From unwillingness to email candidates to let them know they weren’t selected for an interview or job, to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) missing important information in resumes, it’s a mess out there in job search land! Even large companies are expressing concern publicly about their systems and how good candidates are bounced from their ATS from the outset.
Despite the issues nothing gets fixed, so the travails of the jobseeker are only increasing. Furthermore, 15% or less of applicants even get a full scan?
I’ve worked with individuals who design these systems or install them, along with corporate hiring managers and HR. This offers a huge peek behind the ATS curtain, so let me offer some insight.
First the ATS must convert your document for readability, whether PDF, wrong format, too many graphics, or isn’t ATS friendly for other reasons. Then, depending on the factors companies select to eliminate candidates from the process, the system then discriminates against you through multiple pre-scans.
Whether you wrote your resume or cover letter with AI, applied with AI, don’t have a current job on your resume, had extended time between jobs recently, the position’s job title and the one on your resume don’t match, or your current and past job titles don’t dovetail with the position, those first layers of the ATS go after that info. If it doesn’t like what it sees, you get rejected from the system. This is before a full scan ever takes place.
Make it past the “pre-scans” and you’re one of the roughly 15% of resumes receiving a full scan. Now you must worry about keywords and key phrases based on industry and job type, and tailoring according to company job posting, along with how many times each keyword and key phrase were used, how you segmented your resume into subject areas, etc.
No wonder jobseekers feel like they can’t win. How can they possibly know all of this and become expert in it? Why do hiring professionals believe that most candidates can do all this effectively? Oh, then you ghost the candidate.
YOUR SYSTEM IS BROKEN, and it’s up to HR, Hiring Managers, and Executives to fix it! Next week we’ll dig into this topic more.