Does anyone have any insight in how recruitment software works?

Jonathan_Powell

Pretty much every job I have had has come through a recruiter and I have very little luck applying directly to a firm, especially big ones. Now, I know there's a lot of competition etc. but I had a situation that made me curious to know how it all works. I applied for a job that fitted my skill-set perfectly. I had experience in that area, achieved in that area and so on. The cherry on top was this was a professional firm who was looking for someone to work in their other office outside of central London. I lived in that area and could be in work within 30 minutes, 15 if there is no traffic. 

My application was rejected and I didn't get called for an interview. I was so confused; I went through my CV and cover letter to check for mistakes, whether I was coming across too under/overqualified etc. Nothing stood out. By chance, a recruiter I had been working with calls me a week or so later to ask me if I would be interested in the same job I didn't get an interview for. I said yes and a few days later I had the interview. I ended up rejecting the role and the company spent the next few weeks chasing me and the director insisted we have a "coffee" every 4 months for a year to see where I was at. 

Even after they found someone, it was clear it was not their ideal type of candidate as they still wanted to speak with me after and the person was relatively junior for what they were looking for.  I have little hope when submitting an application directly and wanted to know are they mostly driven by algorithms and other software filters. Is not having an English or easy to pronounce name going to affect it? Just surprised that they rejected my direct application but were desperate to speak to me when it was the recruiter making an introduction. 

Brie

The recruiter has managed to tick all the right boxes to get your cv to the person doing the hiring.  If the job includes speaking Japanese but you say you "speak a number of Oriental languages" the computer won't be able to see you as a match.  You need to pick up key words in the job ad and ensure they are in your cv and in the on line form you will no doubt be completing.  

It shouldn't matter if you name is Bob or Pocohantas as that would be blatant discrimination.  

Ultimately though you did have the interview (always good practice!) and decided you were wrong about wanting to work with them.  I wonder perhaps if there might be an issue with expectations about what you are actually after in your employment. 

Sandtree

That part of the software works in the same way Google does just rather than have a database full of websites its full of CVs instead.  The software applies the ranking tools to the CV against the criteria set for the role and returns an ordered list. The top X will then be reviewed by a person to decide who to call for interview. If not enough interview candidates make the cut then the next Y down the list are reviewed until its felt there are 2-3 strong candidates (assuming a single vacancy).

I don't know about right now but not long ago the average job would get over 100 CVs in the first day and could be a few hundred in the first week. No chance of anyone reviewing each of them individually especially given most recruiters will be working multiple roles at the same time.

If you get through the cut with an agent then thats different, we pay (on success) the agencies to do the filtering for us and so they send 2-3 CVs (assuming we have 3-4 agencies on our books) and each of them gets reviewed by a person. Hence computer can say no and person can say yes.

The software, like Google, will (should) know if someone is searching for "Request For Price" then it should also pick up RFP but if you've said you "went through a multi-stage process to select the appropriate vendor" then its unlikely to rank you well. CVs like websites somewhat need keyword stuffing... ideally mirror the language used in the ad is a reasonable bet.

BrassicWoman

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

Slinky

Sadly, it's been proven in some studies that having a difficult to pronounce name can be an issue. It shouldn't be, but it does happen.   https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/study-ethnic-sounding-name-employers-fewer-calls-back

Sandtree

BrassicWoman said:

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

What are you calling higher level? Certainly jobs up to £200k we hire for are all initially screened electronically. Last time we were forced to put such a job on a major job board we got over 2,000 applicants... no way am I reading all of those personally.

Jonathan_Powell

Sandtree said:

BrassicWoman said:

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

What are you calling higher level? Certainly jobs up to £200k we hire for are all initially screened electronically. Last time we were forced to put such a job on a major job board we got over 2,000 applicants... no way am I reading all of those personally.

Could you shed some more light on how those are electronically screened? Are they matching key words from the job description and the CV? Does is look at the time spent in each role? Title? Etc. 

BrassicWoman

Sandtree said:

BrassicWoman said:

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

What are you calling higher level? Certainly jobs up to £200k we hire for are all initially screened electronically. Last time we were forced to put such a job on a major job board we got over 2,000 applicants... no way am I reading all of those personally.

good for you.. different companies are all different though?

Sandtree

Jonathan_Powell said:

Sandtree said:

BrassicWoman said:

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

What are you calling higher level? Certainly jobs up to £200k we hire for are all initially screened electronically. Last time we were forced to put such a job on a major job board we got over 2,000 applicants... no way am I reading all of those personally.

Could you shed some more light on how those are electronically screened? Are they matching key words from the job description and the CV? Does is look at the time spent in each role? Title? Etc. 

As with a lot of things, to the end user its a black box and whilst the principles of how it works are clear the exact algorithm used is not exposed.  HR ask for key experience, sample job titles and the role profile will already state the minimum experience expected. We get back from HR c10 CVs which are still in the tool and uses its workflow to mark as yes, no, maybe with option for feedback. 

The system is supposed to also highlight previous applications and bring back the role applied for, salary requested and any notes logged but its not great at doing so.

BrassicWoman said:

Sandtree said:

BrassicWoman said:

los of higher level jobs are still screened by humans. 

What are you calling higher level? Certainly jobs up to £200k we hire for are all initially screened electronically. Last time we were forced to put such a job on a major job board we got over 2,000 applicants... no way am I reading all of those personally.

good for you.. different companies are all different though?

Clearly a one man band hiring their first office junior isnt going to be paying thousands for HR recruitment software and so yes there are many approaches. However your statement was thats lots of higher jobs are screened by humans which implies that the same company is using software for lower jobs... I've not come across any company that has spent the money on software and then abandons it once the candidates get to a certain grade. This obviously doesnt apply to CxO type roles where they are not advertised in the first instance.