Why applicant tracking systems are broken by design

Aurornis 42 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I was waiting for this rambling post to get to the point until I realized it's just an ad for the author's new ATS. They're trying to convince you that other products are bad but theirs is good.

	▲	esquire_900 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Which seems weird, it's very technical. Monolith design, relationship types, I've never met an HR person who wondered about those kinds of things

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jakub_g 39 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> The product is the sales demo that impresses VPs. Meanwhile, recruiters are still shuffling candidates around in Google Sheets.

This gave me a chuckle, because a colleague who talked with HRs just told me exactly this last week.

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helle253 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I hate to be that guy, but HR is one of the things I always point to as a perfect example of "A system's purpose is what it does"

- HR's task is NOT with maximizing results/IC output

- HR's task is minimizing corporate risk

HR is, in most corporate environments, doing exactly what it is intended to do (minimize risk)!

Hiring anybody, from an org's perspective, is insanely risky for a million different reasons. Therefore, there are a million different (valid and invalid) reasons to reject a candidate - which is what overwhelmingly happens, unless HR is sidestepped via referrals and networking.

	▲	genpfault an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> "A system's purpose is what it does" POSIWID: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
	▲	OutOfHere 38 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		But does it minimize corporate risk? Those who get ghosted or face an unfair interview can overwhelmingly report a negative experience online, which then slowly drags the company down because it hurts the candidate pool. I assert it does not minimize this dimension of corporate risk.

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snapetom 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Some interesting insights, but author is speculating on a technical solution for a process that's broken * for the job seeker *.

The fact that there's often thousands of applicants for one job is exactly what companies and recruiters want. This system shifts all the power to them, and they're perfectly happy with it. No amount of technical fixes will change this, or if it's even necessary.

	▲	gwbas1c 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> The fact that there's often thousands of applicants for one job is exactly what companies and recruiters want Are you sure that's true? I often read complaints here from hiring managers that have to wade through far too many obviously unqualified applications.