There are two separate things going on in the linked post. One is the absence of a standard format as identified. The second is that HR software generally is enterprise software sold to leadership where usability is an afterthought, and so it only gets minimal development focus on having a quality resume ingestion algorithm. So you get the terrible parsing the author complains about. I'm confident that if any buyer really prioritized this feature being better, it would be.
Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
21–30 of 472 posts
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#22There is!
https://jsonresume.org/
But nobody really uses it for data interchange. I use it to render my resume in new layouts now and then.
Although, it does let style dictate content sometimes (some templates force you to have dates down to the day for job start and end dates, etc.)
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#23Let's make one. A universal format could help with bias and resume anxiety.
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#24resumes are an adversarial game; the author and the reader have partly different goals.
Does the author want the resume to be objectively judged? Maybe not
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#25Clearly written by an applicant rather than employer. Your resume is your chance to shine, use the opportunity or pay a service to do it for you.
The reason the author is trapped long enough in meat grinder hiring to notice this "problem" is likely precisely because of some indistinguishable cookie cutter bullet point soup getting them nowhere. If you can capture it in a data structure, it's not a resume!
See also: why isn't there a universal UI for web sites?
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#26Why should there be? Resumes have to be read by humans to judge if they match what is needed. Checking boxes and matching buzzwords only gets you so far.
Resumes go through many systems i.e. job sites, recruiters, HR, hiring managers and are often poorly parsed by many of them.
It's not like people are managing dozens/hundreds of candidates with a pen/paper.
There is definitely a need for a standard format.
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#27Nobody? https://xkcd.com/927/
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#28Anti-competitive practise. If they make entering your resume suck, maybe you will only do it on one site (theirs).
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#29There is, thanks to the semantic web (the real web 3 :) ). See for example the FoaF ontology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOAF_(ontology)
I do miss the glory days of when the W3C was still in control and had some very good ideas that browsers did not like.
Some of these old AAA XHTML 1.1+RDFa websites were well engineered and a joy for both man and machine to behold.
Re: Why isn't there a universal data format for résumés?
#30I’m pretty sure PDFs are the universal for resumes or close to it. Don’t send a word doc though.