Self-splaining the Applicant Tracking Systems
Thinking aloud to myself in order to make sense of those endless job application forms.
Jobseeker and career-shifter here. I’ve been applying to entry-level jobs for about 4 months now. Ask any jobseeker in 2024 and they will tell you the market now is a full-contact octagon and a Ninja warrior course rolled into one.
Off the bat, job applications are time-consuming. The amount of repetitive forms to fill in and unpaid “tests” take a toll on mental and financial health. There should be an explanation why I have to jump through so many hoops just to land an interview.
I’m starting this series to organize my findings. I also want to connect to other jobseekers, share notes, so to speak. So, in these articles, I will be looking into the resume processing machineries. I will try to rephrase them in my own words as a jobseeker and a career-shifter. HR and recruitment people, please feel free to enlighten me too.
Chapter 1: The Applicant Tracking System, or the ATS
Oftentimes, when I click “Apply” on a job posting, it’s a link that sends me to an online form.
Depending on how big the company is, there is usually software that organizes applicant data into a database. This is the Applicant Tracking System.
ATS could be part of an entire HR-employee management system. I imagine it’s like the old filing cabinet of employee 401 records. All of an employee’s work-related information would go in a convenient file; basic data, hiring offer, evaluations, etc. This system is probably embedded within the company, managed by both IT and HR.
If I only knew HRIS would be the future of HR, I would probably have stuck to that first job where HRIS was just downloading the timestamps on our digital bundy clock.
Some third-party agencies act like ATS. These placement agencies are the ones I encounter often, as I am applying to many entry-level jobs. This is where the “Apply” button doesn’t bring me to the company website, but to a page that looks like a job board. Maybe you have too: JazzHR, Workable, etc. After I’ve filled in all the blanks and submitted my application, I get an email from these agencies and not the company I applied to.
Just to recap: ATS is a database for job applicants. It can be directly manned by the company, or be a service provided by an agency. Either way, it is an automation. It’s a way to make processing people easier and supposedly faster.
I know this piece is already too long for easy reading, so I’ll describe the questions I’ve commonly seen in my next article.
