You would think that all you had to worry about when job hunting is your education, or skill set, or your experience. However, there is a 4th skill that could make education, skills, and experience irrelevant, and most people don’t even realize it. What is this skill that people miss? The skill is writing a successful Taleo application.
What is this Taleo I speak of? Here is the following description from Taleo’s own LinkedIn page (https://www NULL.linkedin NULL.com/company/taleo)
Taleo’s cloud-based talent management platform unites products, services and an ecosystem to drive business performance through Talent Intelligence. Over 5,000 customers use Taleo for talent acquisition, performance, development and compensation management, including 47 of the Fortune 100.
So what does that mean? That means Taleo is a “Gatekeeper”. The software takes details out of the information you entered and puts it into a database that business can then access. Once your info has been stripped down and entered, and HR person from the company you applied for can use additional key words to filter down candidates even more. For businesses that great as they don’t have to go through piles of applications to look for that 1 new hire, but for those looking for work, it is possible that your application wont even get to be seen by the HR department, unless you meet all of the gate keepers requirements, and the problem is that they don’t always tell you all of the requirements.
In order to make it past the gatekeeper, you must make sure that your application matches the language on the job posting as exactly as (legitimately) possible. Your application must show that you have all the skills, experience, and qualifications that they list. If you come across an opening that says that they want 5 years experience and a XYZ certification, then your application must show 5 years experience and the certifications, or Taleo will basically filter you out of being seen. So what if you have 10 years of experience but not the certification? In cases like that, you need to make sure you list that you “intend to take the training needed to get the XYZ certification”. At least, if certification is one of the gatekeeper filters, you will have a fighting chance to have your application seen by an actual human, and that’s what we all hope for, the chance to present ourselves in front of someone in HR.
Another key piece of advice is “READ THE JOB OPENING INFORMATION MORE THAN ONE TIME”. There is actually a specific reason to that, and that is that you want to use the exact same verbiage on your resume and application, that the job opening is using. If the application says they are looking for CLIENT support, DON’T SAY that you have CUSTOMER experience, say that you have CLIENT experience. It’s simple things like that, which could filter out of being seen by an actual HR person.
My post focused on Taleo, as that’s the application that I see most during my job search, but they aren’t the only ones that do gatekeeping for HR departments. You will come across gatekeepers from HRsmart, Bullhorn, HRM Direct, Main Sequence Technologies, Burning Glass, Daxtra, Sovren Group, Textkernel, Hireability, iCIMS (https://en NULL.wikipedia NULL.org/wiki/ICIMS) and others, depending on your line of work. They all essentially do the same thing.
So how do you know if the company you are applying with is using Taleo (or one of the other gatekeepers)? When you are on the job opening results page, scroll to the bottom of the page. If the company is using a gatekeeper then you will find something like Powered by …. showing at the bottom of the page.
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Lastly, Just to make it perfectly clear, I ‘m still learning my Taleo skills. I have 16 years of Technology experience, and I’m now coming up on my 1st month as a member of the unemployed club, and I’m still looking for my next career opportunity. If you are looking for work, I hope something I wrote will assist you in being able to get employed. GOOD LUCK!
