Seeking a job in higher education? Prepare for a long process. Professor Services advises recent grads they should expect to send out 100 applications before they are invited to an interview.<\/p>\n
The application and hiring process outside academia used to be much faster. That’s changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably only been in the last four to five years that interviewing has become a competitive sport,\u201d said Robynn Storey<\/a>. The resume writer and job coach has almost 875,000 LinkedIn connections. She has become a celebrity among job seekers.<\/p>\n The focus of Storey\u2019s posts is on just how difficult the interviewing process is. It now demands more time, energy and free work from job seekers.<\/p>\n \u201cA typical story we hear from clients is that they have done 12 interviews, completed a substantial homework assignment and now it\u2019s four weeks past the hiring deadline and no one from the company has even gotten back to them to say yay or nay,\u201d she recounted.<\/p>\n Technology supports employers in searching for \u2018the right fit.\u2019 For job seekers, just getting into the interview chair has become more difficult. Blame applicant tracking systems (ATS), video-based screeners and assessment tests.<\/p>\n \u201cCompanies are automating the process and integrating AI at every turn,\u201d Storey explained. \u201cThere used to be someone called a screener. Their job was to call the top applicants and ask them five or six questions before deciding who would advance to an interview. The questions may not have had anything to do with that specific job, but screeners could report on the applicant\u2019s enthusiasm, insight and communication style. Now it\u2019s just over the top. Companies are overwhelmed and try to whittle down the applicant pool so that, by the time anyone gets the human being, there is almost no one left.\u201d<\/p>\n The applicants who are left, experts agree, are very like the employees the company already has.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are eliminating everyone they say they are dedicated to hiring,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you really believe in diversity, equity and inclusion, then you need to make the process more manual again and get human beings back into the equation.\u201d<\/p>\n Gretchen Fontichiaro<\/a> is one job seeker who would love to interview with a human being. Fontichiaro has been searching for a job for over a year. She has 8 years of experience teaching psychology at the college level. She also managed seasonal hiring, vendor relations and back-office tasks at her family\u2019s bike shop.<\/p>\n \u201cScreeners and assessments are just another way to ensure people who are neurodivergent, or just different and learn in different ways are eliminated as quickly as possible,\u201d Fontichiaro said. \u201cWhy do I need to do an assessment to test my mathematical reasoning skills for a customer service job? As someone with a learning disability, it just sets me up for failure. It\u2019s really de-humanizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Fontichiaro has developed skills to work around her learning disability. She earned advanced degrees in psychology as a result of that work. Fontichiaro has reached a level of education that reflects personal discipline, a strong work ethic and high-level reasoning abilities.<\/p>\n Experiences like Fontichiaro\u2019s have not gone unnoticed by experts in the field.<\/p>\n \u201cAutomation and AI programming have resulted in tools that can tell what kind of job you should be slotted into within about 20 minutes,\u201d said Jason Albert<\/a>, an executive recruiter and talent acquisition consultant. \u201cIt can tell me I\u2019d be a highly efficient cashier.\u00a0 That often means that viable candidates don\u2019t even want to apply and, when they do, highly qualified and diverse candidates are slotted for lesser jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Albert is worried companies are missing out on more than great hires and lost opportunities for innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve worked with companies and shown them that their ATS is not giving them any ROI. One CEO recognized that, but acknowledged they had already spent the money. These systems also don\u2019t increase employee retention or assist with workforce development,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Those losses to the bottom line don\u2019t represent Albert\u2019s biggest worry about what these automated hiring practices will bring.<\/p>\n \u201cMy greatest concern is where they are going to find their next generation of leaders?\u201d he said. \u201cLooking at recent history, the corporate leaders who have made the greatest impact have been off-the-wall thinkers who were just different. Those individuals would never make it past the screeners now.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Storey and Jason would like to see the human put back into human resources. There are, though, some tips job seekers can use while we are \u201cat the mercy of the bot\u201d as Albert calls it.<\/p>\n First, applicants must identify the keywords in the job description and customize their resume (or CV for academic positions<\/a>) with those. It\u2019s what Albert calls writing a compliant resume.<\/p>\n Application packages for jobs in higher education are so lengthy that there are many ways to use the job description key words.\u00a0 Your statement of teaching philosophy and cover letter are useful places to deploy keywords.<\/p>\n \u201cYou also want to make sure you align your past experiences with the roles and responsibilities identified in the job description,\u201d Albert advises.<\/p>\n When it comes to assessments, remember that they are reflective of the company.<\/p>\n \u201cAssessments are rooted in culture and personal dynamics,\u201d Storey said. \u201cAre you going to rock the boat? Are you going to challenge the boss? Are you going to tell a higher-up if something is wrong? Some companies really are looking for that. And, in terms of assessments, they are impossible to differentiate from the companies who are looking for people who will be compliant and go with the flow. The most important thing is to answer consistently because consistency is a sign of honesty and self-awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n How concerned should academic job seekers be about these tools in higher education?<\/p>\n \u201cThe writing is on the wall,\u201d said Professor Services COO Sheila Fry<\/a>. \u201cATSs have been in place for a while and we\u2019ve refined the strategic use of keywords in our clients\u2019 CVs. Video screeners will probably play a bigger part in the process at some point soon. I\u2019d be very surprised if assessments became a larger part of the process because using them would undermine the value of a degree. I do agree that the careful reading of job descriptions for key words and skills alignment are important for each and every application.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, as job seekers navigate their search, they need to remember they aren\u2019t being rejected for their skills or experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way these systems are created, developed and launched is rooted in human behavior and reflect human bias,\u201d said Storey. \u201cThey just aren\u2019t doing a great job in the hiring process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seeking a job in higher education? Prepare for a long process. Professor Services advises recent grads they should expect to send out 100 applications before they are invited to an interview. The application and hiring process outside academia used to be much faster. That’s changed. \u201cIt\u2019s probably only been in the last four to five… Continue reading The Hiring Manager: Human or Bot? Job Seekers Need to Know<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"class_list":["post-1230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-professor-services","post_format-post-format-aside","entry"],"acf":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.professorservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}ATSs, video screeners & assessments<\/h2>\n
Employers are missing out<\/h2>\n
Companies are missing out!<\/h2>\n
Putting the human back in human resources<\/h2>\n
Meanwhile, in higher ed<\/h2>\n