7 ms·

I co-founded an ATS company and I can say that we were never asked for, nor provided, any functionality to automatically screen candidates out based on keyword

by beachy 5y ago

I co-founded an ATS company and I can say that we were never asked for, nor provided, any functionality to automatically screen candidates out based on keyword filters (though candidate answers to actual questions like "Do you 5 years experience with node.js?" are often used to automatically screen out). That said, I have heard this often enough that some people must do it. I can't imagine why though, as it takes only a few seconds for a human to scan a resume. Even at 10 seconds per resume (a conservative estimate), that means the human could screen 360 resumes per hour.

Terretta 5y ago
Where do these resumes in the ATS come from? Sourcing tends to use searches or keywords, which “filter” by not selecting in the first place. Applicant trackers tend to be a few steps downstream of that, so wouldn’t need to filter. Based on experience at firms with on the order of 1:1 applicants to hires up to 10,000:1 applicants to hires, I’d agree most such tools are not present at most companies, as they tend to be used from ratios of 100:1 and up. On the other hand, while most companies might not have or use such tools, the more jobs a company has, the more likely they are to have some form of selection or filtering in the pipeline.
mcenedella 5y ago
I’ve interviewed the CEOs of many of the largest ATSs for Ladders News, and while there is no automated system, the tools do exist for a company to screen in this basis. But none of the ATSs really collect great data on how many of their customers use them in their core processes. From observing actual, heavy duty recruiter and HR usage at Ladders, I suspect it is not very many. These are people people after all, and they are not great at writing REGEX style queries to find only the precisely correct resumes they are looking for. You also need to remember that they are frequently working on novel searches each week, and wouldn’t have the confidence or the capability to craft such searches.

by beachy 5y ago

Terretta 5y ago

Where do these resumes in the ATS come from? Sourcing tends to use searches or keywords, which “filter” by not selecting in the first place. Applicant trackers tend to be a few steps downstream of that, so wouldn’t need to filter. Based on experience at firms with on the order of 1:1 applicants to hires up to 10,000:1 applicants to hires, I’d agree most such tools are not present at most companies, as they tend to be used from ratios of 100:1 and up. On the other hand, while most companies might not have or use such tools, the more jobs a company has, the more likely they are to have some form of selection or filtering in the pipeline.

mcenedella 5y ago

I’ve interviewed the CEOs of many of the largest ATSs for Ladders News, and while there is no automated system, the tools do exist for a company to screen in this basis. But none of the ATSs really collect great data on how many of their customers use them in their core processes. From observing actual, heavy duty recruiter and HR usage at Ladders, I suspect it is not very many. These are people people after all, and they are not great at writing REGEX style queries to find only the precisely correct resumes they are looking for. You also need to remember that they are frequently working on novel searches each week, and wouldn’t have the confidence or the capability to craft such searches.