Sure it is, I just don’t understand why you would think that they are shooting themselves in the foot.
You might have a point, if they were using things like dropdown boxes for positions, but when its a fill in the blank box, where you can key in anything you want, nope. Also, how does having me type in my former employer’s name and address keep someone from turning “hash slinger” into “product development artisan” or “organic produce processor”? I don’t mind it so much if I’m having to winnow things down to fit their definitions, but when everything is just a blank textbox, it makes me wonder why they wanted me to upload my resume to begin with.
I had a company call me for an interview. Said they found my resume on Monster. We setup a time, and they send me an email with directions to their office, and the “dress code” for the interview. This should have been a red flag. I am looking for a professional IT job, not a food flinger at a burger joint. No shorts, and tshirts should be understood.
I arrive for the interview, and get invited back to the conference room. Nice chit chat with the HR person. Pass over a hard copy of my resume. Answer a few questions about the network I supported while in the Army. Go over what technologies I know, what my school plans are (supposedly they want a BS). Finally I get asked “So are you hard set on a computer job? We don’t have any available right now, but we have several insurance sales associate possitions available. You could make alot of money.” I say no, shake her hand and walk out.
If you are that desperate for sales associates, you could have asked on the phone, and saved both of us an hour. Now I am always wary when I get a email from someone that found my resume on the web.
-Otanx
THIS. I now have almost THIRTY usernames and passwords for THIRTY different companies, most of which I’ll never use again, and I just keep having to register for more and more and MORE AND MORE AND MORE…
And people wonder why I have so much trouble keeping track of all my passwords…
Is playing piano in a whorehouse still a viable career option? I know lots of ragtime.
Inept matching in automated job updates.
“We’ve found 147 top jobs that match your skills!”
No, you haven’t. The jobs in this list don’t even resemble each other.
Oh, yes, and if its some place you applied to years ago, but forgotten about, you have to jump through all kinds of bizarre hoops to be able to apply for something there. (And this is one of the reasons why I now have a bunch of different email accounts.)
You know, I hadn’t thought of that… I know how to play ragtime, too…
::: scurries off to re-examine several listings ::::
Maybe they do have legit reasons for requiring a higher degree of education than is normally necessary for such a position, but it’s also likely that the ad was written by someone in HR with no real understanding of the skills needed for the position. Provided whoever reviews resumes keeps strictly to the ad, they unnecessarily cut out a large chunk of qualified job seekers.
The gripe I had, but haven’t seen lately, was when I was looking into web development positions, I would find postings with requirements that weren’t physically possible.
For instance, 5 years Java experience when Java was only 2 years old.
That and they’re more likely to have someone leave for a better job, and have to go through the hiring process all over again.
Or how about “must be familiar with XYZ software” and XYZ software is a propriety type of software that only the company with the want ad uses! Gee, ya think that an ex-employee is going to want to come back to your place of work, or will be allowed to come back?
Way back when I was living in Albuquerque, an ad would appear periodically in the newspaper that said someting like:
“Needed: five lazy persons to work in office with rock ‘n’ roll atmosphere, and one or two indistrious ones.”
This was back before computers, e-mail and the Internet. The ad gave a phone number and a post-office-box mailing address. I could never get a response from them, and no one ever answered the phone. The ad would appear every few months. I never could figure out what that was all about.
In some places, job openings must be advertised externally as well as internally (either because of legislation or corporate policy).
My experience with “Must have experience in (something you couldn’t be experienced with unless you worked for the company)” positions are that they’re deliberately worded like that so they can promote Lloyd from Accounts, who’s been doing the position as “temporary” relief for the past 18 months anyway. They don’t actually want other applicants for the position- they need to be able to say that the position was advertised, and Lloyd was the only one who applied/met the criteria.
This is why, when I apply for Government jobs now, I always ask “Is someone currently undertaking this position on a temporary or relief basis, and if not, is there someone in the department who could be considered ‘next in line’ for the position?” If the answer is “No”, then I continue with the application. If the answer is “Yes” or “Well, no-one’s officially next in line, but there is someone who has been with the department for some time who has expressed an interest” then I thank them politely and move on to something else.
I learnt this the hard way after spending a week putting together a meticulously worded 3,000 word application addressing all kinds of seemingly irrelevant minutiae for a Government Job that I was well suited for, only to get a rejection e-mail the day after the applications closed. I rang them up and politely asked for some tips to improve my future applications, and they said that the position had been given to the person who had been filling in as Acting (Position) for the past 8 months. :smack:
There’s a lot of junk on there too, though I’ll admit that I never got spam from having my resume on it.
I’m in a somewhat different situation in that I’m a student and I’m looking for a casual job, but I am certainly in agreement with you on the Anonymous Company job placement. How do I know if this place is even near enough to me to be viable? How do I know if your ‘successful retail store’ sells something I would even be capable of conversing intelligently with customers about?
Since most of the jobs I can get in my position are just average local retail positions, I think my pet hate is ads like this:
(Replace ‘Fashion’ with whatever they’re actually selling - though most of this type of ad is for clothing stores. Whether or not many of them can really be called ‘fashion’ is a whole other thread…)
OK, so I cobbled that one together as a Frankenstein’s Ad out of the very worst bits and pieces of several different ads appearing on my regular job search sites - but I didn’t make any of it up. It all came from real ads.
I especially hate ‘Retail Superstar!!!’. Get the fuck over yourself. Just because you had to invest every fibre of your stupid being into it just to make it to a Part-Time Assistant Manager position after 8 years in a local cheap-ass fashion outlet doesn’t mean that’s what it takes for normal people. Most people can do what you do and probably better. Unfortunately, your style of ad weeds them out and anyway, you’d never hire anyone whose personality didn’t validate the shrieking overcompensation and massive inferiority complex you clearly have about your shitty position in a shitty company.
But it’s the only thing YOU’RE good at - so it must take a RETAIL SUPERSTAR!!! to get it done. Coz’ that’s what you are, right? A fucking superstar.
ETA: I don’t mean to insult any retail workers here - I have been one and will be one again. I realise that there are genuine retails jobs and managerial positions out there that require significant skill in sales techniques and whatnot. These ads are for $10/hour, 10hr/week casual sales positions in small, local businesses requiring no more than the most menial of skills. They do not need ‘superstars’.
No kidding. According to the “results” I’ve been getting, I’m qualified to work everywhere from an aircraft hangar to an auto mechanic shop to a private school to the U.S. Freakin’ Navy.
As long as they don’t whine afterwards that “nobody really wants to WORK in this country” when they can’t find such an applicant who’s willing to work for the slave wages the company is willing to pay.
Buckler of Swashing, your FrankenAd is one of the funniest-because-it’s-true things I’ve read all week. Thanks for cheering me up no end! 
I’ve seen so many ads like that I’m starting wonder if they’re all written by the same woman…
To quote Les Grossman: “A nutless monkey could do your job. Nah, I’m joking. Yeah. But seriously. A nutless monkey could do your job.”
As you say though, those ads are designed to appeal to a certain type of retail worker, and it’s not a cynical former manager in an electronics store. 
If the interviews I’ve had so far don’t pan out, I’m seriously tempted to duck down to St. Vinnies and get some horribly dated 1970s-style suit, some Aviator sunnies, and a suitably daggy sideburns/hairstyle combo- basically, looking exactly like That Guy from the Birch Carroll & Coyle ads - and then get some of my friends to follow me to the interview taking photos and so on, whilst some of my other friends can act like my “entourage”.
Then I can arrive at the interview and say, with a completely straight face, “Well, you wanted a Retail Superstar. Here I am!”
I know, long way to go for a cheap joke, but part of me thinks it would be worth it anyway. 