If you haven’t applied for a job in the past few years, know that things have changed – significantly. Almost everyone requires that you apply online, which is fine by me. I am all about online. However, I recently learned that this reliance on computers extends to scanning resumes for key words using “proprietary algorithms”, “advanced semantic search”, “computational linguistics”, and “statistical inference.”
If you are like me and thinking, “What?”, keep reading. Technology has advanced and staffing continues to be reduced in all areas, especially human resources, so they now rely on computer software to glean applicants.
This interesting and somewhat sobering information was found on News Observer in their article, “Use key phrases in resume to catch computer’s eye.” The key to working with the technology instead of against it is to use the posting verbiage in your resume in obvious ways so that the computer picks up on the commonalities. Sounds like a trick, but when you consider that the average job applicant has a 4 to 5 percent chance of getting a “hit” from a computer selection process without resume optimization, it emphasizes the seriousness. Reports show that those same odds can increase to 50 percent when appropriate optimization is applied.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in taxonomies, metadata, and semantic enrichment to make your content findable.
