Applicant Tracking System: Black Hole Or Active Candidate Database?

This is a guest post from Gail Houston, the Social Media Program Manager for Intuit Careers and a senior recruiter for the team.  She was with me on a recent tele-seminar called: Recruiters Insider Secrets To Getting The Job organized by CPGJobs.  Gail is also an approved career expert here at Tim’s Strategy.

Candidates have expressed a lot of frustration with the corporate Applicant Tracking System (ATS).  They spend a lot of time entering information, applying for jobs and then never hear anything.

They wonder: “Has my resume gone into a big, nasty black hole?”

Some of the common questions I hear from applicants include:

• Has anyone reviewed my resume?
• What is my status within your applicant tracking system?
• Will I be considered for any other roles?
• Should I apply for more than one position?
• Why do I have to attach a resume?
• I applied for an external opening but an internal person got the job, why didn’t they interview them before they posted the role?

All of these are very valid questions and unfortunately there is not just one answer.  There are a lot of different applicant tracking system (ATS) types and corporations can turn on some features and turn off others.

Basically though, an ATS system is a database of both jobs and applicants.

• Hiring managers or recruiters open jobs in their applicant tracking system, those jobs are then posted on their corporate website and can be listed internal only or internal/external.

• Both internal and external candidates will apply for the opening and then the recruiters will review the resumes and either “consider” or “unconsider” them based on the skills and requirements the manager has listed for the job.

• If you feel that you have matched every skill listed and still are not getting a call, remember while you may have meet every minimum requirement there may be other skills that will make a candidate better qualified than other candidates. I have also seen as many as 1800 candidates apply for one opening.

• Also, keep in mind an internal can apply any time in the process, so while a corporation may have tried to do their due diligence reviewing internal candidates prior to posting they won’t tell an internal it is too late to be considered in most cases.

Some corporations will turn on the ability for an applicant to review their status.  Other corporations will send automated replies when a person applies for a job, or when the job closes.  Many times a company will chose not to send a status update that you have been “unconsidered” until after the role closes rather than when they were unconsidered.  Their reasoning is that they may want to “reconsider you” if something changes during the search.

Here are some common mistakes made by applicants:

• Resume not attached – Rather than cutting and pasting their resume, they will put a statement in the system that says “resume attached” but there is not an attachment for the recruiter to review.

• Wrong contact information – They might key in the wrong contact information or the wrong location.  They system may “parse” your information incorrectly and you don’t review it to correct the mistakes.  Since my last name is Houston for instance, an ATS system might assume that I live in Houston and they use my street address for my last name instead.  If I don’t review my information, it will “parse” incorrectly and I will not be considered for jobs in Dallas because the system thinks I live in Houston. The lesson to learn here is to review your info before you save.

• Not having a focus -  I have seen entry level candidates apply for Vice President roles or a candidate apply for an admin role, a programming role and a sales position.  This will turn a recruiter off and typically won’t consider the candidate a viable candidate.  While it might make sense for a project manager to apply for a business analyst role and a project manager role, it simply doesn’t make sense for an engineer to apply for a human resource role when they have no training or experience in HR.  The lesson here is to understand what you want to do and what your skills qualify you to do and apply accordingly.  You will have to apply for each position since the “applicant pool” is typically considered position by position in government audits.

Once in the system will I be considered for other roles?

In short, the answer is yes.  Recruiters will typically search their ATS systems for candidates first prior to posting positions on job boards.  Candidates in an ATS systems have expressed an interest in the company and in most cases have some type of skills that the company needs so it is a logical place to search first.

Also, if you have been turned down for one role, it doesn’t mean you won’t be considered for other roles.  So be polite if you are told you are not a match or did not get the job.  Go back and review the website and see what other positions might be of interest.

Will tracking systems become more open and social?

I believe we will see many of the Applicant Tracking Systems allow candidates to connect to their social profiles.  Some will allow you to apply using your LinkedIn profile for instance, so we will start to see a blend between the “live profiles” and the resume databases of today.  Many of the ATS systems or career websites allow you to now share a job with your network that might not be the best match for you but one of your contacts might be a match.  They are making it easier everyday to share the job with others.

What questions do you have about the application process?  And how have you been positively or negatively affected by a company’s use of an applicant tracking system?

(Editor’s note: To hear more career advice from @intuitcareers, check out their career advice presentations on  Slideshare.  You can follow Gail on twitter @ghouston.  Intuit has a Facebook page.  If you want to work for Intuit, go “like” that page and begin a discussion!  Also follow Intuit Careers on LinkedIn – this is how you penetrate target companies.)

Thanks to thebadastronomer for a great image via Flickr

Written by: Tim Tyrell-Smith
Tags: applicant tracking | applicant tracking system | applicant tracking systems | applicants | ats | ats systems | black hole | business | business software | candidate | candidate database | candidates | employment | gail houston | human resource management | intuit careers | jobs seeker | management | professor | recruiter | recruitment | residency | system | tracking system
Categories: How To Find A New Job