“These programs exist, because a strong recommendation from a guy who know is good is worth a thousand BS interviews.”
Actually the problem is that when this occurs, the applicant is still asked to submit a resume. And herein lies the problem.
Companies like Taleo have produced software to make choices about applicants easier. What this has done is taken the “thought process” away from the HR rep and given it to a resume query which is looking for job description matches.
Resumes no longer have personalities. People no longer have personalities. What we are is a selection based on a set of criteria which actually makes it harder for an organization to hire someone.
Big deal a thousand people apply for a job. They have been doing that for years. Software cannot determine how you successfully handled a project. Software cannot determine how you handled a specific situation. Basically software doesn’t look past the first 500 words.
If you are fortunate enough to get past all of this and get the job, only one thing needs to be asked. Are you a US citizen? And that is more for taxation purposes than anything else. Every other question is irrelevant.
The government uses one of these automated programs too. But all it does is look for various keywords and criteria to match potential applicants. For example, if a potential machinist doesn’t have “lathe” on his resume, then his resume will be rejected for a job that requires running a lathe.
But that’s just the first cut. After that it goes back to human eyes to choose which applicants to interview.