A resume of CV parsing. Great candidate experience vs. ATS optimization – is a trade-off truly inevitable?

In recent years, online job and candidate searches have become increasingly important and a growing number of CVs and resumes is now available in digital form. Despite recurring announcements of their demise, and even if the delivery format and selection of information has changed, the need for details on a candidate’s professional background persists. Thus, more and more businesses are turning to automation tools to handle the increasing volume of CVs and resumes. However, because these documents are not standardized, the available recruitment automation and resume parsing tools are faced with significant challenges and are known to screen out good candidates. So, an essential and far from trivial question is how to process this information to produce smart, meaningful data that can be utilized by recruiting tools to pinpoint the best candidates for the vacancy at hand.

Even with the rapid advance of AI-based systems, most ATS resume parsing algorithms are outdated and unintelligent, often causing essential information to get distorted or lost. Candidates are thus advised to submit a standardized resume that is neither visually appealing, nor shows any personality, to avoid being sorted out by the system. This is in stark contrast to the wealth of online advice on how to stand out from the crowd with an appealing modern resume. It also undermines efforts to improve the candidate experience. But there seems to be a general consensus that a trade-off is inevitable: either hirers choose to obtain quality resume information in the first step of the recruiting process – and run the risk of disgruntling best-in-class candidates. Or they improve the candidate experience by not asking too many questions and then simply make do with potentially jumbled parsed resume information – running the risk of great candidates falling through the ATS.

Here at JANZZ.technology, we refuse to ignore these challenges and simply hand the problem off to applicants. Our mission is to help improve both the recruiting and the candidate experience by providing efficient application processes whilst ensuring the candidates’ freedom of individual expression. With our cutting-edge CV/resume parser, we already have the text processing down, using strategies from deep learning models trained specifically for resume content to semantic technologies that translate the myriad variations in occupational jargon to a common vocabulary. As for visual aspects such as formatting, layout and graphical representations, we are currently very actively engaged in the R&D phase, developing pioneering technology to tackle this.

To find out more about the challenges and latest advances in CV and resume parsing – and to take an intriguing walk through the history of the CV – read our white paper:

A resume of CV parsing. Great candidate experience vs. ATS optimization– is a trade-off truly inevitable?

And if you want to use our state-of-the-art semantic parsing tool and benefit from the top quality in multiple languages, all services are also available via API and can be easily integrated into existing ATS or platforms. For a demo or quote, feel free to contact us at info@janzz.technology