"So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself." - Sun Tzu, Art of War
After months of searching, I finally come across an ad on a well-respected job board. The job is perfect. I meet all the qualifications, even the preferred ones. I uploaded my meticulously prepared and tailored resume and cover letter. I then fill out the online application and submit my application. Six weeks later, I get a polite but obviously computer generated e-mail informing me that in spite of my impressive qualifications, my erstwhile prospective employer had decided to go with other more qualified candidates.
What happened? I have
done everything my employment counselors have told me, found the job I am
qualified for and put together an outstanding resume and cover letter
addressing their pain and my unique ability to relieve it, but still I am not
successful. Obviously, I have not made
it past some gatekeeper, but who exactly is the gatekeeper?
Today’s virtually connected world has changed the way
employers and employees connect. With
sites like LinkedIn, Monster, Glass Door, Indeed, and a myriad of others, job
hunters can find and apply for work in any position anywhere on the planet as
well as research the work environment and compensation of their prospective
employers. No longer are we limited by what
the local paper or the local Workforce Services advertises. We have access to literally tens of thousands
of open positions. Employers, by the
same token, are now able to recruit from a far larger pool of potential
employees.
This has presented new opportunities and new challenges for
both sides. The larger talent pool the
employers can now access has made it much more likely the right candidate will
see and apply for the position. However,
it also means that the human resources (HR) and hiring managers now get inundated
with applications each time they advertise a new position.
Similarly, applicants now have access to a wider variety of
jobs from around the world but are also now competing with a larger number of
similarly qualified applicants and much more picky employers. So how do companies manage this increased
number of applicants?
Enter ATS or applicant tracking system/software.
Just as Google and NSA use computers to comb through vast
amounts of data to find those especially relevant nuggets of information, HR
managers, teamed with software engineers, can now build an algorithm for the
perfect employee. They just need to
enter the number of years’ experience in widget production, the right degree
and certifications, and a few amorphous phrases such as, “Able to succeed in a
fast paced environment,” or “Excellent communication skills,” and voila! Out
pops an ad for the perfect candidate…sort of.
If ATS works so well, why do so many positions go so long
unfilled and HR managers bemoan the deficit of qualified candidates? Why do they continue to hire the “wrong
people?” Why do highly qualified
candidates with “great” resumes go so long without so much as a call for an interview?
The first factor is that in reality, as my computer guru brother
puts it, computers are stupid. While
they can crunch vast amounts of data in no time, they only do exactly what you
tell it to and nothing more. They cannot
reason or read between the lines and are extremely poor at spotting potential
or assessing many of the intangible qualities that make a great employee.
The point is, the computer is good at filtering out all
those who do not meet the specified criteria (or have not used the right words
to show they do), even if that means no one gets through. This means that while providing undeniable
benefits to both sides, ATS has in fact become just another gatekeeper in the
recruiting process. This means that just
like the Keeper of the Bridge
of Death in Monty Python’s The Holy
Grail, the words we use determine our success in making it to the next
stage of our quest or not.
Unfortunately, this focus on words, certifications, and
years of experience without the reason of a human mind early in the process
often disqualifies many who may have that experience, but neglect to put it in
their resume or do not use the verbiage the ATS is looking for. This means that these otherwise qualified or
promising candidates will never make it beyond this virtual gatekeeper to
someone with a pulse.
Secondly, as pointed out above, the ATS is very poor at
assessing things like aptitude or potential.
Everything either meets the established threshold or doesn’t. The computer cannot see potential or other
intangible qualities. These can only be
measured by face-to-face contact. As a
result, the current process all too often excludes those who have proven themselves
capable of quickly mastering new skills in the past and combining it with their
broad outside experience. This
adaptability may in fact prove more valuable than the widget-manufacturing
expert’s 20 years of specialized experience.
Such stove piping of experience can be harmful to
innovation. Hiring practices that
isolate out the hiring manager until 90% of the candidates are already
eliminated ensure that he ends up with specialists with a proven track record
in doing things as they have always been done.
Such methods may overlook the latent talent just waiting for a chance to
meld their intellectual abilities, broad experience, and adaptability to bring
a fresh perspective to a “proven” process.
While admittedly in this modern, fast-paced world where a
company can recruit from anywhere in the world, the ability to scan through
thousands of applications and winnow them down to the likeliest candidates is
vital to a successful hiring campaign, it is obvious that it could use some
adjustment, both from the employer and the prospective employee.
The problem is the ATS computers are not to blame. As mentioned above, computers only do exactly
what we tell them, no more, no less. If the
core requirements we input are unrealistic or the applicant does not properly
list their qualifications, only those tech-savvy enough to play the game by the
new rules will get through, leaving other, possibly more qualified candidates
on the outside.
As a result, if HR and the hiring manager do not work
closely enough together to ensure they produce an effective ad, the ATS filter
will not be effective at identifying the best candidate and possibly any
candidates at all. The problem is that
HR and the hiring manager each have a different piece of the puzzle.
The hiring manager knows what the position entails, what skills
it requires, which qualities successful people in that position had in the past,
and what obstacles the candidate must be capable of overcoming. Meanwhile, HR must manage recruitment for
each corporate function and thus often doesn’t have the same in-depth understanding
of these factors.
HR, however, has its own unique insights. They know the talent pool outside and inside
the organization. They know how likely
it is to find a bilingual marketing manager with eight years’ experience in
foreign military sales, with an aerospace engineering degree, an MBA from an
Ivy League school, and PMP, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and C++
certifications. When the hiring manager
provides the laundry list of everything the perfect candidate might have, HR is
able to help them narrow it down to a list of realistic characteristics, which
great candidates will have.
Only by both functions effectively communicating the
requirement, can they come up with an effective ad and filter which clearly defines
the real requirements of the position.
This would make it possible to create a manageable pool of first-cut
candidates, which the hiring manager can winnow down through the interview
process of speaking to and evaluating each candidate until the choice of the
final candidate is made.
This mutual awareness of each other’s needs and capabilities
harkens back to my article “The Blind Leading the Blind: Emotional Intelligence
and the Unaware Leader.”[1] By both functions being aware of the
capabilities, limitations, and resources of the other, they can work together
to fill in the gaps, benefiting both the company and its current and future
employees. This means that job ads are
more realistic while at the same time more accurately reflecting the hiring
manager’s requirements. It also means
that qualified prospective candidates are better able to determine their
competitiveness for the job
So how do you ensure your resume gets to someone with a
heart? The answer is simple – know your
enemy, and if the frontal defenses are too impregnable, find a way to bypass
them.
There are a few methods to improve your chances of getting
your resume through, for example:
- Pay attention to how your resume comes through into the application when you upload it. Many job sites parse your resume into what it thinks are the relevant blocks on the application. If your alma mater turns up in the Name block, you may need to look at the formatting.
- Read up on SEO or search engine optimization. Many of the techniques successful e-businesses use to get to the top of the Google search results can help you in crafting an ATS friendly resume.
- Don’t over-format. While space and graphics may look good on a printed resume, they can confuse the computer.
- Finally and most importantly, follow-up your resume with effective networking. The best way to get past the computer is to have someone with respect for the skills they have already witnessed in you pull your resume out of the black hole of resume death.
Networking still plays a significant role in the job
search. While ATS has automated the
vetting process, people still hire those they feel they can make a connection
to and who they feel will “fit in”.
Finding a way to make yourself more than electronic file in
HR’s database may give you just the edge you need. Referrals from current employees are one way
to move your application a little higher in the system. Many systems will actually give you “points”
if you are referred from within the company.
I had an opportunity to sit down
with Edwin Sapp, who teaches professional and resume writing at the University
of Maryland University College (UMUC).
He helped me tune up my resume and gave me a lot of excellent
advice.
When we were done, I asked him
how to format my resume to get past the computer. He pointed out that many of the programs used
to manage the resumes are in-house creations.
He added that even the off the shelf ones are not standardized. Add to the mix how the job is entered, and
there is no way to find a perfect format.
Concluding his explanation, Ed
advised me to research the company and bypass the initial gatekeeper (the computer)
as well as the second (HR), if you can. The
best way to get past the computer is to have someone reach past the computer
and pull your resume through.
According to commonly cited
statistics, over three-quarters of jobs are not advertised, and of those that
are, the person who gets the job often has someone on the inside. So how do you find your own insider? Here are a few tips:
- Get out from behind your computer and talk to people. The classic job hunting manual What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles suggests talking to at least five people per day, explaining who you are, what you can do, and what you are looking for and then eliciting referrals of people they think might be interested in your skills.
- Visit companies or people in areas you are interested in. You would be surprised how many people will be willing to sit down with you for a few minutes. People want to help but don’t wear out your welcome. Respect their time by making it short and sweet. Finally, don’t forget to follow-up with a thank you card or e-mail.
- Volunteer – find a cause that you are passionate about and where you will be around people and companies in that field. Prove your worth as a volunteer and your chances of catching their eye improve exponentially.
In conclusion, this article was
born of my frustrations in my own job search.
I had applied to hundreds of jobs and tailored my resume to each. The results were downright depressing. I quickly realized that I needed to
understand the system, and what better way than to write about it? However, the more I studied the computer, the
more I realized that, while it is an indispensable tool in today’s hiring
environment, it still has not, nor can it replace the human-to-human
connection. Tailor your resume to the
job, but ensure that your prospective employer sees the person behind the
electrons in their database. Reach out
and breathe life into your resume through personal contact. Only then will your resume mean something to
the person on the other end of the computer.
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