Ask HN: What is your experience with Applicant Tracking Systems?
I'm currently thinking about moving towards using an Applicant Tracking System for our company, but I feel a little unsure. As an applicant, I used to absolutely hate the rigid ATS systems of the first generation where instead of sending my CV as PDF, I had to fill in dozens of forms in order to just get back a cold standard mail after weeks.
That's why when we started our company, we went with a simple mailing list first. Thing is, we're slowly getting to the scale where this stops working and there are simply too many open positions and people working on them cluttering the list. I'd really like to have features such as human or tech-assisted pre-categorization to a job ad, multiple people in the pipeline, handover and just making sure we're answering everybody.
On the other hand, I'd really like to work with a system that doesn't have much more of a hurdle for applicants than sending a simple e-mail and that doesn't get in the way an interaction between humans. Bonus points for good integration in third-party software.
Has anyone used any ATS systems in the recent past and if you (dis)liked them, why?