Does a black hole really exist?
McMahon: It depends entirely on the company. The main culprits, in my opinion, are volume and the abilities of the people who read your résumé. Usually the résumé goes to a gatekeeper of some sort, typically someone within HR. If the gatekeeper is experienced with the field for which she is recruiting, she’ll have an idea what she is looking for. The danger in this process, however, exists when one person has to screen résumés for too many departments. There just isn’t a way for that person to speak every language they need to. That person will usually rely solely on keywords and will miss things. For example, we had a client that had a fully automated applicant-tracking system (ATS). Candidates would submit a résumé to a posting and the ATS would import it automatically to the database. Internal recruiters would then mine the database against current openings using keyword searches. What that meant, ultimately, was that there was no guarantee that submitted résumés would be viewed by
