Comments on: Why Do So Many ATS Vendors Offer Poor Search Capability?

By: recruitment software

recruitment software — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:29:00 +0000

All the problems written in this article can be solve by a reliable and efficient recruitment software. Recruitment software is evolving and if you’re a member in a recruitment software community you have the advantage of getting solutions for all of the problems you have since members of the recruitment software community are expert.

By: recruitment software features

recruitment software features — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Great Post Glenn – I think recruitment software developer should read your article to have an idea on how to improve more their system. That’s why some recruitment business stop their subscription on their recruitment software because they experience these problems that you mentioned. Keep posting.

By: Technology job boards have failed recruiters and job seekers | ZDNet

Technology job boards have failed recruiters and job seekers | ZDNet — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:44:15 +0000

[...] the ATS should protect the recruiter from the pain of a tidal wave of unqualified candidates. But ATSes do a poor job, say most recruiters, including Glen Cathey, a recruiter and author of the blog Boolean Blackbelt. [...]

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:59:32 +0000

Recruitmax was definitely an improvement over Wizard, but hardly an ideal solution. Thankfully we’ve recently integrated an off-the-shelf parsing and matching application into Recruitmax that we’ve been able to heavily customize on both the back end (taxonomy) and front end (search interface and functionality). I’m a hard man to please when it comes to candidate search, but I can tell you this: although it took longer than I would like, we’ve developed a world-class sourcing solution!

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:28:45 +0000

Thoughtful post. Is this a reflection on Kforce’s replacement of Wizard with RecruitMax?

By: Sylvia Dahlby

Sylvia Dahlby — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:04:16 +0000

SmartSearch now has TEN ways to search, including:

* Full text Boolean search of resumes (that’s been available for ages)
* Fuzzy logic/semantic search
* SmartMatch automated skills search
* Natural Language Search (NLS) off a job description
* NLS “more like this” from a selected resume
* Notes search
* Profile search w dozens of field selections
* Quick find lookups
* Subsearches within user created folders
* Integrated search of major third-party job boards including Monster, CareerBuilder, DICE, SecurityClearanceJobs, HotJobs, more.

All the above are lightning FAST except for the Notes search that can slow down if a user elects to search the entire body of unlimited notes text and selects a wide date range.

Guess I don’t understand “why so many ATS vendors have poor search capability” — isn’t that the heart of any system?

By: Phil McCutchen

Phil McCutchen — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:29:50 +0000

Pointwing recruiting software adds Boolean search — giving recruiters FIVE ways to search for data: http://www.pointwing.com/press-Pointwing_Recruiting_Software_Boolean_Search_Added.asp

By: iDonato » Finding the right place for semantic search

iDonato » Finding the right place for semantic search — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:19:18 +0000

[...] inspired to write this blog after reading Glen Cathey’s (The Boolean Black Belt) Article on Why Do So Many ATS Vendors Offer Poor Search Capability. The article made me think about search engines (google, yahoo, etc) and how semantic search is [...]

By: Resumes Are Like Wine

Resumes Are Like Wine — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:32:57 +0000

[...] response to my recent post about the deficiencies in the search capability of many Applicant Tracking Systems, a few people commented to the fact that resumes stored in applicant tracking systems become [...]

By: Sylvia Dahlby

Sylvia Dahlby — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:45:15 +0000

The previous comment about “where ATS came from” is interesting to me. However, the points noted relate to the corporate environment; there are ATS solutions built for the staffing world (with much more of a sales/CRM focus) that feature stronger search capabilities.

SmartSearch is one of the few products that serve both corporate employers as well as third-party recruiters. It never ceases to amaze me how many corporate products are what I call “process oriented” rather than a true sourcing tool with the end goal being to fill the job. Corporate employers serious about recruiting are those that take an executive search/research & passive candidate sourcing approach to talent acquisition — and make the focal point of building a resume database rather than simply using it as a repository for applicants that bothered to apply on the website.

The other comment that resonated with me is that any tool is only as good as the skill of the user. I had one recruiter ask me if an ATS would put him out of a job. My reply was “only if you’re a bad recruiter” in which case an ATS simply helps do more of the wrong things faster.

I agree 100% about the relationship building aspect; finding candidates regardless of search power is not what actually engages the candidate or gets somebody hired. Also, since referrals are and will always remain the best source of candidates, the best search engine in the world won’t deliver a warm referral if the relationship isn’t there.