Friday, March 15, 2013
The Importance Of Resume Formatting [INFOGRAPHIC]
Come Recommended: Gone are the days where job seekers simply sent a completed employment application and resume to the human resources department of their dream employer. As we’ve entered the digital age and a less-than-desirable job climate, the hiring process has been updated to transform the time and energy spent sifting through the resumes of potential candidates.
Enter applicant tracking systems, an important tool for many HR managers. Often known as an ATS, this software application electronically manages a variety of hiring needs. From sifting through hundreds of resumes to choosing employees based on necessary skill sets, applicant tracking systems can easily become any job seeker’s foe during the hiring process.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
It's a little depressing that a computer decides if someone is a good fit for a company, but, as the article said, in the current job market and digital age, it does make it hard for employers to find a good match. And honestly, if it means a better applicant gets more better attention, then I understand. Ah, but so is the way the world works nowadays, and we all need to work to get our resumes noticed.
This article makes me wonder how often an applicant tracking system like this is used in our industry. It would make sense that some larger companies like Cirque and PRG used one, but it seems much too complex for the size of the majority of companies in the business. This article is rather useless, because it does not actually provide any instruction or advice on how to best format your resume to make it through the computer system. It just points out that this problem exists, which is really not very helpful at all. While I do not necessarily like the fact that companies are using systems like this, I do understand the reasoning behind it and the amount of money it can save.
This article points out a new consideration to take when formatting your resume, but it doesn't clearly define what the new format is. Therefore, making the act of reading this article quite frustrating. Aside from that, it does point out something that's very concerning within the business world. It comes as no surprise to me that large corporations and financial institutions would use these. But, does the theatre industry even use this resume "chopping"? A grand majority of the jobs I'll apply to will be small(ish) theatre companies, or even if I do apply for the larger ones, theatre resumes are a bit more variable than say, an accountant's resume. I'm in favor of having a formatted resume, and I'll continue to update and review my resume for currency and for formatting, but I'm not so sure I'm going to be formatting things for a computer to sort through, more likely someone with an e-mail inbox full of prospective employees.
I can understand formatting your resume for something like this if you're applying to a big company that is likely to use this software but most of the places we apply for in theater i like to assume wouldnt be using this software as they are looking at individual people instead of an applicant pool. I could be wrong though, maybe resume formatting is more important than i think and ill never get a job because i didn't include keywords...
Taken in conjunction with the other resume article this week about resume building applications, there is clearly a trend in the job application process towards automation, both on the part of the applicant and the company. Of course the onus is on the applicant to be attractive to both the computer and, eventually, hopefully, the interviewer. The trick, it would seem, is to be creative and memorable in terms of design and content, while including a bundle of pertinent information in the form of keywords that the parser will recognize. Accomplishing this without sounding cliched and steeped in managerial resume-speak is a daunting task. As we look at summer gigs, especially with the bigger companies as Dan points out, we should keep this unique task in mind. Whatever happened to good old nepotism?
Some of the larger companies are shifting to a application database, I just witnessed this when applying to PRG and Cirque, but I'm not sure how that system catalogs the applications post-submission. I will say that if it does chop and sort then I was apparently very fortunate as I received a speedy response from the Staffing Manager of PRG via LinkedIn (which is where I first located the job posting), but who knows...
I find it hard to believe that the majority of the entertainment business will swing this way...but only time will tell.
Post a Comment