I know everyone on the hiring side insists their ATS is NOT a problem, but I have specific examples, all in a matter of 2 weeks, that show that ATS are a big problem.

28 Comments

1. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 12:42AM UTC

   What is an ATS?

   Where I come from it is an automatic transfer switch..

   I’ll take the liberty for a gee whiz moment. Forgive me. An ATS switches loads from normal power to a generator backup. Emergency lighting is fed from an ATS. Much of hospital power is backed up by generators each circuit fed by an ATS.

2. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistSeptember 5,2024 at 1:02AM UTC

   ATS ----> Applicant Tracking System.

3. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistSeptember 5,2024 at 1:29AM UTC

   Regarding #1: The ATS is not making decisions about candidates. The ATS can only do what the human user tells it to do. The ATS did not take "all the files of candidates she CHOSE to pursue and put them into the rejection pile". Most likely explanation is that the recruiter accidentally selected the wrong option from a drop down menu or clicked the wrong button.

   Regarding #2: The most likely explanation is that you did not fully complete the application, maybe missed a "submit" button at the end. The ATS does not delete candidates.

   Regarding #3: No idea. That makes no sense.

   Regarding #4: Certain ATS especially Taleo, iCIMS and Workday are notoriously bad at parsing resumes. You should always check to make sure that your resume parsed correctly.

   I have experience with 7 or 8 different ATS and with different configurations of those systems.

   Here's what happens (on all the systems I've ever used) when a new candidate applies to one of my open requisitions:

   I click on their name in the list of new applicants for that requisition. Their resume has not been ranked. It has not been sorted for keywords. It has not been "scored". It has not been filtered.

   There typically is no sorting involved with the application process – which is where keywords come in.

   I click "download resume". It downloads in whatever format - Word doc or PDF - the candidate uploaded it. I look at their resume. With my eyeballs. Every one.

   There's no need for me to search by keywords for new applicants because you're sitting right there in the list of new applicants.

   I know most candidates don't seem to want to hear this, but when they're being rejected, they're being rejected by a human. I'm the bot.

4. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 12:49PM UTC

   Ahh...the voice of reason.

5. Krystin MorganSeptember 6,2024 at 4:02PM UTC

   YES! All of this, 100%!

6. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 2:20PM UTC

   Thank you! These posts blaming the ATS are driving me crazy. It's literally a digital filing cabinet.

7. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 2:46AM UTC

   I think you are confusing an ATS with the application parsing software. Are you talking about what parses your resume and where you enter your application? That information is then later fed into an ATS (from what I understand) and generates a list of applicants (see Joan's post below). Yes, some parsing software can be very buggy, but the more complicated your resume template is, the more errors you encounter. It is best to stick with a boring template, all in black and white, without complex tables. I have scrubbed my resume to eliminate all of the "frills," the parsers do much better when I upload the resume. I have also gotten a much better response to them (most likely because with each "scrubbing" of the resume, the quality improves, too.)

8. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 9:16AM UTC

   ATS systems isn't doing all that you're saying they've done.

   A human rejected your applications, not the software.

   Your examples are just you trying to make yourself feel better for not being selected for jobs you really wanted.

9. Nancy CincottaSeptember 5,2024 at 10:40AM UTC

   Wow. @anonymous What an incredibly rude, unnecessary and inaccurate comment. The OP gives concrete examples of what happened ( some followed up with actual interviews. Including the job she is still currently in the running for. So your conclusions are wrong, but did it make you feel better to troll? I can understand why the OP was anonymous, but you are just a cowardly troll. Have the balls to put your name up behind such strong words. So much for women helping women. @admin

10. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 1:30PM UTC

    Holy Cow. I'm glad you aren't my boss. That was just mean.

11. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 1:53PM UTC

    unprofessional response

12. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 9:03PM UTC

    I 100% agree with this statement!

13. Rebecca MillikenSeptember 10,2024 at 2:41PM UTC

    No reason to be so presumptuous and not nice.

14. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 11:11AM UTC

    I've often wondered about these types of errors happening. Thank for clear and concise examples. I think with so much talent in the market, companies are not feeling the impact because they are receiving a high volume of well qualified candidates.

15. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 12:38PM UTC

    I got over 3700 applications for the last role I worked on. No, ATS's aren't perfect but I don't have time to read 3700 resumes. They are tools and are only as good as the person using them. Maybe instead of focusing on why the ATS system is broken, you should focus that energy on networking and meeting people in your industry so you don't have to rely on blind applications next time.

    No one in hiring thinks ATS systems are perfect, but we all have to rely on them. Fighting them with logic is a waste of time.

16. AnonymousSeptember 5,2024 at 2:43PM UTC

    It’s little wonder everyone dislikes HR professionals so much when this is the prevalent attitude. “It’s not our fault that the system that we created is terrible! Blame yourself for not having the right connections!”

    Maybe you should do away with public postings altogether and only allow hires from direct recommendations/referrals. It would save job-seekers a whole lot of time and headache.

17. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistSeptember 5,2024 at 5:04PM UTC

    Regarding "“It’s not our fault that the system that we created is terrible! "

    What system, specifically, are you referring to here?

18. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 1:06PM UTC

    Please read the post I was responding to.

19. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 2:46PM UTC

    Since we love to live under a veil of anonymity...it would be helpful if you shared here, for Joan's benefit, what the system is.

20. Joan Williams, Senior Talent Acquisition SpecialistSeptember 6,2024 at 4:00PM UTC

    I did read the post and all the comments.

    That does not change my question to you.

    Regarding "“It’s not our fault that the system that we created is terrible!"

    What "system", specifically, are you referring to?

21. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 6:49PM UTC

    HR is not Talent Acquisition. Talent Acquisition is not HR. The systems are in place to legally and easily track those who express interest in an open role. Laws require companies to track applications and assure that all are in a fashion that if audited can be easily retrievable. HR and TA I can tell you did not create these systems we only get to live in them. The costs of those systems is huge and the folks who created them generally have not ever worked in TA. They have worked in tech and programming and usually don't do a great job of understanding TA workflows. Additionally the costs of these systems is huge and most companies buy the cheapest ones they can. While the candidate experience is one that should always be a great one often the limits of these technical glitsches creates a less than optimal time for most applicants.

22. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 1:23PM UTC

    This is not an appropriate HR response. You should ashamed.

23. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 1:29PM UTC

    That was abrasive.

24. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 1:22PM UTC

    I work in HR and this is not an appropriate response.

25. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 3:13PM UTC

    LONG RESPONSE:

    I'd like to address each situation being a long time tech/talent person who owns the ATS in my company. I have worked with most ATS and some are great and others not so much, and with AI now they are definitely changing.

    1. I applied for a position using an ATS. The HR rep did not reach out for an HR interview for a few weeks, and finally explained that the ATS took all the files of candidates she CHOSE to pursue and put them into the rejection pile. (I had received a rejection email very quickly after posting, which is odd because the experience and job ad were aligned.)

    In this first example, it is likely that the person who posted the requisition into the ATS did not set it up correctly. No ATS is perfect out of the box and I would imagine they simply forgot to set it up to not auto-reject. Most ATS have an overall setting that companies use to auto-reject you in 24-48 hours once set up. This was human error.

    2. I used an ATS to apply for another job, and followed up with a colleague who used to work there and contacted the hiring manager to speak on my behalf. The VP followed with a message asking him to send my resume directly to her because she could not find me in the system, despite looking for me, specifically. Luckily, they did their due diligence, and I am still in the running for this position.

    I would also suggest human error here as most VP’s and other execs don’t ever go into an ATS (my strong experience here in big and small companies) they have executive assistants for this very same reason, they generally don’t do these things themselves. I would have had your friend send your resume directly to them, with a note on the why they endorse you and would have completely bypassed the ATS. Then after there is interest they can add you in there for the interview scheduling part and any future interest.

    3. I used an ATS the other day (a newer one that I’d never seen before). It showed a small icon that, when clicked, revealed stats on my entries as I uploaded/entered data. It called out “inappropriate words” on each page. The 2 “inappropriate words” were White (as in “White House”—I work in government contracting), and “Dear”—the greeting on the cover letter. If I had not seen that to change the words in question, I wonder if the ATS would have kicked my resume out of consideration. Now I’m wondering if other ATS software removed my resume from consideration when jobs I seemed to have true experience in, I did not get an interview at all.

    This is AI, many newer ATS are using this type of technology which is still very new and it is reading into your words and making assumptions not always good ones as you example shows of why words matter. In this situation it is a mixed bag, you may not be able to work around unless you do your resume in a format that won’t subject it to that kind of scrutiny. But it may also render you as unreadable which may reject you. I once got a resume from a super talented visual designer and the ATS couldn’t work out his formatting which was incompatible with the system.

    4. This other example was about a month or so ago, but I uploaded my resume to an ATS, and I reviewed it just in case. It *looked* complete, but I realized, in the middle of my “experience” section, it failed to completely populate all the data in the file I uploaded. It omitted the BEST position that most closely matched the role for which I was applying! Luckily, I caught it but who knows if I failed to pick up on that error before. These are some very concerning examples. Hiring may not be broken, but I’m pretty sure your ATS is. ( unless you want something to filter down your choices, haphazardly, so it’s easier?)

    Similar to my response above your formatting and the ATS in question don’t align. Often ATS require a set format and if you do anything creative on the page or use any non-linear formatting it will not know how to read your information into the back end of their system which will render it as an immediate rejection or not add you to the list.

    So the net -net of this is it’s fine to blame ATS but best thing is to look up the ATS that you are submitting into before you do. The bigger the company the more likely they use a complex one with many moving parts. Usually if the role is a popular one you are one of many and the system will help the TA person to filter more easily using criteria pre-set when the role was posted. Pay special attention to formatting, I generally recommend using either word or PDF and assuring that you also add in some parts of their specific role to rise to the top of the filtration they have set up in there. If you have a poor experience when you go through the process and can provide some feedback to the talent team about this I am sure they will be grateful. Do know that the days of mailing and humans reading resumes one by one are long gone and automation has literally sucked the life out of the process of hiring. I for one appreciate on my side of things a good ATS and I do have my absolute favorite but they cost a ton of $$ and many companies use something lightweight just to track things for legal and TA purposes.

26. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 4:39PM UTC

    On this forum, Joan is my OG hero, but I think you come in a close second.

27. AnonymousSeptember 6,2024 at 6:44PM UTC

    Thanks! I've definitely earned that from 30 years in TA/HR/Legal, I have the bruises to prove it....

28. AnonymousSeptember 7,2024 at 4:35PM UTC

    I completely disagree. TA is not part of HR they work alongside each other. Yes, in some organizations they do report one to the other but in most of the places I have led teams, TA is part of operations and Business operations at that. Smaller companies often combine things because of budgets but the functions are distinctly different from one another. You get what you pay for and a good company understands the differences between the 2. One role is as a midwife, the other is the parent.