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Job search in Germany as a product manager and more. Part 2/5. The structure of the labor market. ATS. Job boards

Post cycle navigation: 1/5 , 2/5, 3/5 , 4/5 , 5/5 .

The scheme of information interaction on the labor market in Germany (and not only) looks like this:

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Today I will talk about two main categories of services / information systems that are used in this market - applicant tracking systems (ATS) and job boards .

Applicant Tracking Systems


As I wrote earlier, the market for job offers in IT is extremely saturated, but the demand for these vacancies is too abundant. In someone’s apt expression, “All of Eastern Europe is in line here.” I’ll add from myself - not only Eastern, and not only Europe. The normal number of reviews for one vacancy is from 200 and above. Needless to say, the employer expects to see in the filled position not just a candidate with the required skills, but the best and with the most relevant experience. And if something like you have worked on native mobile apps in iOS and Android ecosystems before is written in a vacancy, you can only hypothetically expect an invitation if you have worked before, for example, in an enterprise platform without a single mobile client or in game dev . With a high probability, your resume will not be viewed by a person at all.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are responsible for the initial filtering of incoming resumes, as well as for screening company’s ejchars from applicants. Only in isolated cases do you send a resume and related documents via email - as a rule, you upload them on a page with an address like companyname.atsname.com . Here are a few commonly used services:

  • lever.co
  • personio.net
  • recruitee.com
  • join.com
  • workable.com
  • greenhouse.io

etc. Systems parse your CV (and they do this, basically, very so-so), compare its semantic core with the text of the vacancy and offer the recruiter for consideration the most relevant, in their opinion, candidates. The rest are sent an automatic rejection with a standard wording in the style of:
Due to the numerous qualified incoming applications, it was not easy for us to make a choice. After a detailed examination of the applications received, we had to make a selection. Unfortunately, we have to inform you that we cannot offer you the advertised position because we took other applicants with more suitable prerequisites into closer selection. We are sorry that we cannot give you a positive feedback. We would like to sincerely thank you for the efforts you have put into your application and we wish you all the best for your future!

The use of email aliases and video communication systems such as Meet / Hangouts or Zoom allows the company eychar to communicate with the applicant in stealth mode without disclosing their contacts.

Despite a number of unpleasant situations associated with the clumsy use of ATS by recruiters, I absolutely justify their use by the first line of employment. Without these systems, it would have simply been drowned in the incoming stream. Another thing is that the systems themselves so far resemble the search engines of the late nineties, and this means that the application of an analogue of SEO optimization begs them.

On the other hand, Google has its own ATS. It becomes a little uncomfortable with the phrase that appears at the end of the resume submission procedure through it (something like: we believe that you have told enough about yourself). Well, well, for all these years - of course :)

By the way, some companies not only give primary filtering to the mercy of ATS, but screening (initial interview) is also delegated to the outsourcing agency. So do not be surprised when the same recruiter will communicate with you on behalf of several different companies.

In conclusion, I can say that ATS is undoubtedly the future of recruiting, and for most of the current independent scouts and recruiters it makes sense to think about shifting the focus in their work to consulting in the field of ATS optimization.

Job boards


Job boards - the actual meeting place of the applicant and the employer. Each side makes its own demands on the boards. From my own I would single out:

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    , . , ATS . , , , LinkedIn entry position associate , ATS. , .. .
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  • Correct selection of similar vacancies when viewing a specific position. This is already a question of AI and algorithms, but when, say, when viewing a vacancy that says “German is not required”, you are additionally invited to look at other positions in which a similar, not always clearly formulated criterion also occurs - this is a big plus for the resource. Otherwise, you get the feeling of wasted time surfing.

My personal categorization and the top boards for job search in Germany are as follows:

Authoritative : a large number of vacancies, flexible filtering, adequate alerts.

  1. LinkedIn (the organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation). I’ll write about the need to have a properly filled profile in this social network. Of the useful and exclusive, it should be noted here:
    • Quick Apply, ATS . , ATS, LinkedIn .
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    , LinkedIn , ( , — ). , , .
  2. Xing — LinkedIn, . , — . , , - «250 product owner» (.., , , ).
  3. Stepstone – . . — . — , , .
  4. AngelList — . , . — decision maker', .
  5. BerlinStartupJobs — . , c ATS.

Spam boards. Aggregate vacancies from third-party resources in order to get a referral bonus for the delivery of a specialist in case of his employment. The main difference from the rest of the boards (not social networks like LinkedIn or Xing) is the mandatory registration to access the full text of the vacancies, followed by a wave of spam to your email. There are also frequent reposts of other people's vacancies with altered text to attract attention or completely closed vacancies that stimulate registration on the resource. A couple of the most persistent sites: Neuvoo and JobRapido . You can register for them, but do not forget to immediately configure the forward of all letters from them directly to the basket.

And finally - tadam! - Laurels of the most effective jobgo to Google :) Recently, the search engine has implemented a search interface for vacancies on a pile of boards and ATS, including all of the above. There is no special link to call the interface, just type in the search bar something like job product manager Dresden .

image

The same vacancies posted on different resources are combined into one. There are filters by search depth, location and radius around it, the language of the vacancy. This is quite enough not to bother with monitoring many sources, but methodically (say, every three days or a week) to check new vacancies by setting the appropriate search depth.

Interestingly, after the appearance of the Google service, it was symptomatically accused of the fact that he supposedly only friendly resources were parsed, ignoring competitors. I don’t know who was then recorded as a competitor, but in the search results I found links to all the previous objects of my monitoring, as well as to sites previously unknown to me.

Finally, very briefly about independent recruiters and agencies. I did not see any benefit from their activities during the search for work. None of the dozens of resumes sent to him led not only to an interview - not even to any answer. Therefore, I recommend to ignore these market participants in order to save time.

The next post will be devoted to the preparation of the necessary materials for job postings .

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