31 guides

PASSATS GUIDES

Everything you need to know about ATS systems, keywords, and getting your resume in front of a recruiter.

ATS Systems

Greenhouse Doesn't Score Your Resume — It Never Did

Greenhouse CEO Daniel Chait has explicitly said they don't use automated algorithmic scoring. Every rejection is a human decision. Here's what that actually means for your resume strategy.

4 min read

Workday Is Now Using AI to Rank You — And It's Being Sued for Discrimination

In 2024, Workday acquired HiredScore and integrated it as an AI ranking system for candidates. A federal class-action lawsuit covering over one billion applicants was certified in May 2025. Here's what job seekers need to know.

6 min read

SAP SuccessFactors ATS: What Happens to Your Resume After You Click Submit

SAP SuccessFactors is the recruiting backbone for large enterprises in healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. Here's what its parser does — and why most resumes fail it silently.

6 min read

Lever ATS: How Recruiters Actually Search for Candidates

Lever is used by Airbnb, Shopify, and hundreds of growth-stage companies. It is less about automated scoring and more about whether a recruiter keyword search finds your parsed profile.

5 min read

Oracle Taleo ATS: Why Keyword Frequency Matters More Than You Think

Taleo powers hiring at a large share of Fortune 500 companies. It does not understand synonyms, it does not interpret context, and keyword frequency directly affects your score.

6 min read

Greenhouse ATS: Why You're Not Being Rejected by a Bot (But Still Getting Filtered Out)

Greenhouse doesn't auto-reject resumes. Every rejection is a human decision. But that doesn't mean your resume isn't being filtered — here's how it actually works.

5 min read

iCIMS ATS: The Keyword-Heavy System Behind a Quarter of Fortune 500 Hiring

iCIMS is the most widely used ATS in the world by market share. Here's what makes it different — and why keyword density matters more here than anywhere else.

6 min read

Workday ATS: Why Your Resume Gets Scrambled (And How to Fix It)

Workday is used by over 39% of Fortune 500 companies. If your resume isn't formatted correctly, the parser scrambles it before a recruiter ever reads a word.

6 min read
Keywords & Content

Business Analyst Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Business analyst is a title that spans process, data, and systems work — and the ATS filters each version differently. Here are the requirements, method, and tool keywords that appear in real BA job descriptions.

7 min read

Data Analyst Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Data analyst roles are keyword-dense and tool-specific, which makes ATS filtering unusually strict. Here are the tools, methods, and domain terms that appear in real job descriptions — and how to include them honestly.

7 min read

Data Scientist Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Data science roles are filtered hard on named methods, libraries, and modelling terms. Here's the keyword set that appears in real job descriptions — and how to include it without overstating your depth.

7 min read

Marketing Manager Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Marketing roles mix channel, tool, and metric vocabulary that varies wildly by specialism. Here are the keywords that appear in real marketing manager job descriptions — and how to match them without keyword stuffing.

7 min read

Project Manager Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Scan For in 2026

Project management roles draw huge applicant pools and heavy ATS filtering. Here are the methodology, tool, and delivery keywords that actually appear in PM job descriptions — and how to use them honestly.

7 min read

Registered Nurse Resume Keywords: What Healthcare ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Hospital systems run nearly every nursing application through an ATS like Taleo or iCIMS. Here are the clinical, certification, and specialty keywords that get RN resumes through the filter — used honestly.

7 min read

Sales & Account Executive Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

Sales roles are filtered on methodology, CRM tools, and — above all — quota and revenue numbers. Here are the keywords that get an account executive resume through the ATS, and why metrics matter most.

7 min read

ATS Resume Keywords for Finance and Accounting Roles

Finance and accounting resumes get filtered on exact credential names, regulation references, and software tools. Here are the keywords that matter — organised by function.

7 min read

Product Manager Resume Keywords: What ATS Systems Look For in 2026

PM roles attract high application volumes and heavy ATS filtering. Here's which keywords actually appear in job descriptions, and how to include them without keyword stuffing.

7 min read

ATS Resume Keywords for Software Engineers: What to Include and Why

Software engineering resumes get filtered on exact keyword matches before a recruiter reads a word. Here are the terms that actually matter — organised by role type and how to use them correctly.

7 min read

How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Resume (And Why Most People Get This Wrong)

Keywords are the single biggest factor in your ATS score. Here's how to find the right ones for any job description — and how to use them without sounding robotic.

5 min read
Guides

How to Pass ATS Screening in the UK: What's Different About British Job Applications

UK job applications follow different conventions than US ones — and UK-market ATS systems are configured for those conventions. Here's what to get right.

6 min read

The AI Resume Rewrite Trap: Why ChatGPT Makes Your ATS Score Worse

Using AI to rewrite your resume without first identifying the job's keywords produces a polished document that fails ATS screening. Here's why — and the correct order of operations.

5 min read

The '75% of Resumes Are Rejected by ATS' Stat Is Made Up

The most-cited statistic in resume advice traces to a 2012 startup sales pitch with no published methodology. Here's the real research — and what it actually says about ATS rejection.

5 min read

No ATS Resume Tool Simulates a Real ATS — Including Ours

Every ATS resume checker — Jobscan, Resume Worded, services charging $300 for 'premium ATS testing,' and PassATS — scores its own model. Not the employer's actual system. Here's what that means for you.

6 min read

Does ATS Scan Your Cover Letter? What to Know Before You Write One

Most ATS systems can process cover letters, but they weigh them differently than resumes. Here's how to write one that works for both the system and the recruiter.

6 min read

What Is an ATS Score? What's a Good Score?

ATS scores from resume tools are estimates, not real ATS output. Here is what they actually measure, how they are calculated, and what a good score means in practice.

5 min read

Why So Many Qualified Candidates Never Get a Call Back — And What to Do About It

Most resumes are filtered before a recruiter ever sees them. Here's how ATS actually works, what the research really says, and how to fix your resume.

5 min read