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

Related Terms

Beginner

Compensation

The money and benefits you receive in exchange for your labor, sanity, and ever-growing collection of meetings that could have been emails. The word itself comes from Latin, meaning "to weigh together," which is ironic because the scale never tips in your favor.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

predictive analytics

Using statistical models and historical data to forecast HR outcomes like turnover, performance, or hiring needs. It's HR pretending to be data science, with varying degrees of actual predictive power and ethical implications.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

Corporate Culture

The collection of unwritten rules, forced fun, and motivational posters that define what it's like to work somewhere. It's what the company says it values on the website versus what actually happens in the breakroom. These two things have never met.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

cultural fit

A subjective assessment of whether a candidate will mesh with existing team dynamics and company values, often used as a polite cover for 'we just didn't vibe with them.' Has been criticized for perpetuating homogeneity and unconscious bias.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

rage applying

Furiously applying to dozens of jobs after a bad day at work, fueled by spite and Indeed's one-click apply feature. It's career planning meets emotional breakdown.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

bench strength

The depth of talent available within an organization to fill key positions when current leaders depart. Think of it as your company's farm team, except everyone already knows where the bathrooms are.

👥 Human Resources

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