It has been proposed to me that humans don’t read resumes anymore at large companies. That they are machine read. Is this true?
Not true at the company I work at / have worked at.
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At larger companies, I think there is an automated prescreening and eventually a real person reads a resume, but, yes, there’s an initial screening.
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Same here.
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Yes, at many companies with a great many resumes received, the digital scanner does the first cut on resumes before forwarding to a human for review. More efficient.
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Yes, people read resumes. Many candidates don’t believe this, so they do dumb things-- resumes in 8 point type (virtually unreadable if you are past age 30), lots of weird graphics, photos of themselves (common in other parts of the world but not done in the US), logos of every company they’ve ever worked for which makes the resume look like a bizarre mishmash of color and patterns, AND-- my pet peeve- NO CONTACT INFORMATION.
Yes, I could take an hour and go back to the main input system, match up your resume with the email that was used to send the resume or do a deep dive into the hyperlinks embedded in the upload. Or not.
Real people read resumes. Use normal size fonts, no colors, and put your email address at the top!
I have colleagues who work for companies where a first cut is done by the ATS system but it is a VERY gross cut. If you are interviewing for someone board certified in neurology, any resume that does not state “board certification” will get cut. If you are interviewing for a general counsel, any resume without a JD will get cut.
The screens are pretty basic. People apply for all sorts of jobs that they are nowhere near qualified for. Why? I do not know.
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My son thought no one read his resume at a tech company one summer. At least his boss and none of the interviewers read it by their own admission.
He also thought at the second summer, none of the 8-10 interviewers read it. As a separate matter, by the end of the summer, they had 80 pages of feedback on him.
Some of it is maybe due to states requiring unemployed to apply to X jobs per week to be able to collect unemployment benefits. If job ads in one’s field are scarce, the person might apply (and is encouraged to apply) to jobs with an overlapping subset of skills just to get those X applications in.
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Actually, in my job, I was the primary screener of applicants. I read the applications AND resumes. And yes I was primarily tasked with choosing who would be interviewed.
Agree with @blossom There was also a trend for a while where a shadowy picture was in the background in resumes…sometimes rendering them unreadable.
And don’t get me going about words spelled incorrectly, dates that can’t possibly be correct, etc.
In addition to having a resume…please proofread it…and have someone else read it too!
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I don’t think the office of unemployment is encouraging paralegals to apply for jobs as General Counsel at an insurance company! Yes, there is overlap. But a job that requires a JD and bar admission… you either have it or you don’t.
There is a vicious cycle:
- Employers post job openings with long wish lists of “requirements”, only a few of which are actually required, perhaps to try to reduce the number of applicants who are unsuitable for the job, or because they want a clone of the valued employee who just departed.
- Job seekers realize that the long wish lists of “requirements” are not all real requirements, so those who meet only one or a few of the “requirements” apply. Of course, they don’t know which of the “requirements” are the real requirements, so most such applicants are unsuitable for the job, but they don’t know that before applying.
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I think this deserves extra emphasis.
Apple for example gets thousands of resumes a day. Humans simply don’t read those. They are screened by Automated Tracking Systems (ATS). A resume needs to be ATS compliant.
Then, if you make the cut, it will be read by a human, one that will have limited time to screen it.
It should be one page (unless you have publications or clinical research trials to list) and as @blossom said, have the important information outlined in an easily digestible format.
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Many senior people would not be able to fit everything on one page with a reasonable font size. However, the usual advice is that a long resume should be able to make the sale (for an interview), or at least keep the reader interested, on the first page.
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Obviously not - not where the required level of education is so much different. But people may use this as a way to get a resume into the database where it could be picked up later when a relevant position opens up. It is surprising how long some corporate databases keep resumes… I know a person who got a new job after a call - out of the blue! - regarding a position at a company where they applied 3 years ago and never heard a peep from until this call. The HM asked the HR to filter the existing database of resumes for suitable candidates!
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The automated tracking is done for entry-level and similar positions for which they get literally a million resumes. Senior positions are filled through headhunters and networking. Middle category lateral jobs would get human review early as far fewer applicants apply.
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Not all senior people are hooked (connections / networking) for jobs that they are seeking.
Indeed, senior people whose industry went into downturn may find that their hooks are useless because they are into employers that are not hiring.
Additionally, the more senior you get, the more often your best contacts have retired and can no longer provide useful connections.
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I think it depends.
At large companies, they are not reading your resume - they simply use it to fill in their profile fields. They are seeking your profile if it has words they are seeking.
I see this first hand. The interviewer is given a copy of the profile.
But I imagine at smaller companies, that are less automated in HR, they’re still read.
Much of HR today continues to be outsourced. Many in the field are analysts cranking data and not the HR folks of old.
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Many government agencies use a screening program for the first read. It is looking for the words that are in the job posting (contracting, drafting, team). Many counselors suggest you use the same language in your resumes which may require a different resume for each job.
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My daughter is applying to Partnership for Public Service.
This is on the website.
“We use machine learning for an initial comparison of resumes against the education, experience, and skills requirements of the job description.”
First time I’ve ever seen anything like that.
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