ATS stands for Applicant Tracking System. It's software that reads your resume before any human sees it.
For venture capital roles, the ATS acts like a junior analyst. It scans for deal terms, sourcing tools, and fund metrics. If it can't find the right keywords, your resume gets filtered out.
Use simple section titles: "Experience", "Education", "Skills". Skip fancy headers like "Deal Dossier".
Pull keywords straight from the job post. Think: Series A, cap-table, Carta, DueDilio, MOIC, DPI, sourcing funnel, cold-outbound, and sector tags like SaaS or fintech. Sprinkle them in context, not in a list dump.
Keep layout boring. No tables, no columns, no text boxes. Stick to one-column Word or a clean PDF. Use Calibri or Arial, 10.5–12 pt.
- File choice: .docx is safest; PDF is fine if the posting allows it.
- Save with your name: "Quinton_Botsford_VC_Resume.pdf".
Common trip-ups: writing "investment rock-star" instead of "investment associate", hiding fund names in a footer, or listing "financial modeling" but omitting "venture model" or "waterfall returns".
Remember, if the robot can't read it, the partner never will.