As a career coach of 15 years, Jasmine Escalera scrolls through career-advice TikTok just like the rest of us, but with a bit more of a discerning eye about some of the messages out there.
Escalera, a Miami-based expert with Zety who helps professionals find new jobs, says one trend in particular could be particularly damaging: white-fonting on your resume.
White-fonting is the act of copying the text of a job description and pasting it onto your resume in small, white font in hopes of “beating the ATS system,” Escalera tells CNBC Make It, referring to applicant tracking systems that help employers organize job candidates.
The idea is that by including all the keywords from the job description on your document, it will be scanned by an artificial intelligence screener, represent a strong match and move you into the next round for interviews.
But resume screening platforms don’t work in that way, and Escalera says that being found out could jeopardize your candidacy.
“It’s causing professionals to do something that can be really detrimental to their professional reputation,” she says. “If somehow a hiring team picks it up, now your professional reputation, your qualifications, the work that you’ve been able to do, your entire job application, is called into question.”
