New Web App Uses Machine Learning To Analyze, Repair Your Technical Resume (techcrunch.com) 48
CV Compiler is a new web app that uses machine learning to analyze and repair your technical resume, "allowing you to shine to recruiters at Google, Yahoo and Facebook," reports TechCrunch. "The app essentially checks your resume and tells you what to fix and where to submit it," reports TechCrunch. "It's been completely bootstrapped thus far and they're working on new and improved machine learning algorithms while maintaining a library of common CV fixes." From the report: "There are lots of online resume analysis tools, but these services are too generic, meaning they can be used by multiple professionals and the results are poor and very general. After the feedback is received, users are often forced to buy some extra services," said Andrew Stetsenko. "In contrast, the CV Compiler is designed exclusively for tech professionals. The online review technology scans for keywords from the world of programming and how they are used in the resume, relative to the best practices in the industry."
The product was born out of Stetsenko's work at GlossaryTech, a Chrome extension that helps users understand tech terms. He used a great deal of natural language processing and keyword taxonomy in that product and, in turn, moved some of that to his CV service. "We found that many job applications were being rejected without even an interview, because of the resumes. Apparently, 10 seconds is long enough for a recruiter to eliminate many candidates," he said.
The product was born out of Stetsenko's work at GlossaryTech, a Chrome extension that helps users understand tech terms. He used a great deal of natural language processing and keyword taxonomy in that product and, in turn, moved some of that to his CV service. "We found that many job applications were being rejected without even an interview, because of the resumes. Apparently, 10 seconds is long enough for a recruiter to eliminate many candidates," he said.
Interesting solution applied to the wrong problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently, 10 seconds is long enough for a recruiter to eliminate many candidates
And therein lies the heart of the problem. In my experience, most HR depts are not that good at shortlisting candidates for tech positions, and some are downright terrible. Here's a tip: if you are hiring techies but you are not happy with the level of candidates HR sent you, ask them for all of the resumes that were submitted. You may be surprised at what you'll find there.
Maybe we ought to install this software at HR to clean resumes before they are read. Or perhaps replace the selection process entire with a machine learning system. (Although that comes with its own dangers, like hidden bias and spurious correlation).
Re:Interesting solution applied to the wrong probl (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with HR for tech companies, is that there is a LOT of money involved in the employment of tech people. So the industry, at all levels, from HR to recruiters, attracts shiny sales people who want to leech off the money fountain. It is exactly the same reason why there are no decent restaurants in popular tourist spots. All the legitimate restauranteurs get forced out by those with big promises and no moral integrity.
The whole tech HR landscape is a mess but I don't imagine it will get better until the bubble bursts and the money flows elsewhere.
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You don't have to lie, but if you submit the same resume for all job applications then you are going to be coming up against people who have tailored their resume/covering letter to the job description and well at that point it sucks to be you.
As a boss at a firm once said to me, send junk mail expect it to be treated like junk mail. Sending the same resume's to every employer you apply for a job at are junk mail and most junk mail goes straight in the bin.
Don't hire the unlucky! (Score:5, Funny)
We shuffle the CVs, split the pile on two, and throw away half - they were the unlucky ones!
It is a technique I learned in MBA school!
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I believe some dentists are in same-sex relationships, and I accept historical records that the historical inspiration for Santa Claus died in AD 343. I have also seen evidence of mermaids, or children born with a lower limb difference that improves swimming at the expense of walking. Does that count?
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Dagon. Rewatched it recently. Wasn't as good as I remembered, to be honest.
Even if this is just superstition ... (Score:2)
This is a way for reducing the number of possible candidates that is unbiased. There are worse methods ... like HR criteria that are actually biased against competent candidates.
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Sounds like a pretty good policy, only problem is you've been throwing out the wrong pile the entire time.
Personal data goldmine (Score:5, Insightful)
Guys, before you go crazy fixing your CVs, do make sure you look at what permissions the app wants.
You need to register either by your Github - or your LinkedIn account. And it wants access to your private data, like e-mails, contacts, etc. Oh and it has your entire CV to boot - all that for a rather dubious benefit that any HR agency will do for you for free.
Don't be the product here.
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You're old, you're a girl. You're not gonna get hired. Ageism + sexism ftw.
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Great - you're old, you're a girl, send me your resume. I'll hire you if you can do the job. Don't care about age, sex, preferences, etc. Anyone who throws away resumes based on any of that is an idiot and shouldn't be in the HR business. I've had some great hires that have said they were having trouble just getting past the front door at other companies. Me, I'm blind to all that - show me your good, you fit with my team, and you're in. That's it.
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I wonder if these fixes really improve things for you anyway. Even if they get you hired, do they get you hired in a good job that you will thrive in, or something you are barely qualified for and where the boss only knows some buzzwords but not what they really need?
I get a lot of offers for stuff that is unsuitable because of keyword matches.
How to sort the resume (Score:2, Insightful)
Who did the person graduate with?
Party with?
What public debate was the person attracted to?
What politics did the person try to spread?
A good person who can study and who passed their exams? Who presents well?
A person surrounded by activists?
Someone who needed help to learn how to study?
you don't need that (Score:3, Informative)
Re: you don't need that (Score:1)
Honestly, the follow up email after an interview tells me more than anything else. That is really the first chance you have to accurately judge character
AI learning too well (Score:2)
I wonder if theyâ(TM)re going to run in the same embarrasing problem as Microsoftâ(TM)s racist twitter bot, where the AI learns hiring humans so well that it advises candidates that their college graduation date makes them look too old, that their name sounds too ethnic, that their Facebook profile it scraped that shows a picture of their kids will make employers feel they canâ(TM)t commit to 60 hours/week, etc.
I did it so you don't have to (Score:3)
Log in with your LinkedIn account, because job-hunting is what it's for, right?
The result included 7 "cards", only one of which actually referenced my resume. Two cards were advertisements for their paid service, while four were general suggestions (here's some keywords, a resume shouldn't be hard to read, etc.)
Only one page actually looked at my resume, and that reports how other resume review software might see your resume. This is the most useful service, since that software is the thing we're trying to work around.
So I found that positioning page and the keyword list useful. The rest is just fluff.
Here are the keywords they're excited about:
It sucks (Score:1)
- They counted number of buzz-words in my CV!
WORTHLESS (Score:2)
Spends a bunch of time slurping everything it can from your LinkedIn account, then counts how many words from their sacred list show up in your resume, and that you should include more of them (which are pretty tightly focussed on the hell-dimension of lower-level burnout-inducing IT, I might add).
That's the sum total of useful stuff. .... until you page-next and see the $7.99 for a "deeper analysis".
WASTE. OF. TIME.
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Code, not resume keywords (Score:2)
If a company can afford it, here's how to help find good software engineers:
1) Put good software engineers in the HR department. Hire them, if you have to. Call them "software evaluators".
2) State that every software engineer who applies for at job at the company must send in some code that they've written (or state the URL of where to find the source code).
3) The "software evaluators" in HR read the code that was submitted by the job candidates. For each candidate, the software evaluator tells their opinio
Good luck with that "Machine Learning"! (Score:2)
You know those "personalized" snail-mail letters you get in the mail, that are really advertisements? You might be tricked into opening the envelope, but the instant you see it, you know it's fake.
The same goes for resumes. I go through a lot of them. It takes me about 5 seconds to spot a fake. Your "machine learning" Web site isn't going to fix that.
Good resumes take time and effort. There are no shortcuts. The main points:
1. Keep them short, no more than 2 pages
2. BULLET POINTS
3. Not too many bullet point