applicant tracking system

Definition

Software that manages job applications, resumes, and candidate communications throughout the hiring process. It's the black hole where your carefully crafted resume goes to die because it didn't contain the right keywords.

Example Usage

Our applicant tracking system rejected 200 qualified candidates because they wrote 'JavaScript' instead of 'Javascript' on their resumes.

Origin

Emerged in the 1990s as recruiting moved online

Fun Fact

Studies suggest that up to 75% of resumes never reach human eyes, filtered out by ATS algorithms that sometimes reject even perfectly qualified candidates due to formatting issues.

Source: HR technology and recruiting systems

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