Woman explains the 'resume hack' that can help anyone land their dream job: 'Bypass the filters'

In today's competitive job market, job seekers are always looking for creative ways to make their resumes stand out and catch the attention of employers. These strategies include using eye-catching infographics that visually represent their skills, qualifications, and experiences. Additionally, some job seekers are creating video resumes, which provide employers with a glimpse of their personality and communication skills. This allows employers to gain a better sense of who the candidate is and what they can bring to the table.

They are also making customized applications and curating their social media presence accordingly. For this reason, a TikTok user, Sarah —who goes by @spacewithsyrup on TikTok— has tried to help job seekers get their dream job. She uploaded a video on April 12 where she discussed an insightful story of a clever job seeker who used a "resume hack."

In this video, Sarah is responding to a popular video by TikTok creator Evie—who goes by @twocatscreatives on TikTok—who first mentioned how we could manipulate AI resume filtering systems. She said we could paste relevant keywords from the job description in white font. Although this will be invisible to the human eye, the algorithm would be able to see it. “I opened the resume of this guy that we were interviewing and he literally did this,” Sarah said in her video.

“There was a giant paragraph at the bottom of just words related to software like MatLab, Java, Python, etc., and I think our system or whoever the HR person just made everything into black text so I could see it at the bottom,” she said about discovering the hidden white font on the resume. Therefore, she concluded, “I can’t remember exactly what happened in the interview. I think I asked him about some of those skills and yeah, he basically did that just to bypass the filters, and we ended up hiring him, so there you go.”

People gave their own views about this insightful video in the comments section. @0x4e4448 commented, "I create a keywords section that includes terms related to my experience." @user9600683305945 commented, "Honestly, that tells me he investigated a problem and came up with a real word solution through research."

@jgraszer commented, "This literally proves the ATS filters are just measuring tools but if the candidate has a clear understanding of problem-solving to get the job, worked." @MegaTron1812 commented, “Candidate demonstrated knowledge of software processes and best practices on navigating operations systems” @sackingsjoser916 mentioned how this candidate stood out, "when you meet someone that thinks outside the box, you definitely got to keep that person around your life."

Indeed, candidates who demonstrate their ability to think creatively and solve problems within their respective fields often secure employment. These individuals prove to be valuable assets to any organization.