Applicant tracking system Puns

Thanks for creating such a dedicated group about ATS. I'm planning to avail one for my company, but I'm still weighing the benefits.

Specifically, what are the best add-ons to ATS in your opinion? Please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

I hate ATS software...it's 100% always poorly coded and terribly implemented. It always scans your documents wrong, it always overlooks keywords in your application and auto-rejects you, and is generally just a job application black hole. Yet, 99% of every company on Earth still relies on them for all of their hiring and usually requires that you apply through there only.

My experience with them (and I know this is pretty much the same with most everyone else):

1. See job posted somewhere whose requirements you meet and more, click it, and it takes you to their ATS page (Taleo, ICMS, WorkDay, etc). You think 'hmm, I know where this goes, but I'll waste the next 7 fuckin hours of my day filling out their stupid forms anyway.'
2. You upload your resume and it incorrectly auto-fills your shit, so you spend like the next 30min correcting it, only to see that the next few pages ask you to again manually enter the same shit that you have on your resume and you just corrected on a bunch of other pages.
3. You have like 3 previous jobs, but they require that you post 4 previous employers (or some other arbitrary number).
4. They ask for an arbitrary amount of references (uhm, nah, I don't feel like giving you my network for you to spam with your recruiter BS).
5. You think you've reached the end and click Submit, but wait...there's more.
6. What's your race? What's your gender? Are you disabled? Are you a veteran? We promise we won't discriminate based on this info. Yeah I know, required EEO, but it's the way they go about it that's cringe worthy.
7. Page 147: Here's a surprise 10 page Arbitration Agreement where you sign your human rights away to work at their glorious company.
8. You finally reach the end and click Submit for real this time, only for this to happen literally seconds later:

E-MAIL: "WE APPRECIATE THE APPLICATION, BUT WE HAVE DECIDED TO GO WITH MORE QUALIFIED APPLICANTS."

9. Over the next few months-years, the job continually gets re-posted.

My favorite though? I recently reached out to a company directly that was looking for devs and I met all of their preferences and then some. They were asking for people to just contact them directly and provided the e-mails for some HR people in their hiring department, so I e-mailed them my resume with a quick introduction. I get an e-mail from HR: "Go to our website and apply through our Taleo page so that someone from the right department can see it." Really bih?

This shit has got to stop,

Almost every large company uses an Applicant Tracking System to receive and filter resumes. When you send an application through the companies website, this is what you're going through.

For small-medium companies, these systems simply log and track all of the resumes they receive, but a real person does actually read all of them.

For large, multi-national companies, these systems do a lot more. Specifically they filter out resumes before anyone actually reads them, because these companies get thousands of applications, and they simply cant read them all.

This is far from a perfect system. I've heard stories of companies creating a resume for their hypothetical perfect candidate, sending it through their ATS, and having it get filtered out. It's common for 70-80% of all resumes to be filtered before anyone even reads them.

So what can we do?

The first thing is understanding how these Systems filter. They do so mainly by using keyword searches.

For example:

A sales position wants someone with experience in the CRM Salesforce.

The ATS will search resumes for "used salesforce" "experience with salesforce" etc, on the resumes, and filter ones that dont match.

EXACT wording is important here. To find out the correct wording, read the job description page, and use their exact wording on your resume before sending it in.

This gives you at least a chance, but it's still not perfect.

The best way to get through these Systems is to use LinkedIn to bypass them completely.

Large companies will have recruiters for specific areas of the company. You want to make contact with one of these recruiters immediately AFTER you send your application.

To find them, find the company on LinkedIn, and search "recruiter", "talent acquisition", ir just "talent".

Make a connection with them and let them know you just applied, and tell a short story about how you can add value to their company. Do this by selecting "add note" when you connect with them. You dont get too many characters here so keep it concise.

You can also repeat this process to try and find the hiring manager likely to be in charge of interviewing you.

Once you've done this, email them repeating what you just said over LinkedIn in different wording if you can find their email. Dont worry about them being annoyed, it's very likely they'll miss either your connection request or the email, so sending both is better.

If you're comfortable making a quick (under 2 minutes absolute maximum) video of yours

https://preview.redd.it/ocfp38izeow31.png?width=1293&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8a4a8de9c2faaca832a0ef9ca0c1923590aed41

For those interested, this image shows the results of the Resume of a mid-level business manager being passed through a popular ATS (Applicant Tracking System) used by many Hiring Committees and Employers throughout North America. Curious about how accurate such a program may illustrate your qualifications, and how you a prospective employer would view you?

Hi guys,

I was wondering what format is best used for applying to jobs. I have been consistently applying to jobs for the past three months, but I have had little success rate for callbacks. I fear that my resume isn't best suited for ATS machines, and was seeking opinions on what format types do you guys use? Also, I would appreciate any advice or suggestions on how to beat the ATS process!

Thank you,

Bilegt Bayaraa

Not all applications, but a small percentage of ones I’ve completed lately are requiring entry for the date that my college degree was awarded. Certainly one can conclude that that is bordering on potential age discrimination.

And if I put in false information about the date, then that is fraud.

I have no problem providing degree details if and when I’m given an offer so that it can be validated during a background check. But what legitimate reason could it be to collect when I’m just applying. It’s almost like asking for my DOB.

Anyone else running into this?

A few weeks ago (within the first week of quarantine), I plotted out steps towards cleaning my house: what clothes to keep or get rid of; how to rearrange my books (I had a few piles that have since been relocated to bookshelves); what to donate; what to throw away; etc.

The night before I started cleaning, I had a dream that I was in my own bedroom thumbing through my pile of books on the floor, as though I was already placing them on my bookshelves. I happened to grab four books that were the same size but with slightly different titles. The books were part of a series, apparently, and this was the series name: "Résumé Mistakes Google Will Catch: Volume X". I was holding volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6. Looking through the third volume (before I apparently woke up from my dream), the book consisted of résumés marked with LOTS of error correction symbols and abbreviations, like the ones you'd see when you received the first draft of an essay from your teacher. When I woke up, I went to my bookshelf and piles of books and looked for the titles in my dream, but they were not there.

South Carolina Do ATS or recruiters track the frequency with which I apply for jobs? Could I become flagged as a "frequent applicant" which could hurt me? There are several companies that have interesting jobs that I've applied to and have received rejection emails.

How long are applications retained in these systems? Should I stop applying to these companies for a while?

I just graduated and applied online to SpaceX without referral. I was asked: “do you have 1 year of professional or internship experience with x, y, z, u, or v?” I do not but I answered “yes” (I’m not sure why) (I only have experience with x and y in a 10-week class project.) I’ll love to get the job, but I want to do the right thing: I don’t want to be dishonest and waste their time.

I think I should email the recruiter and share this fact with him.

I am looking for advice.

I recently found out that many Applicant Tracking Systems, which are programs that filter out resumes and only give the "best" to hiring managers, will reject applications for having gig economy type work on them. Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Caviar, GrubHub etc.

So if you want your resume to make it into the hiring managers hands, leave this type of work off your resume.

Looking for opinions from both the applicant and hiring side of things

I recently applied to a rather large insurance company for a position that I felt I was a decent match for. After applying online through their website, I get an email back less than half an hour later (the posting is open until the beginning of August), saying "after careful review of qualified candidates, we have decided to not move ahead..."

I felt like maybe my resume (and cover letter) didn't make it past the company's ATS. So I re-applied, changing the resume and cover letter to include as many keywords and phrases as possible from the job posting. I once used jobscan.com to get a % match comparison b/w my resume and and the job posting, and the highest i could get was 63% (they say 80% is ideal).

There must be a better way to get past the ATS when applying to larger companies. It almost discourages me from applying to these places, and I feel like I have to be somewhat disingenuous on my application just to ensure it gets seen by human eyeballs.

Also, how does one deal with not having the EXACT wording as shown on the job posting (e.g. a verbalized noun, a past tense, or a plural)? I know some ATS are more complex than others...but still...

So, my company's been using SharePoint as a candidate database. Since we don't have any SharePoint developers, no further customization is possible. For my team this means painful activities, such as manual data input, no tracking of the process whatsoever, etc. You know how it goes with limited budget - there are so much more important things than an (usually expensive) ATS. I was wondering - is any of you using a free ATS? If so, which one, pros, cons, etc.? Thanks :)

Thanks!

Does the State use applicant tracking systems to filter its applicants and select for interviews?

Me and two friends have been developing an Applicant Tracking System for small business owners to streamline their hiring without having to contract a ridiculously expensive tool. We'd really appreciate your feedback on our concept!

r/https://www.peerfect.io

Suggestions and feedback are welcome!

Hi,

I'm in my mid thirties and after many years of working in academia (= no work experience, but some skills and projects I can frame in a positive light) I am desperately trying to get a junior position in industry, and in a different field (I don't want a research/science job)

My question is: I learned that following up after 10-15 days should be fine. But in my case I applied through a form, and the company provides no email address/contact person for HR. I found some of their HR staff on Linkedin; should I contact them directly or would that be annoying? I guess that if the firm uses a form to 'shield' itself from applicants emails, then try to contact them anyway would be counterproductive...

What is your opinion? Thanks!

https://www.cio.com/article/2398753/careers-staffing/careers-staffing-5-insider-secrets-for-beating-applicant-tracking-systems.html

> Job hunters should know that nearly 40 percent of employers use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to screen candidates for their job openings. Don’t let the name fool you. Applicant tracking systems don’t “track” where you are in the recruitment process. They’re aimed at saving employers time by dividing strong candidates from the weak. But the way in which your resume is written — not the information it conveys — is what the technology actually uses to decide.

> “Most companies have thousands of resumes sitting in a database that they’ve never looked at.” In fact, 75 percent are never seen by a real person.

> Some ATS brands are better equipped to take synonyms into account. But the problem is older, exact-match systems are still in use. And Tomaszewski says, “There's no surefire way to check if your prospective employer uses ATS.”

> With a little bit of sleuthing, though, Oracle Resumes President Dustin Polk says you may be able to figure it out. Look on the employer’s job page, he says: “Most will be branded somewhere with the ATS vendor's logo. If you can't find this anywhere in their listing, mouse over the apply or submit resume buttons and check the destination URL in the bottom of your web browser. If the company is using recruiting software, the destination URL may show which one.”

> Applicant tracking systems are by no means fail-safe. In fact, 62 percent of companies using applicant tracking systems admit “some qualified candidates are likely being automatically filtered out of the vetting process by mistake,” according to a joint CareerArc/Future Workplace survey.

> Corporations need automation to help sort through hordes of applications, yes, but poor systems are a problem for employers and candidates alike.

> For job seekers dealing with application tracking systems, the first step is to realize it’s not them, it’s not you, it’s your font.

> When applicant tracking systems search the skills and experience section of your resume for certain keywords, the matches have to be exact. That’s why Tomaszewski recommends applicants rewrite their resume every time they apply for work, lifting words from each job post’s expected duties, responsibilities, and skills sections: “Use those keywords in your resume.”

> Before resumes can be searched, though, they have to

I have one of these minilmists inDesign resumes...curious if ATS can read those or if I've been wasting my time?