Using VMOCK to Improve Your Application and Interview Skills

by | Nov 8, 2021

For some employers, applicant tracking systems (ATS) manage everything from the job posting all the way to making hiring decisions.

VMOCK is a tool to help you format your resume so that it passes ATS screening. It’s an AI set on top of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). VMOCK uses the same process you will experience when applying for jobs that use ATS.

Resume format for ATS

  • ATS don’t read columns, pictures, or overly formatted resumes and they will be rejected
  • Upload your resumes to ATSs as a PDF
  • Make sure your PDF is recently exported from a Word document
  • If you scan a resume it is not a pdf, its an image, which will not upload to an ATS properly
  • Do not put a picture in your resume — pictures are automatically rejected
  • Do not put a horizontal line on your resume — it will be automatically rejected
  • You can use this example resume that is formatted to fit ATS standards to get started

Interviewing by AI

  • Applicants with resumes that score a 60% match are invited to a virtual interviews
  • Software is used to help remove bias
  • AI evaluates on three key pieces: audio, content, and video
  • Applicants are ranked based on data points, eye contact, dress and background, micro-expressions, body movements

How to use VMOCK to get resume feedback

  1. Log in to VMOCK with your uvic.ca email address and activate your account
  2. Upload your resume to VMOCK
    • Should be a PDF
    • Recently exported so that the file won’t be corrupted
  3. Review improvements and flags
    • Try to get to 5-10 improvements or less
    • Flags are mistakes that will likely be rejected by an ATS
      • In the end, the goal should be 0 flags

VMOCK will show your score in comparison to other students at UVic. The highest score a student could get is 400, but don’t make that a goal!

  • Click on General, Formatting, and Content to see more in-depth recommendations on how to improve your score
  • Hard and soft skills are shown at the bottom of the analysis
  • Type in “action verbs” to find sheet of helpful descriptive skills

How to use VMOCK to get interview feedback

After you have completed the resume portion of VMOCK, the mock interview will become available

  1. Schedule an interview
    • A confirmation email is sent right after you schedule, this email will include interview tips and tricks as well as a link to practice interview questions
      • Practice interview questions are not recorded
    • A reminder email is sent 15 minutes prior to the interview time. The “Take your interview” link is live for 48 hours after the scheduled meeting time
  2. Mock interview
    • Give VMOCK access to their microphone and camera
    • You will have 2 minutes to complete the first questions and 90 seconds for every question after
    • VMOCK will give some immediate feedback as the you complete the interview, but the overall analysis will come 15 minutes to 48 hours after the interview is completed
    • You will receive an email notification once the analysis is available
  3. Analysis – the same data points that students will be scored on in the actual job market
    • Rate of speech
    • Filler words
    • Communication Style
    • Expressiveness
    • Eye contact
    • Emotions
    • Soft/Hard Skills Cloud
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