I've found ones that pull from LinkedIn do best, but I treat that as more of a comprehensive CV that I would cut down to be a resume for a particular job.
Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#22Food for thought: If your resume is treated this way, how will you be?
Quite possibly better. The primary function of putting hoops in front of candidates off the street is to reduce the proportion of existing engineer time spent giving technical interviews that result in a "no hire." Unless you really like interviewing, you may well have a better time as an employee at a company that makes things harder for applicants.
There is a concern that drudgery weeds out the wrong people. However, "we want to hire people who have a strong desire to work here in particular" is a pretty common belief in SV and if you subscribe to it, then some putting the lowest-success-rate applicant pool (online resume drops) through some clerical annoyance makes perfect sense.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#23I would skip the entire step of sending in a resume that has to auto fill that type of information (if possible; not sure what industry you're in). Almost every single time I've submitted a resume through whatever process a company has to do so (which almost always includes one of these systems) I RARELY hear back in any decent amount of time (if at all; the amount of technology companies that have never sent any typ…
Direct email works wonders, especially if you have some kind of in. The first software development job I got was from a friend suggesting I email their CTO (after they had done particularly well in an interview). I hadn't heard anything back in a week through the standard process, got a reply to the direct email trying to schedule an on-site within fifteen minutes.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#24I wouldn't send anything but PDF. The only way that it will look the same you intended to.
Parsers are based on millions of CV-s as inputs and they are looking for patterns. I'd guess that layout is much more important than format.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#25_Shameless Plug_ A while back I wrote a Python script automating Job applying procedure for Glassdoor. It worked for a guy who got the job. If one finds it interesting, contact me at kadnan at gmail.com. Both trial and paid version available
You have a paid version of a python script? Curious how that works. `print('Paypal me 20 bucks please!')`
I agree it is weird, but I would guess he sends basic version of script for free to people, and then tells you what additional features the paid one has. However clearly one could just pay for the script and then post it online for everybody, not sure how he would prevent that.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#26I would skip the entire step of sending in a resume that has to auto fill that type of information (if possible; not sure what industry you're in). Almost every single time I've submitted a resume through whatever process a company has to do so (which almost always includes one of these systems) I RARELY hear back in any decent amount of time (if at all; the amount of technology companies that have never sent any typ…
Direct email works wonders, especially if you have some kind of in. The first software development job I got was from a friend suggesting I email their CTO (after they had done particularly well in an interview). I hadn't heard anything back in a week through the standard process, got a reply to the direct email trying to schedule an on-site within fifteen minutes.
I indeed have hired people that approached me this way. Some other sources land directly into my inbox (such as StackOverflow or some niche job sites), but generally it's best to take as short a route as possible. Not many people do that, so it's not something I would hold against a candidate.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#27Food for thought: If your resume is treated this way, how will you be?
Quite possibly better. The primary function of putting hoops in front of candidates off the street is to reduce the proportion of existing engineer time spent giving technical interviews that result in a "no hire." Unless you really like interviewing, you may well have a better time as an employee at a company that makes things harder for applicants. There is a concern that drudgery weeds out the wrong people. Howeve…
I think the resume filtering practices end up filtering out way too high a percentage of people who are actually good at the job and just bad at writing resumes.
A better hoop to force applicants through would be one that demonstrates some aptitude for the job which, upon successful completion, gives them access to the job submission portal/email address.
For example in a customer service role have the applicant play a game that follows through a sample phone call where they have to choose the response they would give to a customers problem.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#28I would skip the entire step of sending in a resume that has to auto fill that type of information (if possible; not sure what industry you're in). Almost every single time I've submitted a resume through whatever process a company has to do so (which almost always includes one of these systems) I RARELY hear back in any decent amount of time (if at all; the amount of technology companies that have never sent any typ…
Excellent advice. I've noticed that it's pretty common for in-house recruiters to be very open to connect on LinkedIn. Reaching out to them first would be my suggestion if you don't have any other connection in the company.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Direct email works wonders, especially if you have some kind of in. The first software development job I got was from a friend suggesting I email their CTO (after they had done particularly well in an interview). I hadn't heard anything back in a week through the standard process, got a reply to the direct email trying to schedule an on-site within fifteen minutes.
I indeed have hired people that approached me this way. Some other sources land directly into my inbox (such as StackOverflow or some niche job sites), but generally it's best to take as short a route as possible. Not many people do that, so it's not something I would hold against a candidate.
Most don't because it's taught that it's frowned upon. I don't mind at all if people try and connect. For a big company like mine, it's probably less of a risk than the ATS or the HR rep screening it out.
Re: Ask HN: Best resume format for auto-fill online job apps?
#30Don't spend too much time worrying about this. There's a reason why companies use ATS and that's to filter out a large volume of applicants. Even if you formatted well, you'll need to have enough keywords, etc. to win against the crowd. Your time is better spent working on networking. My current job came from a friend's referral and honestly, I'm sure many companies will take a referred candidate over a candidate who…
That only really works for companies local to you. Plus, it ignores that at many large companies a referral just means an extra tag in the ATS that might or might not help you bubble up.
I think by referral the poster meant a contact within the company passing a resume directly to the hiring manager. I'll have someone put me down as the referrer when they apply online, but I also ask them to send me a resume and I make sure it goes to the hiring manager.