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Comment by Oras | Hacker News Reader

This wouldn’t work unless you are applying to a created-in-weekend service.

Proper ATSs parse resumes, extract skills, work history, … etc and they did that way before OpenAI existed

It’d probably work at small companies where the HR rep is “manually” outsourcing their hiring process to chatgpt by drag and dropping docs into the chat window

Wherever this works, you don't want to.

I don't know what an ATS is (it's weird to introduce obscure, undefined acronyms by the way) but this is exactly the kind of thing that breathless "AI" boosters are claiming GPT is useful for - replacing expensive fancy bespoke systems with simple prompt-driven "AI".

It's not that obscure, it's the technical term for the management software in the recruitment and hiring space and the term predates the modern AI craze by over a decade (or more?):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system

https://www.oracle.com/human-capital-management/recruiting/w...

https://www.greenhouse.com/resources/glossary/what-is-an-app...

It's definitely obscure.

It really isn't if you have ever put even rudimentary effort into creating a CV.

I am 15 years into my tech career and I have never heard this acronym.

https://www.myperfectresume.com/career-center/resumes/basics...

They're referring to ATS, not CV.

Whoops, thanks for the correction.

Is this supposed to mean something? I skimmed, doesn’t explain what the acronym means. And it certainly doesn’t go back in time and give me an understanding of what ATS is or why I should care.

24 yrs and same as you

32 yrs and same

Does gaming the shit out of recruitment process counts as "rudimentary effort into creating a CV" these days? Because I can't imagine how the two would otherwise be related from the job-seeker point of view. It's a backend-side system.

If anything, my closest encounter with something like this (but without learning the acronym, until today) would be those companies that told me to take the CV I put so much effort in, and copy-paste it into a textbox on some website. Or, even worse, copy-paste pieces of it into couple dozen different fields across several pages of their shitty webform. I stay away from companies doing that.

To you. To others, its not.

Just like name-dropping, tossing acronyms in mixed company is not much more than an obvious flex.

However, using the industry accepted term for the topic of the discussion is fine.

It's popped up a lot more in recent times in this job market. You'll run into it a lot on Linked c. late 2023.

It also means something else in finance

Obscure to me too !

To people saying it's obscure. It would be the same as a HR person/recruiter not knowing what an IDE is. 100% obscure to non-coders, 100% not obscure to people who know a bit about coding or write code for a living.

Applicant tracking systems are where HR people spend their time, well, tracking the 10s, 100s, or 1000s of applications that come in to their company, their interviewing steps, whether they've called a person back, etc.

It is the normal term. Kind of like using the acronym CRM.

Applicant tracking system, I believe.

Absolutely Terrible Shirk, I know.

Shirk, like the Muslim word for polytheists?

No, like shirk, an English word for the act of being intentionally derelict in one's duty, and derived so far as I know from middle German.

Actually it's more like shirk, originally a nautical term referring to a ship that avoids or evades enemy detection or engagement.

That’s not the modern usage though. If you look up “shirk” in any modern dictionary you’ll definitely find the definition you’re replying to. Perhaps only the OED will have the older nautical meaning.

I'm not sure it's accurate to say it's obscure given the first wiki result for "ATS" is the one being discussed.

Why would you bother typing "I don't know what an ATS is" into a Hacker News comment rather than typing "What is an ATS" into a Google search?

I didn't type that.

It became big in 2008 with the Great Recession.

Applicant Tracking Systems have been a thing for a long time, even if you weren't familiar with the concept, context explains what's being talked about. Even if context didn't help, if you've applied for a job in the 20 years, you've experienced what's being talked about.

If my freelancer friends are anything to go by. Many companies, including some big-ish ones, will go with what's the cheapest option that looks good enough.

It would be funny if all ATSes added ChatGPT now. We're in a world where Google (the search engine) is using Gen AI.

that might very well be happening though

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