It was over 15 years ago, but there was a time not long ago when electronic resumes seemed like a great idea. Companies were really excited about the idea of creating digital databases of resumes that would store the collective talent of a marketplace, allowing the companies to create pools of interested workers that would quickly and efficiently move through the employment process from selection to hire.
How naive we were.
E-mailed resumes have been a great boon for workforce liquidity. The pace of hiring has indeed quickened, and our ability to reach more people grew exponentially with digital resumes. The wonders of ATS, candidate databases, and job boards (and wonder they are), all came about when we put out career histories into pixels on the screen. But like the paperless office, the idea of lessening our workload flew out the window.
In establishing the idea of the paperless resume that could easily be forwarded and stored, we assumed candidates would not change their behaviors in applying for jobs. As the volume increased, we first saw it as a good thing. More resumes = more choice. But like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the trickle of resumes became a rush, and the rush a flood, and today, we struggle to keep our heads above water, as the electronic resumes pour in from all corners of the globe.
It's enough to make you want to take an ax to the whole project.
Except it works, and with the flood of resumes comes new software to help us manage. Search technology is changing the way we look at resumes, and what was once unwelcome, is now understood as a great thing. Job boards give us an instant look at the marketplace in a manner far superior to our old paper files. We may moan about the resumes that come in, but it doesn't stop us from searching for more.
It's not the quantity coming in - it's the ability to search on our own terms that keeps us adding new passwords. What we need is a new way to search resumes.
talentfilter. coming soon.
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