I am no fan of the black hole, the resume-sucking repository of dangerous anti-matter and hundreds of resumes that were sent in reply to job ads and never heard from again.
I hate that black hole, because it doesn’t help candidates get jobs, and it doesn’t help employers hire good people either. The black hole chews up and swallows resumes, letting only a tiny number squeak through to a hiring manager. The resumes that get through the black hole aren’t necessarily attached to the smartest or most capable job-seekers, sad to say. They’re just the resumes of people whose backgrounds happen to match the job spec the most closely.
Plenty of talented candidates will notice a gaping black hole at the front of a corporate recruiting process, and keep on walking. Life is too short to spend it pitching resumes into the void. Job seekers with better options are going to find them, leaving the corporate black holes to less-sought-after candidates.
Screening resumes against keywords or a long list of requirements is a horrible way to hire good people. How much hubris does it take to imagine that the best-qualified person for an open position — the person who can help a business the most, by dint of passion, creativity, brains ...
