The ATS Menu: How Do You Select The One That’s Right For You?

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With so many Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to choose from, it’s a lot like going to an all you can eat buffet in Las Vegas. Where do you start? You don’t want to fill up on bread. Oh, what’s that over there? Before you know it, you’ve walked around for an hour and haven’t eaten anything. Of course, I’m only kidding. I head straight for the crab legs and the dessert station.



I googled “how many applicant tracking systems,” and the auto-populated recommended searches made it clear that I’m not the only one researching the world of applicant tracking systems. I found several posts from the folks at Ongig, and one blog covered the top ATS vendors. Their survey tracked 109 different vendors.



FOMO Is Real. So, How Do You Pick An ATS With So Many Choices?


Through my client engagements, I’ve used several of the ATS’ on the list, and I have brazil phone number resource experience with a smattering of the remainder. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. To help analyze the choices, think of each one as a different item on a menu. Pick an ATS like you would a dish from the Cheesecake Factory menu: weigh the features you need and want with the ability of a system to meet and fulfill those needs, all the while hoping you don’t get a paper cut from any of the 100 pages on the menu!

Pretend you’re hosting a very important dinner party, except in this case, you have a lot of people at the table, and you’re asking all the guests to settle on a single dish that everyone has to eat. You have to try to please as many people as you can when you select an ATS, and you have to be confident in your final choice. Otherwise, no one eats!



The guest list and seating chart at your dinner party are important. Finance and IT should sit together as they’re more likely to get along in conversations about numbers, software, and budgets. HR and Talent Acquisition should sit across the table from each other unless your firm is like some companies, where they should sit as far away from each other as possible (though it really shouldn’t be like that; we’re all on the same team). Be sure to invite representatives from legal and compliance as well as people from each department and functional area.