10 Things Robots Screen on Your Resume

Assume it’s Monday morning, and you have just turned your computer on to start working. After responding to e-mails, attending some meetings, and getting your work done, you sighed and started scrolling through job boards looking for your next job.

You feel unmotivated in your current job, not because of your salary, but because of the lack of recognition. Your eyes are rapidly reading dozens of job ads until you find one that is just perfect for you.?

You click the link to apply for that amazing job with the old resume you made more than one year ago. The job ad says you can add a cover letter, but why lose time with that, your resume is enough, and you have to go back to work.

And that’s it. Nothing will happen afterward because you’re probably not hearing back from that company.

There are several reasons you should start understanding the modern recruiting processes, especially in large corporations.

To illustrate the process, think about a funnel. After you hit the submit button, your CV enters a funnel together with hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of other professionals.

Imagine that you applied for a position in a large and well-structured company. They have a team of recruiters that are either sourcing for candidates on social media and referrals or getting notifications from their?recruiting software.

So let’s take a closer look at how that software works.

Firstly, this software is called ATS (Applicant Tracking System). This is not new in HR. In fact, ATS has been used since the beginning of the internet around the ’90s. ATS came in when corporations started creating their homepages and used them as job boards.?

ATS applications in the recruitment industry have the ability to automate the recruitment process through a defined workflow. Where each stage of the workflow can be one little step to move in the recruiters’ funnel.

Most job and resume boards (Reed Online, LinkedIn, Monster, Hotjobs, CareerBuilder, Indeed, etc) have partnerships with ATS software providers to provide parsing support and easy data migration from one system to another.

On the other side, there are several ATS software on the market with the most commonly used are Jobvite, SuccessFactors Recruiting from SAP, and RecruiterBox.

These exist to save time and money for recruiters/companies. The great transformation happening right now is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to speed up the hiring process.

Hiring managers are often in a hurry to onboard their desired resources. Recruiters are overloaded all day with activities and need automation to gain agility in their daily life.

The ATS is a good solution for both. Your resume entered the candidate funnel and will be screened by a machine in seconds.

What is actually screened?

1.???Job title

2.???Skills and core competencies

3.???Industry specific keywords

4.???Education

5.???Section headings

6.???Date formatting

7.???Word count

8.???Measurable results

9.???Seniority

10.?Inferences about your career

After this super-fast screening, the ATS will score your resume by a match rate. Since there are several types of ATS in the market, the match rate is likely calculated based on the frequency match of the skills, keywords, job title, seniority, and education level between the job description and your resume.

Your resume will remain in the funnel if the match rate is higher than the ATS threshold which is quite logical and straightforward.?

The next step will be determined by the workflow within a company. There could be behavioral and technical assessments, screening calls, hiring role plays, business case solving, etc. All in all, you are going to be assessed in different ways before you move into the funnel.

This could possibly be a long and painful phase in the selection process, especially if you are unemployed. It can take several weeks to move small steps. The position could also be canceled, postponed, or could stay on hold for months.

In conclusion, when it comes to workflows in recruiting and the use of ATS for resume screening and process organization for many companies, I believe that understanding the technology and how it works is the key to landing your next job.

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