Find the latest post by Xavier Vilain, founder of the recruitment solution Nicoka CABS, in the Huffington Post.
How to Hack Recruitment Software
"Software filters out creative fonts," this software specialist points out among his tips.
RECRUITMENT - The company needs talent. Human resources in large corporations, startups, SMEs, and other NGOs have enlisted the help of HR software. Before having a human in front of you or on the phone, resumes are analyzed by software created by humans. It's a time-saver that relieves individuals from repetitive tasks and offers recruiters, HR, and department heads a selection of "pre-approved" and relevant candidates and resumes. A few rules should be known to navigate the software filters, ensure not to be disqualified by a machine, and perhaps stand out by understanding the logic of this unique reader, which is ultimately quite predictable.
Humans read newspapers, not machines
The more the layout follows a column system, the more complex it is for HR software to analyze. The software itself performs segmentations and favors linear resumes. Column systems can cause misinterpretations since loosely connected information ends up on the same line, making no sense to the machine.
Software filters out creative fonts
Down with strange fonts! In 2010, Time Magazine described the Comic Sans MS font as: "Perhaps the worst font of all time". HR software shares this view and, as often, goes further than their creators. The more eccentric the font, the less they understand it. Poorly recognized, poorly identified, poorly transcribed, it risks not respecting spacing and typographic rules mastered by the software. Result: words may end up joined together, and essential ones may not be readable.
The weight and impact of photos
Portraiture is already not easy; it is also technical. Photos that are too heavy burden resumes, which are then removed from the virtual stack. They become slow to analyze, leaving only more accessible competitors because they are lighter. Stacking "home" edits is also a false good idea. A photo where the retouching is apparent, especially topped with another visual (logo, icon, typography), will definitively confuse the software recognition. Conversely, a retouched photo then converted into a low-definition image format is recognized and noted as a positive point by most software.
Sometimes the entire resume is an image, and candidates then take risks. Software only knows how to read and interpret text. A word processor format resume is better to ensure everything is included. An advantage for candidates not used to handling graphic objects.
Software detecting plagiarized resumes
Software does not make a moral judgment on how a resume is created. But if the initial document was designed by one person and has often changed hands, there may be digital traces leading to people, resulting in identifications too scattered to be recognized. Hazardous hyperlinks, email addresses, or a colleague's contact details in the footer lead to confusion. Again, the resume is dismissed.
Essential information must be highlighted
It seems obvious, but software does not have eyes. Candidates, who do, must ensure certain priority information is clearly readable to achieve a "match" with a job offer. Facilitate the "extraction" of your resume. Starting with geographical location. Is the postal code clearly stated? Does the phone number link to a region unrelated to the position? Is the city misspelled or harshly abbreviated, making geographical identification impossible and thus disqualifying the resume? Another key criterion is the position! Are the keywords related to the sought position buried at the bottom of the page in an artificial word cloud of 8 shades of light green? That's a mistake. Recent experiences should be emphasized, along with words that will resonate with the upcoming position, and should therefore be placed at the top of the resume.
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