "Increased retention by 35% using Salesforce" hits way harder than just listing Salesforce in a skills section. Years of experience and job titles get weighted heavily too, but every company configures it differently so there's no universal formula.
On the AI detection thing, confirmed. Modern ATS is actually getting smarter about context now, not just keyword matching. So the spray and pray AI resume approach is starting to backfire. Use AI to pull the right terms from the job description, then rewrite it yourself. Sounding like a real person is ironically now the better ATS strategy too, not just better for the human reading it after.
And yes the robot application spam is very real and it's making things worse for everyone. Recruiters are drowning in volume which makes them lean on the filters even more. Real candidates are getting buried and it's a mess all round.
1
u/Jazz4825 17d ago
Thank you for this very clear explanation which many people would benefit from. Why not post this on LinkedIn?
There are a few recruiters who I follow on LinkedIn who insist that ATS systems are just for tracking applications and not for filtering, and that they read every resume. It does not seem feasible when you hear that Google gets something like 10K resumes daily. Would love to see your response on LinkedIn to Bernadette Pawlik who recruited for Korn Ferry.
3
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
You’re correct to listen to those recruiters, this OP isn’t challenging them because they’re wrong and spreading fake news for nefarious purposes
2
u/1One1_Postaita 10d ago
Yeah, the OP's profile has been up for a month, and they have already been advertising a "free" (for the time being) book that will help people get past the ATS system. I look forward to hearing about the price ranges of their upcoming courses.
1
u/DorianGraysPassport 10d ago
Look at what all of the off brand resume writers and career service providers on here need to even mimic a fraction of my power.
1
4
u/Diligent_Working2363 17d ago
Depends on the industry and company. Our ATS is painfully manual, no AI tools on it, and it filters candidates by who applies chronologically. There is no "automatic filtering" and I would really like to see the ATS systems you used 20 years ago with AI auto filtering. Also, if ATS are banned...where would the resumes go when a person applies? I guess we would need to create some sort of tracking system for applicants. We could call it an applicant tracking system.
10
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
I want to address the United Nations to say this:
Don't believe the ATS myths. Off-brand resume writers often use them as a scare tactic to sell services. It has nothing to do with the template. There isn't a magical format that "passes."
There’s also no such thing as an ATS score.
Be among the first to apply. Don’t hesitate or take pause when you see a role you want. Use a single-column resume and customize it to meet the specs of every role you apply for, incorporating words from each job description into your headline, skills section, and summary section.
Then write how the keyword skills were exercised in practice, with context, in the experience section via bullets that start with an action verb. Reorder these bullets based on what the job description seems to prioritize.
None of the bullets should be generic responsibilities that anyone else’s resumes would contain. The bullets ought to be mini case studies, each with an action, impact, context, and metrics, with the metrics explained by the “how” behind them.
Always use varied action verbs, try to avoid repeating the same action verbs that start bullets more than once.
Otherwise, don’t overthink the template or ATS.
10
u/Lordmuppet 17d ago
yep the myths about ATS get quickly exposed if anyone take the time to lurk in the recruiter subreddits here. their complaint is that ATS is clunky. very few of them have one that is auto rejecting based on AI
2
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
These myths are pushed by the misguided, who wish to blame anyone but themselves for their shortcomings, and nefarious actors, who try to sell garbage to the misguided, appealing to their victim mentality
4
u/DefNotInRecruitment 17d ago
The myths are just the result of marketing material. People who read company websites but lack experience with the software talking about said software.
Tale as old as time.
3
u/DefNotInRecruitment 17d ago
ATS' mythical automation is mostly a result of:
(1) The marketing of the companies who produce ATS systems
(2) People who peddle the marketing of the companies who produce ATS systems to grift
(3) People who actually believe the marketing of the companies who produce ATS systems
For recruiters, their automation features are famously unreliable and overhyped by the companies who make them.
They function as databases, a centralized place to collect and store candidate data (resumes/profiles/etc), to signal where candidates are in the pipeline, to hook into other software (email, LinkedIn/Job Boards/etc.) and streamline processes, etc.
It's far less magical than "being able to accurately read everyone's resumes and tell us who to interview".
We still have to read resumes for that.
4
u/free2bmanson2 17d ago
What is ATS?
6
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
Applicant Tracking System. It's the software companies use to filter resumes before a human ever sees them. Basically a robot bouncer that decides if your CV makes it through the door based on keywords
6
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
This isn’t true
1
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
what is ATS?
6
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
A workflow management tool used by decisionmakers at companies. Not a boogeyman gatekeeper
2
u/Separate_Flower7368 17d ago
It's a workflow tool AND it gates who gets through. Those aren't mutually exclusive. Calling it "not a boogeyman" doesn't change the fact that your resume gets scored and sorted before any human touches it. The intent doesn't really matter if the outcome is the same.
6
u/DorianGraysPassport 17d ago
No it doesn’t. The scoring is a myth. Are you a misguided person trying to blame anyone but yourself for your woes, or a nefarious actor, using this myth to exploit people?
1
u/SignificantCherry559 16d ago
It’s a filing cabinet for resumes and you are clearly speaking from a place of ignorance and are in no position to offer any advice to people on here.
6
u/puntilnexttime 17d ago
ATS is a system used to file. A CRM sits on top of the ATS and may have some AI to 'rank'. Neither auto reject. Not all even have keyword searching never mind AI.
2
u/Austin1975 17d ago
The best things job seekers can do:
- Apply to the company directly (in addition to LinkedIn/indeed etc)
- Get referred.
- Make resumes match the description as much as possible (mostly because the people you’re competing with are also doing this more)
There’s so many reasons why resumes aren’t selected from luck and timing to bias/referrals and system glitches. And that doesn’t include the postings that didn’t get filled or never truly existed. Good luck to all.
3
u/Reasonable_Clock_711 17d ago
For the millionth time it’s an applicant tracking system. Not an applicant tacking system system.
Would love to hear the uneducated proposal to eliminating the ATS.
Whatcha got?
4
u/littleblueducktales 17d ago
I understand how the filter works. It wants a person who has been consistently working in the same domain for the last 15 years. It automatically rejects people with weird careers even if this clearly demonstrates that the candidate is incredibly adaptable and learns faster than most. I really don't want to lie on my applications but I have no idea how to pass that filter honestly.
3
u/puntilnexttime 17d ago
There is no auto reject asides from knock out filters. Even Google would tell you that.
3
u/Inevitable_Eagle2130 17d ago
ATS has directly contributed to the constant mass layoffs we have today, by making people easily replaceable.
The most positive thing to come out it this AI nonsense is that now the scales are balanced. Companies are flooded with exact matches, falsely, and I love it.
Ideally we’d all have unions to make people harder to fire, but this is the next best thing. If it’s harder to hire new people, maybe they’ll stop treating their current employees like human garbage. Stop the mass layoffs. Train them. Fuck ATS.
4
u/puntilnexttime 17d ago
ATS is just filing for a recruiter to move people to next steps. AI in hiring is rare and unreliable when it does exist so recruiters tend to ignore it.
2
u/Significant_Soup2558 17d ago
The 400 applications point is the crux of it and most people skip past it. The ATS is not the cause of the volume problem, it is a response to it, and removing it would not make recruiters more human, it would make them more selective in ways that are even harder to understand or optimize for.
The more useful reframe is exactly what you said: the system is learnable from the outside, it just requires knowing what signals it is filtering on. Keyword matching, title alignment, and application timing are all levers that job seekers have more control over than the "black hole" narrative suggests. Services like Applyre are built specifically to help applicants work with the ATS logic rather than against it, which gets at the same point you are making from the hiring side.
The silence and lack of confirmation is still a real problem that the ATS excuse does not fully cover. A confirmation email costs nothing and most systems support it. That part is a choice, not a technical constraint.
1
1
u/GlobalCurry 17d ago
I think people would be more okay with ATS if it was transparent and not black boxed. Make it legally required to have exactly what ATS is filtering for and also the salary range of the job and people would complain less.
1
u/vanshkamra 16d ago
Honestly I think people blame ATS systems for a problem that’s really about application volume and broken hiring processes. If a remote role gets 800 applicants, no human team is manually reviewing every resume carefully no matter what people imagine. The frustrating part isn’t the software itself, it’s the lack of transparency and feedback. Candidates feel like they’re sending resumes into a void. Once I started treating ATS optimization like SEO instead of some moral judgment on my worth, the process got less emotionally draining. Matching keywords, clean formatting, and networking around the application still matter way more than people want to admit.
1
u/snigherfardimungus 14d ago
If you know how to game the damn things, they're your best friends.
When you go to apply to a new company, go to LinkedIn and pull the work histories of everyone you can find who works there who has started in the last 6 months. That is the data the ATS recognizes as being it's target.
Taylor your resume to use as much of that language as you possibly can, altering as little as possible to make it describe you.
This is why shotgunning resumes doesn't get you any callbacks. People who take their time and do their homework are the ones getting the jobs.... which is a character trait most companies are looking for anyway, so the system is doing what it's supposed to.
1
u/Electrical-Stop-3038 9d ago
Honestly, I think most people are frustrated because the process feels completely impersonal now. You apply, maybe tweak your resume for keywords, and then it disappears into a black hole with no response. At the same time, recruiters are dealing with hundreds of applications for a single role, so I also get why companies rely on ATS systems so heavily now.
I don’t think the problem is technology itself. I think the problem is when hiring becomes only keyword matching instead of understanding actual experience and real evidence of what someone has done.
1
u/saldabri 17d ago
It’s 2026, these ATS systems should be capable of auto-notifying candidates that they didn’t make it through and list the criteria why. That’s the solution.
38
u/Daforde 17d ago edited 17d ago
"Understanding how the filter works" --- Many people understand or try to understand how the filter works. They use apps or chatbots to revise their resumes to match the job description, but they still get ghosted. It's still a frustrating mystery. Furthermore, the ATS is looking for some kind of exact match. It cannot account for willingness to learn or applying transferable skills to a new role.