Tech companies have never done as much hiring as they do today. These companies have never spent as much money hiring as they do today. And they have never been more successful at hiring the right people for the job as they do today.

For the better part of the last decade, tech companies went about hiring this way: a human resource grad will prepare a detailed job analysis to identify the parameters of evaluating each candidate. Next they will undertake a job evaluation to decide how the job fits into the organizational structure.

Then came the task of sorting out the list of applicants. But with 30% of startup failures attributed to poor hiring practices, the way tech companies hired staff members had to change. Today’s approach to tech recruitments couldn’t be more different.

The Emergence of Modern Tools to Filter Job Candidates

According to a Global Recruiting Trends report, nearly every talent acquisition professional wants to shake up the traditional recruitment practice. Screening manually through thousands of applications to find the best candidate in your talent pool has become unreliable.

This inefficiency has given rise to a roster of online assessment tools that are making the hiring process easier, more productive, and fun. These tools are helping companies identify applicants who possess the talent and temperament that is in sync with the rest of the team.

Tech companies are taking up these tools because they recognize that they must now adapt themselves to globalized talent pool. That being said, assessments are the way for candidates to showcase their ability to tech companies.

This disruption is thanks to the advent of AI, which is not only powering self-driving cars, but also providing recruiters with resume parsing abilities. Putting it another way, these tools automate the data extraction and candidate filtration process.

Today, 99% of Fortune 500 companies use an Application Tracking System (ATS) to find the right candidates from a talent pool. What does this all mean for you: if you are applying for a position at a tech company, chances are you will face an ATS.

How Application Tracking Systems Work

In a nutshell, work samples, cognitive ability tests, and job knowledge tests are some parameters used to determine whether an applicant is better positioned for job success. These tools administer the assessment quickly and easily.

What’s more, the software may keep your resume even long after the position has been filled for future reference and fast-tracking recruitment. The recruiters can sort through the resumes by viewing each application or through automated ranking of the best candidates.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to what is most convenient to the recruiter. The tool is only there to assess current knowledge of a particular subject but not the individual candidate’s willingness to learn a new skill.

Final Word

As the screening process becomes more efficient, tech companies are faced with the challenge of reconsidering the things they would notice naturally, and see them differently. For job applicants, the secret to success is keeping an open mind and maintaining a willingness to learn.