New RecTech tools are changing the job-seeking landscape and offering improved opportunities for finding work faster, whether that’s your long-term dream job or a lifeline for now. Job seekers need to understand what they need to do to be ‘discoverable’ by new, AI-driven platforms.
Both employers and prospective employees feel the pain of the recruitment process. Job searches are often tense, drawn out and exhausting. Both sides can benefit from a quicker, more accurate and less costly match. Online recruitment platform, Job Crystal has recently launched CRYSTAL, an AI-driven tool that can search and screen 34 million employable people across 43 websites including job boards, job portals and social media sites, reaching active job seekers and passive hiders.
Technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning and NLP (natural language processing), which have the capacity to process huge amounts of data in minutes, are increasingly being deployed in the recruitment field to achieve these greater efficiencies. While the human touch is still essential in the recruitment process, job seekers can now be found far more quickly online and be matched far more accurately to viable work opportunities. In South Africa, with its high unemployment rate, these new technologies can get people back to work and help companies find the skills they need to thrive.
Job Crystal CEO, Sasha Knott says, “The great advantage to South African job seekers is that it takes just a few steps to make sure that you are discoverable online. It’s a shift from worrying about how you can possibly stand out in a competitive field so that a recruiter or an employer might notice you, to accurately portraying your work history and aligning your online your professional profiles. This is not just important for those who are actively job seeking or thinking about a job change. Even if you are not currently looking, you should ensure you are always discoverable, as you never know what great opportunities could come your way. Employment always comes with risks, especially in tough economic times, so keeping your options open by being discoverable is a safer bet. As you carve out your career path, it serves you to know what companies are looking for when it comes to your skills-sets, and what salaries they are paying. It saves you time as you don’t need to look out there. Instead, the machines are finding you and companies can come to you. Who doesn’t want to be found and appreciated for the work they can do?”
How does it work?
CRYSTAL, which can search through millions of data in mere minutes, uses a full CV to match to a detailed job description. It does not use keywords or simple job titles; instead, it processes a full CV and matches it to what an employer is looking for by using AI, NLP and ML. In this way, it is working similarly to a human recruiter, but much faster, and on a massive scale. Therefore, the quality of the content in your CV and aligning your online work profiles becomes the core of being discoverable online.
Knott says, “CRYSTAL works for candidates in that it looks at their CV and matches it to jobs on the Job Crystal platform, as well as other jobs on Google. Therefore, South African job seekers can find all jobs offered on one platform rather than doing numerous searches, which is a huge time-saver. We’ve all been there, and we know how it feels to look for a job! We don’t ask job seekers to re-type their CVs; they join the platform, add basic contact details, upload their CVs and they are done! There are free tools such as the salary benchmark which you can use to compare your salary or ask to others across South Africa. Plus, the job search is free!”
Job Crystal is a specialist in recruitment services for South African SMEs, which employ around 60% of the country’s workforce. Knotts says, “We’re dedicated to having an impact on reducing unemployment in South Africa, and SMEs offer many advantages as employers. They offer a quicker ladder up the growth chain in business and more opportunities for learning on the job. SMEs also tend to be more flexible on where and when you can work which has become increasingly important to SA workers. They tend to celebrate every win, offering a closer culture and greater team effort towards achieving business goals. For people who want to work with purpose this is the alternative to being a number in a large corporation.”
Job Crystal’s CEO Sascha Knott shares her Top 5 Tips for job seekers to ensure they are AI discoverable:
- Take the time and make the effort to ensure your CV is top notch. Make it accurate, on point but also detailed enough to show what you did in your past jobs, your education and where you have excelled.
- Make sure your LinkedIn profile matches your CV when it comes to dates, roles and company names. Nowadays, expect that companies will be looking across all social media channels to see what candidates have posted and how they have presented themselves.
- If you are using a photo on your CV, LinkedIn and other public websites, make sure it is a professional work-related photo. Yes, we all look our best in our wedding pics, but you need to convey what you look like in a business setting.
- When you are searching for jobs, be careful about using job titles as these are not standardised and many companies do call jobs by different names. Research other possible titles before your search.
- List your skills and achievements, awards and other industry recognition in your CV.
Register and upload your CV with Job Crystal here.
