Posted

Choosing the right resume/CV parsing software is a business critical decision for all recruitment companies. Getting it wrong means potentially missing out on qualified candidates, incorrectly shortlisting unsuitable candidates, or becoming uncompetitive. But what is resume parsing software and what features really make a difference to your day to day recruitment operations?

What is CV/Resume Parsing?

CV or resume parsing is the process of reading a CV and understanding the information it contains. It is also known as CV extraction or resume extraction, as it involves extracting out specific items of information of relevance to the recruitment process.

Traditionally a task carried out by humans, parsing a resume is time consuming and requires a sophisticated level of linguistic understanding, as well as understanding of the relevant “domain knowledge” (i.e. the subject matter it relates to) to ensure proper understanding. This is something that humans can do fairly easily and accurately, although not perfectly. However a number of changes to the recruitment and employment market in recent years have resulted in a growth of CV parsing software to help speed up this essential element in the recruitment process.


The Need for CV Parsing Software

Parsing CV’s by hand has become an untenable proposition in an environment where there may be hundreds of applications per vacancy and where job board software and social recruiting can mean the automated acquisition of large numbers of additional CV’s to be assessed.

Even if a recruiter is willing to bear the costs of human parsing, the time required would result in undue delays for clients. In a marketplace where speed of response is a key element of competitiveness, time pressures would inevitably mean a drop in the accuracy of human parsing.

A difficult job market not only means more CV’s per vacancy, but also means that recruiters themselves need to operate more efficiently, cutting overheads wherever possible and looking for new ways to provide a responsive and competitive service. For these reasons resume parsing software is now an essential part of many recruitment businesses and departments. But while there is a general need for automation, CV parsing software must also achieve a level of accuracy that is close to that of humans in order to provide a high quality service to clients.


Choosing Resume Parsing Software

There are many resume parsing software products on the market and choosing between them can be tricky as descriptions will usually contain a fair bit of technical jargon. Unless you are an expert in the field it can be hard to know which facts or figures will really make a difference to your recruitment operation on a day to day basis.

From an operational standpoint, the five main things to look for are:

Out of the Box Accuracy – Different software providers will typically quote percentage accuracy levels, but some require a period of additional training on your type of data to achieve those levels. At best this means a period of transition before the system is up to speed – or you may discover after a period of time that those levels aren’t quite achievable – by which point you have made your purchase and have been using the system for a while. DaXtra Parser has an accuracy of up to 95% out of the box (human accuracy is generally reckoned to be around 96%), with no additional training required. So you can assess accuracy against your own actual data before you buy, and know exactly what you are getting.

Multilingual Parsing as Standard – Some parsers require you to specific exactly which languages you need at the point of purchase, often at additional cost. DaXtra Parser includes multilingual CV translation for 25 languages, covering all modern business languages including Chinese, Japanese and Russian, as standard. This instantly offers your business the potential to expand your niche or attract global clients.

Compatibility with Existing Systems – If you already have a CV database you will save time and money if the parser you choose can easily link in to your existing system, rather than having to switch to a new database or reformat all your CV’s. DaXtra Parser produces a variety of output formats enabling compatibility with most databases.

Skills Taxonomy for Your Sector – Extracting skills from a CV is a key part of any resume parsing software, but parsers need to know the terminology used for a specific industry sector to ensure accurate parsing. While some parsers depend on training, DaXtra Parser comes equipped with a set of ready-made taxonomies (skills lists) for a number of industry sectors including, amongst others, IT, Communications, Finance & Banking, Oil & Gas, Legal & Insurance, Building & Construction and General Business. This saves you the time needed to train up your parser, or to draw up your own taxonomy.

Social Media Ready – Social recruiting is the current trend transforming the recruitment industry, but scouring social media sources for CV’s and then inputting them to your database can be laborious. DaXtra Parser can process CV’s and profile data from any social media source and include them in your database. This potentially allows you scope to widen your pool of candidates and give you competitive advantage over recruiters without this capability.

Try Out DaXtra’s World Leading CV Parser
Click on the “Request a Demo” button at the top of this page or click here to arrange a demonstration of DaXtra’s CV Parsing Software, as well as our other modules.

As well as seeing a demonstration of our world leading software we invite all prospective clients to try out our software using their own data, to check the accuracy levels they can expect.