How to Beat the Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Let’s be real—writing a resume probably isn’t your favorite part of the job search. But as a biostatistician, it’s one of the most high-leverage tools you have to land interviews.

Here’s why:

Your Resume Has Two Jobs

First, it needs to influence humans. When your resume finally lands in front of a hiring manager—whether through a recruiter, referral, or direct application—it must clearly convey your technical expertise, credibility, and the value you bring to a team. (We’ll dive into how to write for humans in the next lesson.)

But before any of that happens…

Your Resume Must Beat the Bots

Most resumes never get seen by a person. They get filtered out by Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)—software used by nearly every company in pharma, biotech, CROs, and health tech to scan resumes and rank candidates.

I’ve worked with job seekers who were highly qualified but never got a single callback—until they changed how they structured their resumes for these systems. I don’t want that to happen to you.

Here’s how it works:

• The ATS breaks your resume into sections, looks for specific keywords, and scores your fit.

• If your resume doesn’t match the job description closely enough, it gets buried.

• Even if you’re a perfect fit, poor formatting can scramble your resume in the ATS parser.

And if it doesn’t make it past the software, it’ll never reach human eyes.

The Stakes Are Higher Than You Think

• Most biostatistics roles get 100–300 applicants, even more in big pharma companies.

• Recruiters spend 6–10 seconds skimming each resume.

• Only the most relevant resumes get forwarded to hiring teams.

That means your resume must do two things extremely well:

1. Be machine-readable with clean formatting and the right keywords.

2. Be human-readable—clear, confident, and relevant when someone finally opens it.

And that all starts with writing for the ATS first, because if the robots block you, the humans never get a chance.

💡 Action Step: Run a Resume Test Against an ATS

Use a free tool like Jobscan or ResumeWorded. Take one of the job descriptions you’re interested in, upload your current resume, and check the match rate. If you’re scoring under 70%, it’s time to start optimizing for keywords and formatting.