Applicant tracking systems pretend to do the job

I was thinking about an article from Lou Adler.  He made two critical points about hiring qualified people.

• In the first 5-10 years of a person’s career, people who get promoted more rapidly or assigned to the toughest projects tend to have less experience than those who don’t. Yet when we hire someone from the outside we want more experience.
• Most managers would hire a top achiever who is a little light on skills and experience and modify the job accordingly, but their hiring systems prevent them from ever seeing these people.

Addressing the first point, I have found a number of loftily written job descriptions that, at their core, are jobs in which I could excel. Yet I know that I will not get a call because I don't necessarily have the requisite experience. Personally, I don't want to do what I did before - there are many activities that I classify as "been there, done that, now for something new." Jobs that I would be perfectly qualified would not be of interest to me. I am looking for challenges- not effortlessly phoning it in. And I imagine there are many people who strictly qualify for a role and have the exact set of credentials requested in a similar position. 

And the second point requires deeper exploration. I don't know much about ATSs (applicant tracking systems), but judging from the front end experience of sites powered by Oracle's Taleo, it ain't about the applicant. They are brutally clunky with terrible visual experiences and sport unreadable boxes of guidelines. What do you expect from a company that builds the most powerful and obtuse databases in the world. And really, the name says it all, "tracking" - it helps people follow a person through the lifecycle of the application process. It doesn't purport to "discover" talent. I have been reading Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0 by Canadian David Perry. He recommends doing an end-run around ATSs by approaching the hiring managers directly. Great idea. 

Here's an interesting article - Secrets for beating ATSs - 75% of candidates are killed before they even reach human eyes. The thing is that large companies need these systems to deal with the sheer volume of interested folks. I get it. But at what cost. 

In a test conducted last year, Bersin & Associates created a perfect resume for an ideal candidate for a clinical scientist position. The research firm matched the resume to the job description and submitted the resume to an applicant tracking system from Taleo, arguably the leading maker of these systems. The end result: The resume Bersin & Associates submitted only scored a 43 percent relevance ranking to the job because the applicant tracking system misread it.

Companies are working so hard to improve their recruiting "brand" to attract the very best candidates, yet it seems that a part of the system is sabotaging their efforts. 

My resume, by the way, is a reflection of my creative skills and ability to visualize words and data. I did mine in PowerPoint (as you might expect from a McKinsey trained employee). I also told a story about how social network analysis can have great impact in talent management and performance transformation. What do you think the ATS has to say about that?  At this point, I have no idea. There is no one to call to ask. 

When a recruiter clicks on the name of a candidate whom the applicant tracking system has ranked as a good match for a job, the recruiter doesn't see the resume the candidate submitted. The recruiter sees the information the applicant tracking system pulled from the candidate's resume into a database.

This article has a telling screenshot of what the ATS provides the recruiter when a match is made. All my hard work is for naught. It'll look like a dog's breakfast - or more like what comes out the other end. 

It is very important to note that you cannot get a job if you don't apply for a job. Despite the limitations of Taleo-type systems for interpreting my career, I have to continue to play along. 

Do you have any secret tips?

Off I go now to form some more creature connections at piano lessons.