May 10, 2010, Oceanside CA — Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc. (APS), the maker of the SmartSearch applicant tracking system (ATS), reports that its powerful “SmartMatch” skill search, semantic search, and profile search features are being leveraged by a number of non-profit career counseling and employment agencies that assist military personnel in finding jobs that fit their unique skills and ambitions. In today‟s tight job market, military veterans compete for jobs with professionals who have spent five or more years in the corporate world. SmartSearch helps career counselors and recruiters look at the extraordinary talents of service men and women and how their experience can be applied in the civilian workforce.
Initially developed in 2008, the SmartMatch function in the SmartSearch system features a user-customizable inventory of job skill categories and subcategories for rating candidates in a convenient drop-down pick-list. These skills can also be referenced on a job profile, and the SmartMatch triggers an automated search to immediately identify qualified candidates in the database. Doug Coull, CEO at APS said, “We are both pleased and proud that the SmartMatch tool is being applied so effectively in transitioning military personnel to civilian careers.”
At the volunteer-driven Tip of the Arrow Foundation www.tipofthearrow.net, career counselors are on a mission to help military personnel transition successfully to civilian jobs. Bob Deissig, co-founder of Tip of the Arrow Foundation, said, “With SmartMatch, we have a way to help find employment that best fits each individual‟s technical training, field experience, and career aspirations. It helps us read between the lines‟ of a resume. SmartSearch provides a number of options for searching our database on talent and skills, plus a natural language semantic search, that enable us to match candidates to employers and job opportunities in both the government sectors and private industry.”
SmartMatch various combinations of education requirements, skill codes, resume text search, and experience levels to conduct three simultaneous searches to find matching candidate profiles. Each search returns a link on the job profile showing the number of candidates that meet the various search criteria. Users then quickly review the top candidates and match selected candidates to the job. Each user may also specify how far back to search for qualified candidates based on the age of the record, as well as specify optimum search parameters based on the job profile.
Impact Military Talent www.imtrecruiters.com (IMT), a specialized placement firm that helps businesses tap into the military talent pool, also finds SmartMatch highly effective for helping them manage the process of finding talented former and transitioning military service members and placing them into roles in business that capitalize on the skills and experience gained in the military. Keith Anderson, Principal at IMT, said, “Three to eight years of military service leadership closely resembles the experience of a plant or distribution center manager. Smart Search is instrumental in helping us find, screen, and market that talent to businesses who need it. We find talented service men and women have demonstrated creativity, initiative and ability to build teams, motivate and inspire an organization, manage multiple and competing priorities, and manage the day-to-day operations. From soft skills, work ethic, and leadership experience perspective, employers will not find better candidates than those who have served our country. The intensive training and extraordinary experience that our veterans have puts them well ahead of comparable non-military candidates.”
Anderson also noted, “For example, a Lieutenant or Captain can be responsible for millions of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and over a hundred team members. They serve under extraordinary circumstances, may be tested under combat situations in high pressure jobs — you don’t see this in comparable civilian jobs. By focusing on talent and aptitude rather than resume text, SmartSearch helps us manage the process that helps us bring that talent to an employer. The skills gained in challenging and fast-paced conditions prepare military members to make a positive and measurable impact on business results. American employers continue to find that hiring former military personnel not only supports those who have served our country, but also makes great business sense.”
About SmartSearch: Advanced Personnel Systems has developed and deployed quality talent management and recruiting solutions since 1986. Having pioneered the field of resume-scanning based recruiting solutions, APS is a recognized leader in on-demand technology and innovative approaches to recruitment data management. Its signature product, SmartSearch, currently in itsfourteenth release, serves over 165,000 users and 4.7 million job seekers worldwide. Learn more about SmartSearch by visiting www.smartsearchonline.com.
This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.