What Happens To Your Resume When You Apply For A Job — And Why Isn't It Getting You Hired?
You have an impressive consulting resume; you have a solid educational background, have worked with well-known companies, and have specialized experience you know companies are looking for. But you’ve been applying for consulting roles and, so far, all you’ve heard back? Crickets.
When you apply for a job—especially one that you know you’re qualified for—it can be frustrating not to hear back. You know you should be booking interviews—and, ultimately, booking jobs—but for whatever reason, your resume isn’t driving the kind of results you expected.
The truth is, the problem is not you. It’s not your resume. It’s not your background, your education, or your experience—it’s the system.
Let’s take a look at what happens to your resume when you apply for a job—and how it’s stopping you from getting hired:
What happens to your resume when you apply for a job
There are so many different ways to apply for a job; you can apply through a company’s website, through an online portal, or by sending your resume directly to an internal contact. But no matter how you apply, chances are, your resume is going to end up in the same place—in the company’s resume parsing software.
What is resume parsing software—and how does it work?
Resume parsing software uses machine learning to extract key data points from your resume; that way, your information can be more easily sorted and searched within the system.
Resume parsing has some definite benefits. Resume parsing software is designed to make things easier for recruiters, hiring managers, and HR professionals; instead of having to go over each individual resume and evaluate each candidate’s fitness for a particular role—or search through their backlog of resumes searching for the perfect candidate—the resume parsing software does it for them.
Clearly, resume parsing software is a win for recruiters—but for candidates? Not so much. Again, this software is designed to make it easy for recruiters to find candidates—not to make it easier for you, as a candidate, to find a job.
But how, exactly, does resume parsing software make it harder for candidates to get interviews—and, ultimately, get hired?
Problems with resume parsing (AKA why your resume isn’t getting you hired)
There are a myriad of reasons why resume parsing can be a major roadblock for candidates in their job search, including:
Your resume isn’t being evaluated by an actual person
There’s no denying that machine learning has come a long way in recent years. But it doesn’t matter how sophisticated the AI behind a resume parsing software is—it’s not a person.
AI currently isn’t capable of the same kind of critical thinking that humans are. The human brain is just better at reasoning, consideration, and evaluation; a recruiter or hiring manager reviewing your resume is going to have a much higher ability to deduce whether you’re fit for a role—but since a real, live person probably isn’t reviewing your resume, it’s not getting the proper evaluation it deserves.
Resume parsing software looks for keywords—not experience
Parsing software extracts key data points to make them searchable. So, if you don’t have the right keywords (or if you have the right keywords in the wrong area of your resume), you’re not going to come up in relevant searches—and recruiters aren’t going to be able to find you, even if you’re a slam dunk for a role.
This is a problem across all industries and professions—but it’s especially problematic in consulting, where employers are looking for candidates with proven abilities and experience within a specific skill set.
So, for example, let’s say you’re a Python developer—and you’ve spent the past decade of your career using Python to build applications for start-ups. When a resume parsing software looks at your resume, it doesn’t see your 10 years of application development experience; all it sees is “Python.” And because Python can also be used for data extraction, your resume may get lumped into the data science category—and, as a result, you can miss out on being considered for relevant software development opportunities.
Or, let’s say a recruiter runs a search for the title “financial technology consultant”—and you’ve listed your experience in “fintech.” Same job, same industry—but because they’re different keywords, there’s a high probability that your resume won’t get pulled into the search.
Bottom line? Resume parsing software looks for specific keywords—not specific experience. And because your experience isn’t being evaluated (or, in many cases, even considered), it can make it more challenging to get your resume in front of recruiters for relevant roles.
Your resume can get lost in the shuffle (or, in this case, the software)
Like any piece of technology, resume parsing software isn’t foolproof. There’s going to be issues with data extraction. And if your resume isn’t properly sorted, it can get lost in the black hole of the resume parsing software—never to be seen or heard from again.
So, for example, let’s say a tech glitch causes your software consulting resume to be improperly categorized as an IT consulting resume. Once you’re categorized in the system as an IT consultant, you’re only going to appear in IT searches—and because your experience isn’t relevant for those types of roles, you’re not going to get any interviews. And, more importantly, your resume isn’t going to be included in any software consulting searches—so you’re not going to even be considered for the roles you’re actually qualified for.
Resume parsing is a broken system—and it’s a system that doesn’t work for candidates.
How to work around resume parsing software—and get yourself hired
Clearly, resume parsing software can make it difficult to get interviews—and, ultimately, to get hired. So what’s the solution?
Cut out the middleman
Many consultants find their gigs through staffing agencies. But the truth is, staffing agents work for their clients—not for candidates.
If you’re a consultant, you’re likely to face a host of challenges in working with a staffing agency, including:
An overwhelming database. Staffing agencies get hundreds—sometimes even thousands—of resumes each month. Those resumes get sorted and stored in the database. But all of those resumes can be overwhelming. Often, recruiters would rather start from scratch, actively recruiting for open roles using other methods (like LinkedIn) than sort through the thousands of resumes already stored in their database—which obviously puts applicants at a disadvantage.
Lack of transparency. Staffing agencies are notoriously secretive; you have no idea what they’re charging the client—and how that compares to your bill rate. In fact, staffing agencies are incentivized to pay you as low of a rate as possible—because the less they pay you, the more profit they get to keep from the client.
Inconsistency. The candidate experience can be frustrating. For example, a recruiter will reach out about your resume, saying they have a great opportunity—and then you’ll never hear from them again. Or they say you have the perfect background and that they’re going to set you up on a client interview—and then don’t return your calls for weeks. The inconsistency can be demoralizing—and can dampen your other efforts to find your next opportunity.
Cutting the staffing agency (AKA the middleman) out of the equation allows you to focus on alternative solutions—solutions that are actually going to get you hired.
Evaluate and optimize your current resume
Once you cut out the middleman, the most crucial step to having your resume get you hired? Figure out what’s working—and what’s not working—with your current resume.
As mentioned, resume parsing software isn’t the most candidate-friendly. But it’s what most recruiters use to source, search, and hire candidates—so if you want to get hired, you need to structure your resume in a way that’s optimized for parsing software.
There are a variety of strategies you can use to get around resume parsing software and get your resume in front of the right people, including:
Spread out your keywords... Include searchable keywords in various sections of your resume (for example, if you’re a Java developer, include Java in the both the skills section and within your experience descriptions), which can increase your relevancy score—and make it more likely that your resume makes it through the parsing software’s search and sort
...But don’t keyword stuff. You might think that because resume parsing software uses keywords to evaluate a candidate’s relevancy for a role, the more times you can use the keyword throughout the resume, the better. But resume parsing software is designed to catch this kind of “keyword stuffing,” so it can actually work against you. Plus, even if you do make it past the resume parsing software and onto a recruiter’s desk, keyword stuffing doesn’t read well on a resume—so it will still work against you.
Use acronyms and proper names. Include both acronyms and fully spelled out search terms (for example, API and Application Programming Interface), which will help your resume come up in relevant searches—no matter what the recruiter uses (acronym vs. proper name) to search.
Evaluate your current resume. Before you can optimize your resume, you need to know how it’s currently performing with resume parsing software—and what you can stand to improve. ConsultDirect’s Improve My Resume Tool will parse your resume using an algorithm that replicates the majority of resume parsing software—and deliver key insights into how your resume is being viewed by these systems and what you can do to improve your searchability.
Resume parsing can make landing your next consulting opportunity a challenge. But with a few small changes, you can develop a resume that not only gets you noticed, but gets you hired.
Ready to get started? Upload your resume to ConsultDirect’s Improve My Resume Tool, optimize your resume, and use your resume to land your dream gig!