Things I found after developing a bot to automatically apply for recruitment

ByFlazingo Photos

Asking for a new position for your own step-up is a behavior that you are doing as a matter of course if you are a career-oriented person, it is said that this trend is stronger in the US than in Japan, in particular. Of those looking for jobs, the person who applied for a number of jobs by automating the process of creating a resume, creating an email and applying for it in the system is finally surprising I heard he got to the conclusion.

I Built A Bot To Apply To Thousands Of Jobs At Once-Here's What I Learned | Fast Company
https://www.fastcompany.com/3069166/i-built-a-bot-to-apply-to-thousands-of-jobs-at-once-heres-what-i-learned

I tried to do this as vice president of public relations and web at the "US state government council" of non-profit organizationRobert CoombsHe is. Mr. Coombs who is satisfied with the current job and does not feel the necessity to immediately change jobs at all, but because he was blessed with a wonderful team staff, he asked, "Is he really needed here?" He even seemed to embrace it. Mr. Coombs who succeeded in making a really wonderful organization to envy others when hearing it gradually started gradually as a next step to search for positions where vacancies came out from companies such as Google, Slack, Facebook etc. It is said that.

Soon after such idea came to mind, Coombs noticed the following two points.

1. I am in a position to compete with leaders in this field. Therefore, it is unlikely that your resume will be placed at the top of the applicant list
2. Robots (computer programs) have confirmed all the data of the applied documents

The "robot" used here is called "Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS: Applicant Tracking System)", and includes keywords and skills written in the application documents, past employers, years of work experience, graduation It is a system that automatically distributes applicants based on the schools that they did. Coombs who felt his own career was destined to be repelled by this robot, on the contrary, decided to develop a system that confronts this robot by himself.

ByMarissa anderson

Mr. Coombs is not a software developer, but a person skilled in terms of building a variety of "parts" to create one automation system. By fostering ingenuity this time, we also obtain the contact information of recruiters in the company, and sell your resume and yourself to the customized e-mailcover letterWe have built a system to send you attachment. In addition, the system also included a function to track cover letters, resumes, and their own LinkedIn pages after submission.

It was said that I first encountered an unexpected situation when running this system. The system seems to have done the operation that Mr. Coombs sent a resume to 1,300 companies in the Midwest of the United States while Mr. Coombs was on the break. Coombs who stopped the system in a hurry started to improve the system. After that, after several failures, Mr. Coombs completed the current "version 5.0" and sent the documents to 538 companies in three months.

It was Mr. Coombs who operated the system in this way, but as a result it is in such a situation that it is not so pleasant. Although it seems that many people thought that it was "after all" by listening to this, Mr. Coombs's efforts have got a referenceable result.

In this system, it is said that a mechanism is adopted to change the contents of e-mail, cover letter, resume, as much as possible according to the application. To pursue as much content as possible to the person in charge of the application is that everyone thinks about human beings, but this system can make the same adjustments as humans.

But as a result I learned that it was the fact that such a difference had little effect on the results. Mr. Coombs did an A / B test using two cover letters that changed the contents and saw the reaction of the applicant, but the result was not different at all. In the following example sentences, an example (Left: A) conforming to a very general writing style and an example (Right: B) of a whiteish state that suddenly "This cover letter is written by a robot" in the second paragraph Two are shown.


From here, CoombsThe cover letter is not actually referred to as good as it is actuallyThe conclusion has been reached. Moreover, it seems that the same thing can be said for not only the human reaction but also the above-mentioned ATS (applicant tracking system). In the graph below, the results after classifying the response after the entry into the items "Ignore", "Reply from auto response", "Mail from personal address", "Visit to LinkedIn page" and "Failed" are shown However, the fact that the difference between the usual method (light blue) and the method clearly demonstrating that it is a robot (blue) is very small, actually shows shocking results.


About this result, Mr. Coombs' friends tell me the reason. The reason is that the probability of going through the screening according to whether or not recruiters are acquainted with them is dramatically increased. In the data in the US as of 2014 it is revealed that 30% to 50% of people are about work through introducing their acquaintance.

It is the graph below that shows it, but as shown by the "Applied" on the left, only 6% of the applicants were referrals from acquaintances, whereas the actually adopted person "Hired" 29 I can see that% was the person who introduced me. In other words, this means that the probability of adopting people who introduced via people will be higher.


However, although the introduction base probably has a higher probability of getting adopted, at the same time the company is sure to be constantly looking for talented people with unique skills. Coombs thought so, do executive class talent trainingAgile CareersMr. Scott Uhrig asked about the technique to survive non-conventional applicants such as Mr. Coombs in the talent market with fierce competition.

Then Mr. Uhrig's answer was that the recruiters themselves could not find it as difficult to find applicants who fit the conditions. But at the same time, "recruiters are not necessarily cooperative in many cases, they are always looking for only those who are in the middle of the target they are looking for." This means that in many cases the recruiter's representative who is the "buyer's market" does not take the time to focus attention to those who are out of the main target.

In addition, Mr. Uhrig said "80% to 90% of executive class positions looking for talent are not actually posted on talent sites, so the competition of public recruitment posted on the site etc. is extremely high It will be harsh for ATS, which will involve a tremendous amount of processing to find a candidate that meets your needs, but the position that everyone really desires is not open to the public. " He told the fact.

◆ In order to reach efficiently the desired job
From these results, Mr. Coombs has summarized the following three points for getting the best job.

1. What matters is not "how to apply" but "to know who you are with." But even if no one knows it is not necessary to worry.
2. Companies are trying to find talented people who meet the position they are seeking with minimal risk. I am not looking for an unconventional person.
3. It can not necessarily be said that the number of entries will lead to results. And it will not be adopted as a job that could not have surfaced the opportunity to apply.

Mr. Coombs now cuts off the pace of job searching at the same time as giving up on the conventional way of entering, working 3 days a week at the work of the original non-profit organization, and the other day meeting an interesting person and variously I am spending time absorbing things. And hopefully, we are expecting that we will offer new positions by building relationships with people we actually met.