NAIT offers students new tool to help crack job market

Jobscan to help student job seekers get past AI gatekeepers

Rafael Luis Jr. Flores wants his job applications to catch the eyes of potential employers at a glance.

“I want to insert a bit of creativity into my resumé,” says the Marketing student and NAIT outreach and well-being leader.

AI doesn’t want him to do that. It may even punish him for it.

These days, most recruiters, businesses and organizations use an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage hiring. An ATS can automatically screen candidate documents according to a criteria set by the employer, including keywords and document formatting.

That probably means only a fraction of applications are even seen by human beings who may have appreciated that creativity.

NAIT Career Advising is working to address that. “A lot of our students are applying to jobs and they don't hear back,” says career education coordinator Jacob Caley. To help, the department is running a one-year pilot to offer Jobscan, which optimizes resumés for ATS, refines other job-search documents, identifies opportunities, and more across the polytechnic.

Here’s a look at how the tool works and, with Flores’s thoughts as a tester, its potential value in getting past the gatekeepers in an increasingly automated job market.

Students: Log in to MyNAIT to access Jobscan and learn more about how to use it

What Jobscan does

Jobscan can do a lot. Among key features NAIT students may find most useful, Caley points to:

• Resumé optimizing – Upload your resumé and a job listing and Jobscan can note improvements to help “make sure you don't get eliminated before you're in the hands of an actual recruiter,” says Caley.
• Resumé building – Jobscan can build a document from scratch using its ATS-optimized templates.
• Cover letter optimizing – Jobscan can tweak your cover letter based on a job description, or generate a new one using that description and a resumé. “The hardest part is starting, right?” says Caley. Edit the letter to make it your own.
• Job application tracking – This helps you stay on top of what you’ve applied for, when and more. It can even email you reminders about upcoming interviews.
• LinkedIn optimizing – Jobscan can scan a selection of your recent resumés and suggest revisions to aspects of your online presence. “It will basically help you build a better LinkedIn profile,” says Caley.

Rafael’s review

Rafael Luis Jr. Flores likes a lot of what he sees in Jobscan, including:

✔ Simple interface – ”It’s a bit minimalist,” he says. In fact, it reminds him of LinkedIn. “It’s very easy to navigate.”

✔ Handy storage – Jobscan stores your past job search documents. “When a similar job comes up, you don't have to readjust your resumé,” says Flores. Just grab and go.

✔ It does what it said it would – Flores appreciates the changes Jobscan suggests, even if he wishes they weren’t necessary. “It makes resumés really look really boring and plain,” he says. In a good way.

Flores feels Jobscan’s value will vary with age group. He believes mature students who have previous work experience like he does (Flores was a marketer in the Philippines before coming to NAIT) may find that trial and error has already taught them to be concise, and to target their documents appropriately.

“Experience is the best teacher,” says Flores.

But he sees many benefits for those who may lack job-market experience, such as younger students. Reluctantly, Flores also sees them for anyone struggling to let go of the urge to give their resumé an overtly personal touch that may better suited to an interview.

“I grudgingly agree that it's useful,” he says.

Humans still required

Another Jobscan feature has Flores pointing to the persisting need for a human touch. In his view, its personalized job listings “need some work”; they strike him as being disconnected from his skill set. For him, that’s where real-live people come in.

Students can pair their Jobscan activities with help from Career Advising staff to explore ways forward. They can even get help preparing for the interviews they land with the tool, which will be offered throughout the academic year, says Courtney Warren, manager of NAIT’s Student Life department.

In the coming summer, Warren and her team will see how many students used the tool, how many jobs were applied for, how many offers were made, and ask for more feedback. With that, they’ll decide whether Jobscan will continue as part of NAIT’s efforts to help students transition from campus to career.

“We want to help students get that job when they’ve completed their credential,” says Warren. “We want to help them succeed.”