Electronic Robot Flappers
In Gulliver's Travels (1726), Jonathan Swift describes the Laputians, people so lost in their own thoughts that they needed servants (flappers) to bean them with a small bag, on the ear if they were supposed to listen, and on the mouth if they were supposed to speak:
The flappers did this, when in the opinion of the flapper, the master was supposed to listen or talk.
The novel was biting satire, of course, directed at the legions of court advisers and servants who populated the governments of Europe and shielded the nobles from the rabble, and from reality.
Anyone who thinks about it for a few minutes can see the obvious danger in allowing those who wield real power from depending on their underlings for everything...
Oh! silly me, forget I said that.
You might be asking yourself why this story is on a blog devoted to employment issues. I'll tell you why: companies are using software to screen resumes. That software is called an Applicant Tracking System, with recently added AI and NLP functions to screen resumes and score based on keywords. If you apply for a job where this software is used, your resume will be compared against a list of keywords and scored accordingly. Low-scoring resumes, even if from a person who is eminently qualified, are automatically discarded and ignored.
Let's rewind and grok this concept fully: HR departments and managers are apparently so busy, they have to have robotic help to screen their resumes. In short, just like Swift's Laputians, they don't pay attention unless, in the opinion of their software, their attention is warranted. The software has become HR's and management's flappers.
What does this mean for job hunters? You cannot just write up a resume detailing what you have done and expect a hiring person to even read it. You have to know the keywords (I guess from the job description), make sure all of them are in your resume somewhere, just to get noticed. That means you have to customize your resume for every job you expect to apply for. That is hours of work. In reality, we all need to apply to many, many jobs to get a few good options at the end of the job hunt.
A search for a solution is in progress. It will be posted here when found. In the meantime, I suggest you check these issues out for yourselves. Yaaagh!
Humor anecdote: I just talked to someone at work who had a tech position open. HR sent him two bus driver resumes. They had rejected all the qualified candidates using keyword search software.
The flappers did this, when in the opinion of the flapper, the master was supposed to listen or talk.
The novel was biting satire, of course, directed at the legions of court advisers and servants who populated the governments of Europe and shielded the nobles from the rabble, and from reality.
Oh! silly me, forget I said that.
You might be asking yourself why this story is on a blog devoted to employment issues. I'll tell you why: companies are using software to screen resumes. That software is called an Applicant Tracking System, with recently added AI and NLP functions to screen resumes and score based on keywords. If you apply for a job where this software is used, your resume will be compared against a list of keywords and scored accordingly. Low-scoring resumes, even if from a person who is eminently qualified, are automatically discarded and ignored.
Let's rewind and grok this concept fully: HR departments and managers are apparently so busy, they have to have robotic help to screen their resumes. In short, just like Swift's Laputians, they don't pay attention unless, in the opinion of their software, their attention is warranted. The software has become HR's and management's flappers.
What does this mean for job hunters? You cannot just write up a resume detailing what you have done and expect a hiring person to even read it. You have to know the keywords (I guess from the job description), make sure all of them are in your resume somewhere, just to get noticed. That means you have to customize your resume for every job you expect to apply for. That is hours of work. In reality, we all need to apply to many, many jobs to get a few good options at the end of the job hunt.
A search for a solution is in progress. It will be posted here when found. In the meantime, I suggest you check these issues out for yourselves. Yaaagh!
Humor anecdote: I just talked to someone at work who had a tech position open. HR sent him two bus driver resumes. They had rejected all the qualified candidates using keyword search software.
Comments
Post a Comment