Have you ever applied to an internship position, only to get rejected within a few hours? I know I have. This is most likely due to a computer analyzing your resume and instantly rejecting it because of some item it found. Most of the time, it isn’t even your fault! Resumes are difficult for computers to read, and if they encounter something like a formatting issue, they’ll likely reject the resume. Thankfully, the Greene Center has a resource that can help with this situation: Quinncia. I’m Shoham Shitrit, a Peer Career Advisor here at the Greene Center, and I’m going to take you through some frequently asked questions about this new resource.
What is the point of Quinncia?
To understand Quinnicia, you must first know what an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is. An ATS is software used by almost every Fortune 500 company—and many other medium sized companies—to help in tracking and sorting job applicants. One of the main purposes of an ATS is to automatically scan every applicant’s resume, and then decide if the applicant should move onto the next stage or not based on the content the computer can detect. As such, it becomes crucial to construct a resume that can be read effectively by both humans and computers.
This is where Quinncia comes in: Quinncia is an artificial intelligence based off of the four industry-leading ATS’s. It combines what each ATS is looking for when parsing a resume and provides a resource for students to see what exactly a computer picked up from their resume Quinncia also provides virtual interview practice, but we will focus on the resume reviewer aspect of this resource for this article. Quinncia will shows users exactly what information a computer will extract, as well as any areas where it had trouble scanning. Quinncia has two different ways it recommends a user to change a resume: through red flags, and yellow “needs improvement” suggestions.
What are flags?
Quinncia will place a red flag on an area of your resume if it runs into significant, objective trouble reading a particular section. These could be formatting issues such as inconsistent margins, not detecting the name of the experience that corresponds to a section of bullet points, or multiple fonts detected across the resume. Flags could also be placed on content inaccuracies within your resume. For instance, having an experience with no bullet points explaining what you did could cause a flag to be placed on that area of your resume. These red flags signal that you should strongly consider fixing the issue, as it could possibly get you an immediate job rejection.
What are “needs improvements” markers?
Needs improvements markers are yellow exclamation points Quinncia can place on areas of your resume. These sections might not necessarily be wrong, but here, Quinncia noticed the potential for improvement. Quinncia might say things like: “Try to quantify your impact for this experience using numbers or percentages!” Despite how advanced Quinccia is, it’s still a computer, and some of these suggestions may not make much sense for your specific experience. That’s okay! Quinncia is simply trying to suggest how your resume could score higher through its grading platform. Nobody will so just try to think critically if you can act upon Quinncia’s suggestions in the needs improvements markers.
Am I going to be instantly rejected if Quinncia puts a red flag on my resume?
Not necessarily. If you recall, Quinncia was developed with the top four ATS’s in mind. It will mark a flag on your resume if at least one of those ATS’s would reject your application at the automated resume screening phase. Thus, you could theoretically apply to a company that employs an ATS that can read your resume fine your resume. But if you want to be sure that your resume will past most (if not all) ATS’s, and the flags that Quinncia points out are relatively easy to fix, then I recommend adjusting those items on your resume.
How should I use Quinncia?
I think that in order to get the most benefit from Quinncia’s resume advice, you should treat it’s judgement as just another perspective that none of us human advisors could have. In that sense, you should listen to what Quinncia has to say about your resume, think about if you could improve upon your resume with those red flags and “needs improvement”s in mind, and then take action. If Quinncia’s suggestions don’t make sense and you don’t think you should change that item on your resume, that’s a respectable decision. It’s your resume after all, not Quinncia’s. Conversely, an unhealthy way to use Quinncia is to try to constantly change your resume to try to maximize the score Quinncia gives it. Even though Quinncia grades it well, the automated resume screening is only one part of the job application process; the goal is to devise a resume that is easily consumable by both humans and computers. Ultimately, you should use Quincia in tandem with real human readers/reviewers of your resume. This way, you can get the best of both worlds of resume review!
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Now, all that there is left to do is for you to upload your resume to Quinncia and see what it says! If you have any questions with the analysis, schedule a 1:1 appointment with a Career Advisor or stop by drop-in hours!
