Welcome to the Matrix - When Machines Replace Humans After You Submit a Resume

Old School Way of Dealing with Resumes - Candidates apply and the recruiter goes through each resume looking for the right person to match with the open position.

New School Way of Dealing with Resumes - Candidates apply, recruiters allow technology present in recruiting systems to aggregate data about you before they review your resume.

Don't hate the recruiter for this fundamental change over the last 5-6 years - hate the game. The explosion of internet-based technology and job boards means that candidates can spray hundreds of resumes out per day. Multiply that by thousands of candidates, and it's only natural that systems evolved to help recruiters deal with the volume. With this in mind, recruiting systems used by employers deal with the volume by collecting data on you in two ways before the recruiter sees your resume…

1. Automated screening by Recruiting System designed to search for keywords in your resume - Recruiting Systems generally have some technology to look for keywords in your resume and deliver a "strength ranking" that may be a percentage match to the listed position, etc. When the recruiter uses this type of system, the candidates are generally ranked by this measurement. Additionally, once your resume is in the system, the recruiter will have the ability to search by keywords/skills in the same fashion.
2. Database Mining of Recruiting System to determine if you have applied or interviewed with the company before - Most Recruiting Systems will also tell the recruiter what you have applied for before with the company. It's useful information for the recruiter to have to gauge your focus as a candidate.

Now that you know the first wave of technology used, what do you do? First up, the use of keywords is controversial. Some resume experts will tell you that having a keyword listing on your resume is the best way to beat the system, while others will tell you the use of a keyword section is desperate. My advice is down the middle - when posting a resume to a job board database, I would use a keyword section since the recruiters paying for and using these systems are doing nothing but searching by keyword or skill - so it pays to have it on their. When applying for specific positions with unique companies, I would leave it off - it will confuse hiring managers who don't see it often and may appear unprofessional to the layperson.

On the topic of Recruiting Systems showing if you have applied multiple times to the same company, my advice is simple - don't be a sprayer…. Apply for what you are qualified for, and if you are seeking to make a career change, be consistent - only apply repeatedly for positions in a single department where you are looking at a career change. Seeing candidates who have applied for 10+ positions across all departments in a company is one the quickest ways to be removed from the process before it actually begins….

Comments

[maillot angleterre 2012]

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