One of the responsibilities I have as an Engineering Manager in YouGov is being also a hiring manager for my team. I'm responsible for the process because I care to find a correct balance between skills & the need for more engineers (Open Positions).
This is brilliant: Software engineer got tired of getting rejected by automated screeners and tested a theory.
Real resume: 0% success
Obviously fake resume stuffed with buzzwords: 90% success rate
Calls from from Notion, AirBnB, Reddit, Dropbox, Robinhood, etc03:44 AM - 30 Oct 2021
When I've read a Reddit thread about a software engineer who got tired of getting rejected by automated screeners and filled their CV with absurd information they got a 90% call back rate from companies like Reddit, AirTable, Dropbox, Bolt, Robinhood, and others I was like
Reality check
I've heard about these tools before, but I wasn't aware of how strict the rules are to get a good score.
I liked my CV because I got positive feedback about it from different recruiters which actually read it, so I've put my CV into the free evaluating tool available online, and my CV's initial score was 23/100 😱!
So I assume I wouldn't receive a call from any company that is using the screening tool - which sucks. After spending 15 minutes and making some quick fixes (mostly structure) I re-tested my CV and my score was 67.
Now I have to focus on the impact section and I can probably go much higher without lying -but I liked the CV before changes more.
Transparency
We all want to reduce bias in our recruitment process - me too.
Automating stuff seems like a really good idea because algorithms are not biased, except the process still is. People which know about the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) vs people which don't and are not aware of how relevant it is.
What would be great is to be more transparent with candidates and if they were rejected because their CV didn't go through the automation we should just tell them that. We can even provide automated feedback to them, the same as some companies do with automated tasks & assignments. But transparency should be a Two-Way street, and if you plan to lie in your CV please don't, the company will find out anyway through assignment or interview but everyone will waste their time already.
So if you didn't hear back from the big company you would love to work for don't worry maybe just tweak your CV :).
Top comments (1)
Thank you for sharing. This confirms some suspicions I had.
Perhaps I should misspell every buzzword so automated tools won't find them but recruiters who read the bloody thing will, as to weed out companies with shit recruitment procedures and as such, likely shit colleagues... or include them as images and hide the text with adversarial AI.
Something to think about.