Why do I have to fill out a form when all my information is on my resume?!

It seems redundant. All that effort creating your resume only to have to write out your personal information and work history onto a fillable form. What gives? 

Behind the scenes at most medium to large sized companies are a sea of applicants, many of whom are unqualified. It can take an appalling amount of time, money and effort to move even qualified candidates through the pipeline. 

 

The only way to manage such a monumental task to get the right people hired is to have candidates fill out a form to easily categorize qualifiers and personal info. Artificial intelligence (AI), applicant tracking systems (ATS) and the like can scan resumes, but unless they adhere to a strict format, they won’t be picked up efficiently by the scanner. And since many resumes are unfortunately not well written, you don’t know how well a resume will score on a scanner. 

So then, it is in your best interest to fill out the form. Although the alternative would save you time, there is no risk in reading your information incorrectly when you have the opportunity to submit your information yourself. This way you have a true reflection of your resume presented to the employer. There is a false expectation that your resume is guaranteed to be read by someone whenever you apply for a job. For many roles, this would be an impossible task.

So why even have a resume? They are still very important documents but are used in later stages of the process, like pre-screens and interviews. They can be used to determine who gets a seat in front of the hiring manager, and the hiring manager will use it to determine who gets an offer. A well written resume in itself shows your communication and writing skills, and even attention to visual detail. 

 

Next time you come across a fillable form, know that as frustrating as it may be, the alternative isn’t really the better option. As technology improves, perhaps we will have a more complex scanner that will make the process a lot easier. 

P.S. I did find a free online resume scanner. I don’t personally trust what it might do with the personal information it receives, but if you are willing to try it, the website is https://resumeworded.com/resume-scanner. You must create an account to use the service. To reiterate, this is not a service I have personally tried or vouch for, and I am in no way affiliated with this website. For reference, I work at a global recruiting company, and we aren’t even using scanners, so they aren’t as common as they are hyped up to be.

Would personalized services make this process a whole lot easier? You can checkout all the available products under the “services” page here on this website. There, you can also instantly download my resume guide + bonus interview guide or find it in the top right corner of the webpage on desktop. If you still aren’t sure, you can email me your resume to hello@resumeresolved.com for a free consult.

All the best!

Kristina, 

Resume Resolved