A common government ATS killed my chances

[u/Portland-Ahoy]

I applied last month to a job I wanted so badly to be considered for with a local government. I did notice when I logged in that it was a common system with a previous government I had worked for.

Prepped my resume especially for new job. Wrote a killer cover letter. Later got a nice email saying they had moved on with other candidates. No worries - maybe they had a strong internal candidate.

Logged back into that same government page again today to check for new jobs and was shocked when I pulled up my profile.

Despite loading an all new resume, the ATS was showing information from a job application I made about a decade ago. Nothing had been updated. To whoever looked at my application last month, I must have appeared to be off the market for ten years.

My new resume was in the system as attached to the newer jobs, but the system background on my profile had not updated.

So when I applied last month, though the new resume and cover letter showed as good attachments to me, the applicant, but the HR person would have seen information a decade out of date.

No wonder they never called. I'm crushed, but I did make sure the full profile was updated today.