General Application Forms - Where do they come from?

So, I go into an engineering company to apply for a drafting position. Inevitably, despite sending a resume accompanied by a letter of application, they ask me to fill out one of these standardized applications for employment. How redundant can that be? I fill it out, but the application looks like it was designed in the early 70’s and just copied over and over again when they need new forms. Where on Earth do these forms come from?

Staples sells them, for one. At least the one I used to work at did.

If you are hired, your personal information will need to be entered into the company’s personnel database. It saves time if it is presented in a standard format. You want the job, you’ll do the extra work.

I was hiring an assistant manager. She looked at the 4 page application and asked, “Do I have to fill out this whole thing?” My response, “If the application is too much work, the paperwork in this job is going to be a bear.” She didn’t get the job.

Read my previous post Kid Gilligan. Read it again if need be…

Anyway, I was wondering where they get these forms? It might be a good idea to have one of these forms filled out and stored in PDF format. So, how about it? Staples has one, are there any others out there?

You can find these at the major office supply stores, as well as office supply catalogs. Not sure how many formats there may be, but here’s three just at Viking.