Comments on: Resumes Are Like Wine

By: Pam Parker

Pam Parker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:17:17 +0000

Good article! I love searching my database; I believe it is a great source for referrals. You have the skills you require of a candidate that might not be recent, however they are networked in their field of expertise and are very helpful in generating referrals. I do believe you have to be discriminating in what your put in your database so that you have a good starting point of information. Our database even has a link to candidates social networking sites which is great, even if the database information is old, their LinkedIn account is usually updated.

By: Michael Brandt

Michael Brandt — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:46:28 +0000

As long as their email and contact details are good, resumes are never truly stale. One of the biggest challenges with a lot of ATS systems, in my opinion, are their inability to estimate skill development over time for outside applicants or current employees. We have to assume when people take new jobs, they are continually developing skills. Once ATS systems can track and estimate an applicants ongoing skill set, they will help to increase the value of older resumes.

Michael G. Brandt
BrightMove, Inc.
Applicant Tracking Systems for RPO, HR and Staffing

By: Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:59:59 +0000

Good post. Unfortunately, most ATS’ are so transaction focused that the surplus is discarded. Certainly a fundamental problem with the supply chain model in the traditional ATS. But if you have a good CRM (or you adopt the CRM model in recruiting) that allows users to put meta-data on records (aka tags) over time before you know it you have your own user generated content around a candidate. Imagine a resume that has 3,4,5,or 7 years of meta-data on it where many recruiters in your organization have contributed to that content. Chances are you’d know a hell of a lot of information about that person and it would be easy to retrieve in search. Information is competitive advantage.

By: Marvin Smith

Marvin Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:43:05 +0000

Great post–well thought out and best of all–so true. I appreciate your “voice” in the sourcing and recruiting community. Keep up the great conversations.

My experience with stale candidates is to find the talent that has not been contacted in the past 1-3 years and begin a more committed relationship. What have you found to be your sweetspot?

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:17:32 +0000

Gary,
You’d be surprised at how many companies decide to reduce the size of their resume database because of “aging” candidate data – often resumes of a certain age are simply deleted, if you can believe it!

By: Gary Cozin

Gary Cozin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:33:11 +0000

Like you last sentence “growing tired of having to store all of those old, stale resumes in your ATS/CRM – give me a ring – I’d be glad to take them off your hands”