Why I'm excited to be an engineer with 12 years' experience; thanks, ATS!

For the past two weeks I've stewed over the discomfiting feeling that my CV is not ATS-worthy. If you don't know this acronym, then bless your little heart. I didn't either until about five months ago, but now that I do know, I hate every last initial.

Applicant tracking systems are designed to chuck out job applicants so HR managers don't actually have to read 257 resumes. The problem is, apparently the code or whatever it is you call it is not sophisticated enough to read a CV as it really exists. I, for example, was deemed an engineer by an ATS. Why? Because the word pops up a few times under names of publications I have written for, e.g. Engineering & Technology. Further, my alma mater is listed as my last employer. Really.

None of this is amusing to me. A very skilled career counselor had approved my CV prior to this ATS debacle, and as I write this I still don't know how to fix it. I did some research and think if I re-save it as a plain text document I "might" be ok.

After over 200 CVs sent out into the ether, I am confident that common sense has now been overrun by computers. I am a member of the National Press Club. I have reported for over 300 publications, many with great prestige such as MIT Technology Review and Scientific American. I hold a recent M.A. with Merit from King's College London. And yet, I am at the mercy of an ATS and probably an overworked millennial with a bad attitude about grammar.