Package: Recruiting(JS2)

CV / Resume Workbench Overview

Background and Need

The CV (resume) is at the heart of the candidate evaluation process for professional jobs. In the recruiting industry, it is one of the most important tools used to introduce a candidate to a potential hiring manager.

Today, most candidate information is parsed by tools that extract information from the PDF document and store it in the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). While these tools are very powerful, they are not 100% effective in recognizing the significance of all the information in the document. Some recruiting firms employ dedicated teams to review the CV and update missing or incorrect information in the ATS.

It is common practice in the staffing world for recruiters to provide CVs to their clients that have all personal identifying information redacted so that prospective clients cannot bypass the agency and approach the candidate directly. This can be a laborious process that often involves downloading the CV from the ATS and working with it on a desktop computer. Often the recruiters fail to update the ATS, which leads to out of date information and duplicate work.

The concise nature of a CV leads candidates to simplify the descriptions of their work experience. This often results in ambiguous or confusing statements that need clarification. The recruiter's first conversation with a candidate is often centered around gaining clarification of their actual experience and level of contributions. This often results in comments that are tied to words or phrases on the CV itself. On a printed CV, these notes and comments would be written in the margins with highlighted words to provide context.

Skills are another example of the often misleading nature of CVs. Candidates often throw buzz words into their CVs, which strongly imply that they have these skills. A good recruiter will clarify the candidate's level of expertise through various rounds of interviews and uncover other skills that possibly were not included in the CV. This skilling process is an important value add of the recruiter.

It is also common for agencies to make minor edits and inject their logo and recruiter contact information into the CV before presenting a candidate. While some companies prefer to standardize the format of their CVs and abandon the original candidates layout, many believe the stylistic choices made by the candidate are part of the candidate's personality, and therefore relevant to the evaluation process.

Finally, when presenting a candidate to the client, it is also common for the recruiter to highlight the skills and experience that tie to the client's description of the ideal candidate in order to show why this candidate is a good fit.