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The Future of Hiring Using Big Data

Hiring has changed over the years. Once upon a time, you’d compose your resume on a computer that probably only had Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word. You would print it out because you couldn’t just send it electronically. From there you might have faxed it, or taken it with a paper application in person. Job ads were in newspapers or on TV, or maybe just a piece of paper put on the front door of the organization that was hiring.

Now, though, we do almost everything online. You create your resume online, send your application online—sometimes you even work online or in a remote setting.

But how will the introduction of “big data” change how hiring is done today? Let’s find out.

What is Big Data?

When used in recruiting, big data is called people analytics. Recruiters receive access to a lot of data, such as resume keywords, social media data mines, and more. This data allows the recruiter to create a picture of the candidate that they may not get from a resume alone.

Because of how electronically charged everything is nowadays, a regular resume is just too flat. It doesn’t provide enough information. There’s even a “people analytics cycle” that recruiters can use to break down their candidates.

The parts of this cycle are:

  1. Ask the right questions.
  2. Select your data.
  3. Clean your data up.
  4. Analyze your data.
  5. Interpret your data and execute based on that knowledge.

What is the Future of Hiring?

The future of hiring is ATS—also known as applicant tracking systems. This is an automated algorithm that filters resumes and applications based on keywords that the recruiter sets. This is important to know because if your resume isn’t readable by an ATS system, it may disappear. And don’t think that you can get away with “keyword stuffing.”

What Is Keyword Stuffing?

Resume keyword stuffing is not dissimilar to search engine optimization (SEO) keyword stuffing. It happens when you put way too many keywords into your resume. You may have even used white fonts so they don’t appear when you actually look at the resume. The key idea behind this is that you’re trying to fool an ATS into accepting your application because you have the right keywords somewhere in the resume.

An example of keyword stuffing is when you type the same keyword multiple times in white text on your resume, such as “SEO, SEO, SEO.” And like in SEO, it’s a bad idea.

Should I Worry About Cybersecurity?

Data is important, and it’s everywhere. The internet sends and receives data, your laptop or desktop keeps data, and so does your phone. Almost any electronic you own holds various data on your person.

And the most common cybersecurity issues are:

  • Malware: This is spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms that can make your computer or device inoperable.
  • Emotet: This is a banking Trojan that downloads and drops other Trojans.
  • Denial of Service (DoS): This is a cyber attack on your network, making it unable to access the internet.
  • Man in the middle (MITM): This is where your hackers inserted themselves into a two-party transaction, interrupting the traffic to steal your credit information.
  • Phishing: Fake communication, such as emails with instructions to provide data.
  • SQL Injection: When malicious code has been inserted into a server that uses SQL.
  • Password attacks: When a cyber attacker gets your passwords.

You should definitely worry about your security, but not to the point that you stop applying to jobs online. Most job application sites are secure.


When applying to jobs online, if you’re worried about your data security, use a password-protected network. If you want even more layers of protection, a Virtual Private Network (or VPN) will offer another layer of protection. VPNs give you online access and make your connection anonymous by masking your IP address.

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