My wishes are all horses
Hello, it is Sunday September 15th, and it’s my mom’s birthday. She is over 21. ;) By the way, there is no TLDR on this one, please read through as it will make sense at that end! Context is key.
Context Is Key
Recently, I was part of the shutdown team at Benefits Data Trust, which closed its doors about three weeks ago. This experience has been very tough for many of my colleagues and friends with whom I share a great deal of admiration for. Their work was exceptional, and I wish every day that I could give every single person a hug and share something to help their world feel a little better. I really do mean that.
I am no stranger to adversity. In 2008-2010 the job market was rough. It didn’t matter the circumstances, as so many people felt the same. Online, it did feel like a community of kindred spirits all experiencing the same frustrations, anxieties, trials and tribulations.
In 2024, much of that experience feels the same, and I am seeing the same posts from others that I experienced over a decade ago. However, since the social aspect of being online has… actually I don’t know what to call it, the landscape is so different from before that all of my instincts feel like they need to be reset.
Recently, on linked.in - I have been seeing many folks, like myself who have been out of the job market for a long time, or who have only had one or two positions in the last 10-15 years struggling to find a voice. Heck, everyone is.
If you are reading this: you are not alone. It bears repeating to anyone who is reading this: there is someone out there who you have never met, who feels compassion for you and values you. Others may stigmatize your situation - and you may need the paycheck - but please, I implore you: don’t let their lack of compassion induce you into feeling shame. You probably already know that, but a friendly reminder never hurts!
From my perspective, as a hiring manager - no matter what - making someone feel uncomfortable in an interview denigrates myself and does not put forth the values I set for myself as a leader and as an achiever. The colloquial use is the word “savage“ and frankly in interviews anymore, that is the best advice I can give. Be professional and be who you are meant to be. No apologies.
Say it with me: “I make no apologies, this is me.“
If someone asks me why BDT closed, I am gracious and let them know that what we did was successful and that there were forces outside of my control that made the decision to close, and this is how non-profits sometimes end. The truth is that we were inches away from making the most amazing change in benefits history ever. Full Stop.
The key here is not to BS your interviewer, because this is the truth. My role was akin to Associate Director, and I put my heart and soul into seeing our work succeed. It just didn’t work out, and there is no shame in saying that. The way I frame it is: “I am a BDT success story“. Because, once again: it is true.
The mantra that goes through my brain is: “We start again“. That’s how I roll. One friend at BDT said something like “I don’t know how to turn that feature off“ in a teams meeting - and that’s me. I want to visualize my success and the success of others around me. I don’t know how to be another way!
If one looks at all the successful and failed ventures in this world and judges folks simply on business economics, none of us would be employable. A negative impression of a work gap is a fallacy and a cruel tactic to try and drive your faith in yourself down. Please do not take the bait.
I know that is little comfort for someone in financial crisis, and all I can do is to beseech folks again. We are not alone. I do not expect this post to alleviate that discomfort, but hopefully I can lend some clarity to the unknown. Let’s get to it.
What I have Found
What has come to light for me is that hiring has drastically changed when writing a resume. What I am also finding is that folks with whom their career has drastically changed are finding that they (like myself) are in serious culture shock over finding employment.
It seems to boil down to this: the Applicant Tracking System
Most everyone is using one of these right now to fill the gap of pre-screening applicants. Other organizations I have been in have used them too, I just didn’t fully understand what the technology did. So, I learned!
Inverting the process a bit here, as a recruiter, what I am gathering anecdotally is that there are too many resumes and not enough positions to fill. To me, it seems like a classic supply demand problem. Also, what I am seeing looking at some of the structures is that the recruiting/vetting teams are small and overworked.
It’s just… weird. But, don’t give up hope! You’ve got this!
I am not a modern resume writer, I am having to get coaching on that. Honestly, I am not wasting time writing cover letters for everything at this point because the ROI is just not there. I will absolutely write a thank you though, even if I am not selected and give constructive feedback when able.
Ok, so ATS is just a keyword match on your resume using some kind of similar OCR/Parsing technology for “scanning” your resume. (Just, not through a scanner, through code). If you know this awesome, if not, now you know!
Upload file, find words - make score. An example is, if folks are looking for AI, they want to see the AI keyword in your resume, etc, etc. Scoring is done with some sort of algorithm that reviews your potential match and for expediency - and not to string you along - if one reaches the threshold you proceed to the next step. If not, one of the “Unfortunately…“ messages shows up in your inbox.
START DIGRESSION
Quick digression here - language is important. I have gotten these and my inner voice says to me: This is not unfortunate, it’s a learning experience. My philosophy is to make lemons from lemonade (make something fruitful… get it? It’s fine, moving on). The learning part being:
A) One learns how to improve their interview process.
B) One learns the values of your potential employer.
C) One learns if that employer is right or wrong for you.
D) One learns to resume another day. (Get it, resu-may, another day? Ok, I’ll stop.)
END DIGRESSION
From what I am seeing the ATS software is fine, but is giving a lot of false positives and negatives. There is a great term Base Rate Fallacy in data science that is cantankerous. See Baye’s Theorem for more context for my data science cohorts out there.
You can get your ATS score for free
So, here’s the thing: You can look at your ATS score on your resume without hiring anyone. You can do it for free.
Search for “free ats resume checker“, reddit has some good advice and I am using a free service currently.
Take the job description you are applying for, paste that in with your resume and see how you score. You have no idea how my eyes lit up, because I got it. It was terribly difficult not knowing where I was not finding success, so my definition of success changed to: “Figure out how ATS works, and how I can make my resume better“.
If you are able to hire someone to coach you on your resume, you can take that deliverable and then re-score your resume again. That way, you have a test on how ATS is tracking your resume, the score difference and get some concrete analysis. If not, adjust your resume and try again for free. And - by the way - you just did LEAN Process Improvement. You can add that you your resume!
I really hope you can feel confident that you can do this as well. If you are doubting yourself, I signed up and in just a few moments I had a result that worked for my brain. It was a relief to have some sort of metric to work with. While I am not a PhD, I am a scientist and I can do amazing things with Data Architecture and Analysis. This helped me improve my process. :)
I don’t feel comfortable endorsing a product, until I can give an honest review.
I really don’t. I am not here to be an influencer, I am not interested in being sponsored. I’m interested in being sincere, positive and having a team were we work together to succeed.
So, to bring some certainty to an uncertain world right now - look at your ATS score. It will help you understand at the very least what others are seeing, because that part of the industry is very opaque.
If you just need a hug, you just got one.
Alrighty, signing off. Be kind to yourself, and don’t code tired!
Revision: Changed “AST“ to ATS, because I have type last, past, fast, cast more than ATS, oof. Thanks to my partner for proof-reading!