Sure, make the “state” field mandatory. But, you know, maybe people will want to use your website, and are from mystical far-off places like, oh, say, Canada. Despite what you may have heard, people do live up in this frozen wasteland, and some of us may want to be applying for a job through your website. And then there’s the zip code space. I have a 6-digit postal code. So what am I supposed to do?
Morons. How hard is it to add the option “N/A” or “Other” and leave me a space to put it in? Instead you force me to choose Wyoming with a 00000 zip code and hope that my explanation in my cover letter is enough to keep you from tossing out my application as being full of false information. Not to mention the big warning in red letters at the bottom that tells me it’s grounds for dismissal if you see I put wrong info in my application. Is this just an easy way to fire Canadian employees who don’t work out?
"Ha! Look, you put Idaho as your state! You’re from Ontario! You LIAR! Off with your head!"
Do you not want applicants from foreign parts? Because you’re basically telling me not to bother applying. And if I didn’t want the job so bad, I’d have skipped over your site and moved on to the next people who are hiring.
And yet you apply anyway? There are plenty of reasons to only hire from people already living in the country. This rant is totally bizarre unless the page specifically says they want foreign applicants.
Let me lay it down for ya’ American style and straight:
We don’t like Canadians.
Don’t like the way they look, the clothes they wear, or the way they talk.
And we don’t want to hire 'em.
This is our not-so-subtle way of saying, “Canadians need not apply.”
I’m kidding of course. My sympathy to you for dealing with forms with no fucking flexibility. I run into them all of the time and it annoys the hell out of me that the stupid web designers don’t have the foresight to make the damn things capable of dealing with common “unusual” events.
Of course, that assumes that only Canadians live in Canada. There are a few Americans who live in the frozen north, but who might want to move back to the USA
No, Giles, I’m Canadian, and I’m starting to get the feeling that America doesn’t want me.
I did call the human resources department in question when I first saw that I’d have a problem with the web form. She reassured me that yes, they do hire Canadians. and I have all the qualifications. I’m a good candidate. She encouraged me to fill out the form online so they could have a look at me. When I explained the problem, she said to just make something up and explain in one of the “comments” lines, or my cover letter. When I asked if I could fax in my resume or something, she seemd confused. I mean, they have a web form! Why would I want to use something so antique when they’re clearly so technologically hip?
But it’s not just these people.Countless other websites give me the same problem. Most times I have to provide a mailing address, I have to put City-Province-Country smooshed together in the “city” field and hope for the best. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I just can’t understand, what with the whole worldwide web thing, why so many people forget that there will be individuals from other countries coming to their websites. It’s bad business.
If you were filling out a form on my site, you would choose ON from the drop-down menu, I hope, and not NONE. I really hhte it when Canadians do that. And the Postal Code space is open-ended, so Canadians, Indians, Brits or anyone else can put theirs in. It’s not a big deal.
I have noticed a lot of problems with on-line forms. Stuff just doesn’t get thought of. I usually se the problem from the other end. I work with databases, and I have to figure out what to do with wierd data, when the problem would be moot if the web form was designed better.
Stupid problem that I’ve run into several times: the form asks you to enter your five digit zip code. I comply. The site comes back with an error screen and insists it needs a five digit zip.
The first time it happened, I assumed I mistyped and made several attempts to enter my zip, all with no luck. I finally realized that the form was treating the zip as a number. And since the first digit of my zip is zero, and we all know that leading zeros are irrelevant and disposable and thus my five digit zip got turned into a four digit number and then rejected.
Yeah, everyone knows Mexico is just west of Arizona.
Not Kidding.
(Good item to remember to win your next bar bet. There is a chunk of Mexico close to Yuma that is to the West of Arizona)
We don’t. You’ve inflicted Anne Murray and Celine Dion on us. Plus, you invented a sport we just can’t seem to beat you at, and took our sport (not fucking baseball) and added 10 yards and other goofy rules to it, just to piss us off. Then you had the gall to name one of the teams the Allouettes. (sp?)
And curling? Good thing the CT is actually a nuke aimed at us. (What, Stone is wrong?)
Don’t worry, based on the fields in Alberta, western Canada may very well be America in a decade or two. Get thee to Edmonton! And welcome home.
I initiated a thread about American websites that don’t even have the American state fields correct. Antigen, if they can’t get it right for their own country, what makes you think they’ll manage to do it correctly for another land?
why would a company that advertises all over its webpage as working with international investors be contactable only through an 800 number that does not accept calls from outside the US (even if you pay the difference) and which only works 9-5 Mountain Time? Such was the case with the company handling the portfolio I got as part of my benefits in my last US job.
I’d be ok with that if the mountain was the Aneto, but I don’t think it is.
What are Canadias and how are they different from Arcadia? Are they in more than one state? Are they like a mountain range or something? If I go South from Detroit, what happens?
What is a Yukon? Can I bring it home on the plane? How much will it cost? Is it alive or what? Can I buy several for Christmas presents?
The OP speaks the truth. Try to convince a bank teller you live in Saudi Arabia. Try to get a mobile phone plan that allows roaming in Panama (or Mexico). Try speaking a foreign language to your SO in a Vegas casino. Try to get your bank to call you back when they get their heads out of their apex. For that matter try to open a bank account in Euros. (Or trade in your unused pesos for dollars at the local bank.)
