Recruiting In Yoga Pants

Dressing up is for suckers

Tag: applicants

Maybe It’s All Made Up

March 16, 2024 /

I know as well as most of you that there’s not shortage of clout chasers on social media.

I can’t assume that everything folks say on there is true. Especially when it flies directly in the face of common sense and compliance.

EVEN MORE ESPECIALLY when I know the players involved and can say with one million percent confidence 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏.

I have to work on letting go of things I can’t control and stay out of discussions that are not beneficial to me or my audience.

What I WILL continue to focus on is elevating my profession to the best of my abilities, working with my leaders to create fair and equitable job postings followed by a compliant hiring process, and make the best damn offers I can to folks who trust us with their careers.

The rest of the dopamine circus can three ring without me.

Before we go… let’s talk about my silly little tweet pictured above.

Here’s the problem – it’s widely reported that women apply to roles they meet ALL OR MOST of the qualifications for, and men will apply when only meeting some. I’ve even some statistics say women apply when they meet 100% of the requirements (logical) and men apply when they only meet 60%.

I know in MY world as a serious and sane recruiter who understands the definition of the word “required” – this simply means that men are going to get rejected more often. Too many times though folks interpret this to mean that women should ALSO shoot those long shots. Too many times what ACTUALLY happens is those well qualified women get passed over for someone’s frat bro or the CEO’s nephew.

If you’re a recruiter or hiring leader serious about increasing representation of under represented employees, let’s chat. Getting serious about what is ACTUALLY required and staying true to a fair and compliant process will get you there. Otherwise you’re at MAJOR risk of “going with your gut” – which doesn’t always work out for the very people you claim to care about. 🤷‍♀️

A Tale of Two Screenshots

March 10, 2024 /

I remember when one of my sons was in his teens – he was utterly convinced that society was “smarter” because of our near unlimited access to information. As internet connectivity becomes more widespread and literally ANYONE can post content, I disagree.

In many ways, access to whatever passes for “information” these days may be making us dumber.

Why yes I DO recognize the irony of saying this when I am myself one of those people putting information on the internet every week.

Recently a LinkedIn pal shared a gem of a video produced by a well known job board. The video is VERY well produced, with smooth transitions from the beautiful actress reading a script (she did great BTW) to visuals explaining what was being said. Speaking of visuals, let’s take a look at THIS screenshot from the video:

Here we see various steps in the recruiting workflow. The voiceover states “the ATS comes between Candidates apply and Applicants are screened”.

Read that again.

The ATS comes between “CANDIDATES APPLY and APPLICANTS ARE SCREENED”.

Now you may be wondering what’s the problem! Isn’t that how it works? It’s what everyone complains about. It’s what job seekers have been told repeatedly. I mean, who do I think I am to come in with… wait…. THIS:

Sadly I’m NOT an actress nor do I have access to fancy production tools and editing. All I have is an iPhone and a whiteboard. Oh, and 25 years of hands on recruiting experience across multiple organizations including a few FAANG companies. I’ve lost track of how many ATSs I’ve logged into every day for the past two decades. Here is MY visual of what an ATS actually does. Notice we’re covering the same topics:

  • Job is created
  • Job is posted online
  • Candidates apply
  • Applicants are screened
  • Candidates are interviewed
  • Candidate is hired

You might be wondering “Ames, what’s the problem?” Simple – ALL of those things happen within the ATS. And then some.

The digital filing cabinet doesn’t “come between” 2 specific workflows. It CONTAINS those workflows. I’ve talked about this on LinkedIn already. I completely understand that job seekers care the MOST (as they should) about where THEY are in process, and the only thing they can actually control – the information they provide via the application/resume.

So why does it matter? Why spend an hour on a lovely Sunday grabbing the screenshots, writing the blog, and screaming about ATSs into the abyss?

Partially because I have an allergic reaction to misinformation. Mostly, because the nonsensical rhetoric around hiring and recruiting actually harms job seekers.

I dislike that. Quite a bit, as it turns out.

Friends, you can choose who to follow, listen to, believe, and take advice from. It’s absolutely NONE of my business how you structure your job search. The difference between me and a lot of people talking about ATSs (especially incorrectly) is they often have something to sell. To be completely fair, I work for a company that uses this particular job board, with some solid success! They’re great at their core business – why they’re so willing to invest in and run with this flat out WRONG information is beyond me – it makes them look… kinda dumb. Just sayin.

For me, when anyone (company or individual) doubles down on incorrect or harmful information, we’re past a single data point. We’re now spotting trends – whether it’s endlessly repeating one wrong concept or repeated violations of common sense. Those trends help me determine where and when to spend my emotional (and actual) currency. It’s certainly not going to be with people and companies who are willfully misleading job seekers.

Do with that information what you will – and for more on what ATSs ACTUALLY DO, check out the playlist HERE.

Lying Liars and the Truth About Your Job Search

February 7, 2021 /

Y’ALL.

I am so fit to be tied right now.

My friends know I have this funny hobby of raging against bad ATS advice (lies) on social media. Today I was tagged in just such a post. I won’t link it here (and frankly, there are SO MANY to choose from) but this one hit me especially stupid because the poster claimed to have WORKED IN ATSs FOR 14 YEARS.

If that’s true, you know better.

I looked at the person’s background – some HR stuff, so yeah, maybe part of SELECTING an ATS, or asking for certain features. If this person is ACTUALLY MAKING THE CLAIM that the ATS does… well, let’s just look shall we? Here’s what the poster had to say –

You are applying through the ATS which is going to screen your resume “out”.

90% of jobseekers resumes are not ATS Friendly hence not getting interviews.

False. In other words, you’re lying.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

The ATS is going to “screen you out”
The ATS does NOTHING ZIP ZILCH NADA without a human telling it to. While some systems use “knock out” questions MOST recruiters (and believe me, I’ve asked HUNDREDS) still review resumes one by one. Search strings and filters can only go so far, and most ATSs are simply NOT that advanced.

90% of job seeker resumes are not “ATS friendly”
This is so utterly meaningless I don’t even know where to start. I personally see resumes as ATTACHMENTS. It’s worked this way in Taleo, both business and enterprise editions. I’ve seen it in iCIMS. I’ve also seen this in homegrown systems used by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. “ATS friendly” is such a ridiculously stupid statement it cracks my brain.

The only thing that comes even REMOTELY CLOSE to explaining this, is the problem with parsing. When you upload your resume, the ATS “should” recognize certain words (like your name) and put them in the name field. This doesn’t always happen. If you have charts and pictures and colors, the ATS can be confused and ask you to reenter all your info. This has NOTHING to do with how a recruiter sees your resume. Again, it’s an ATTACHMENT. In all it’s colorful, charts and pictures glory. Now if those resumes are RECRUITER friendly is a whole other topic – the point being, the recruiter STILL SEES IT.

But Amy, why do you care?

Great question. I ask myself all the time why I bother. Thought leaders gotta think, I suppose. Think of ways to manipulate desperate job seekers with their made up statistics and scare tactics, it seems. The bottom line for me – I care too much about my industry to stay quiet. And I work too hard to bust recruiting myths to sit quietly when people say things that are verifiably not true. Ultimately, this doesn’t hurt ME – the next time I’m looking for a role, I know better to fall for this kind of nonsense. I live and breathe recruiting – but so many others DON’T.

I also reached out to the original poster, only to find my comment DELETED and I was BLOCKED. So much for transparency, eh? Makes you wonder what they’re afraid of. Truth, is my guess.

I’ve talked elsewhere about how recruiters view resumes. The MOST important thing a job seeker can do to improve their chances is to make it clear on the resume how you fit the role you’re applying to. That’s it.

No magic format. No secret template. No bots to beat.

If you’re a job seeker struggling with getting your resume noticed, start with my All About Resumes playlist. Most questions will hopefully be answered there, but between the blog and the channel, I try to provide actual, real world guidance that you can use in your job search IMMEDIATELY – no strings attached. I also wrote a post breaking down your job search into 5 easy steps – check that out HERE. And don’t forget The Truth About The ATS playlist too.

Good luck out there, and don’t let the bastards get you down.

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