The Internet is nothing new. At least it doesn’t feel new. It has been around for decades, and has been, by necessity, integrated into just about every business in the U.S. For job seekers the Internet has become the de facto tool for searching for opportunities, and submitting resumes. Job boards, such as Monster, or Craigslist, allow job seekers to easily sift through openings to find the ones that might fit, or interest them. The ease of applying for a job however creates its own issues both for employers, and job seekers. Job postings can be inundated with thousands of applicants. Sifting through these resumes can be tedious, and relying on scanning applications to read, and parse out relevant information from resumes can be imprecise. The Internet is not a stagnant technology however, and as it grows and becomes faster, new tools are emerging to augment and improve the hiring process online.
Applicant Tracking Systems, The Current Standby
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are likely the most widely used way for businesses to sift through the thousands of resumes they may receive. ATS are great tools that can parse out relevant information from resumes by focusing on keywords, and allows recruiters to quickly sort the good resumes from the bad. There are downsides to using an ATS as well, since applicants may not use the correct keywords to describe their experiences, or applicant’s resumes may be filtered out due to lacking a certain requirement, even though they have excellent experience.
The Growing Popularity of the Online Recommendation
The shortcomings of ATS stem just as much from the use of the resume format that is used for job applications as anything else. There is a lot of information stored on resumes, and it’s difficult for an automated program to find every piece of relevant information. Because of this, other services have begun cropping up that offer job seekers to present themselves online in other ways than just a resume. Websites dedicated to allowing job seekers to display their recommendations have become popular tools for both job seekers, and recruiters. Linkedin is likely the easiest name to recognize in this field, but other sites like Recmnd.me exist as well, and offer a more direct scoring process for recommendations.
More applications are being released that are designed to take advantage of the power of the Internet. As time goes on the need for job applicants to distinguish themselves, and recruiters to choose the right applicants will lead to new innovations in the hiring process. At AkkenCloud, we understand that innovation is a constant need, and we will continue to cover how technological innovations are driving changes to the hiring process.
