Used to be that you heard about a job opportunity, called the appopriate people, and submitted your résumé. You’d interview, and the deal is done.
Nowadays, everything must be done on the Internet. Fine, no problem. The companies want to screen people before interviewing them. But just how in-depth do you need to be? You have my résumé. Must you make me re-enter every single work experience, skill, and education experience I’ve ever had? Do you realize that it takes me 2-3 hours just to apply for every single job now because your stupid web application requires me to answer every single thing about myself (again, things already found on my résumé)?
For those of you who have never had to play with online job applications, you probably won’t understand my frustration. For those of you who have, perhaps you understand where I’m coming from.
Please pardon the nonlucid grammar. I’m frustrated and tired of this shit.
Oh Jesus, are you ever preaching to the choir. I hate those things. The most insidious ones I’ve seen are Federal applications for the EPA. Hopefully, you’ve never had to fill one of these things out, but they call it an online “interview”. What it is is ten pages of essay questions relating to the job posting, and it’s different for every opening. Applying for three positions will take all day as you spend hours trying to answer in 200 words questions like “What is your greatest weakness as pertaining to wetland remediation work?”
And what about those bureaucratized bastards that
[ol]
[li]want you to email a CV in a specific Word format;[/li][li]want you to fill out some web form (like Agent Foxtrot said) with the same information;[/li][li]ask you to bring in a printed copy of the CV (gentlemen, are you out of paper?);[/li][li]make you fill another form on the day of the interview with the same effing information they have in multiple copies and formats![/li][/ol]
HR Dopers, please pass the message to the Pointy-Haired ones, will you?
Every place that I applied to online had a different format that they wanted the resume sent in. Then fill out this form here with the information that you already submitted. Lastly report to our office to fill out an application. :mad:
Maybe it is their way of seeing who really wants the job.
Let’s not forget the web designers who make certain fields mandatory.
Email contact information for references. One of my best references is 59 years old and has no interest in getting online. Yes, I have other references, but just because we don’t get email at work shouldn’t mean I have to use a back up reference. Actually, I strongly dislike putting reference information on a general application. I don’t want my references to be bothered unless I’m in the running for a job.
Telephone numbers which must be filled in with (area code) XXX-XXXX field. Some of my job contact info is overseas.
Unless, the job requires an EXTENSIVE background check, why must I fill in menial stuff like my high school’s complete address? I am long out of high school and hold two college degrees. Yes, I have the high school diploma around here some place should I ever need to produce it, but information like this on an online application is just a pain to look up. On regular applications I have always used:
XYZ High School, Columbus, OH and then filled in graduation year.
One of the things that used to chap my ass about looking for a job was that all these places require references. Before everyone piles on, that annoyed me not because I had poor references, but because most of the places I worked at had a strict policy about NOT giving personal and professional references - apparently, at least one of the companies I had worked with had gotten burned when a manager talked trash about a former employee to a potential employer, causing the potential employer to rescind their job offer. So, most of the places where I used to work directed all employees seeking new work to have HR provide potential employers with work histories. However, many companies seeking employees today require professional references (which is understandable), yet many companies no longer give references and only verify work history. Drove me fucking nuts.
Ouch. I applied for a bunch of federal IT/programming jobs a couple years ago, and for each one I had to answer the same goddamn 160 question true/false quiz.
[ul]
[li]“You have extensive experience working onmultiple large projects at one time. True or False.”[/li][li]“You have moderate experience working on multiple large projects at one time. True or False.”[/li][li]“You have some experience working on multiple large projects at one time. True or False.”[/li][li]etc.[/li][/ul]
Talk about an eye-glazing experience.
Plus, their sternly worded warning that if you answered untruthfully on any of the questions, EVEN IF YOU FIBBED JUST A LITTLE BIT and they found out, you would be thrown out of the job, prosecuted, beaten, sodomized, then taken down to 'Gitmo and “disappeared.”
Preach it brother. Online applications are impersonal, and listing the complete address of every single place you lived at within the last 10 years sucks.
God I hate those things. They make you fill in all of the information that’s on your resume and then ask you to attach your resume anyway! Ugh. Such a freaking time waster! One place had me apply through monster, fill out a form on it’s website, and then fill out tons more forms at an assessment test. (like those staffing agency tests.) I haven’t even had an interview yet! All that paperwork!
My boss from my last job just quit. How the hell am I supposed to deal with that? They can talk to my old firm and all, but she was the office manager and the only one in charge. Most of the places I’ve worked for have the “no comment” version of refernces. I really don’t understand why people still require them. Verfication of employment is all I can think of.
Job hunting sucks ass.
Oh and companies really need to put their dress codes in the job ad. I interviewed at one place today that requires women to wear skirts Monday through Thursday!!! Women can wear pants on Fridays- that’s considered casual. I wore a pantsuit to the interview. I mean seriously! Arghhh!
Even just for a frickin’ retail peon job you have to sit down in the back on a computer for 45 minutes to apply. There are two pages asking you your contact info and employment history followed by a 160-page quiz.
I believe it is ok to take things from my employer without permission. Always true, sometimes true, sometimes not true, never true.
What is the total of all things I have taken from my employer without permission in the past 12 months? More than $100, $50-100, $10-50, Under $10. (Aside - note that “none” is not an option.)
It is ok to take things from my employer without permission if it’s only a little bit. Always true, sometimes true, sometimes not true, never true.
If I had the opportunity to take things from my employer without permission, and I knew I would never get caught, I would do it. Always true, sometimes true, sometimes not true, never true.
I feel the need to hijack on to this with something sort of related (at least in my mind). Having to give information more than once sucks. I pit the companies that make you enter your life history when you’re calling on the phone, only to make you give the same information as soon as you talk to a live person. My cellphone company is really bad about this.
Example from just yesterday:
[recorded message]“For your security please enter the last four digits of your social security number”
[me] beep beep beep beep
[recorded message]"For your security please enter the first 5 digits of your billing ZIP code
[me]beep beep beep beep beep
long pause…
[operator]“Hello this is Ahmed, thanks for holding, For your security may I have the last four digits of your social security number?”
[me] ~sigh~ “one two three four”
[operator] “For your security may I have the first five digits of your billing ZIP code?”
Since school started for the fall I figured retail type places might have some openings, So I have been going through all of those stupid tests for every place. Not only are the tests annoying enough, they keep calling me in for an interview then telling me I’m over-qualified. I won’t get into a rant about that pile of shit term again, but why the hell call me in. You have my resume, you see I have my masters. Why do you have to call me in, talk to me over two hours with three interviewers only to decide that I’m too qualified to run a cash register. Are they hoping for a negative impression interview? Are they sitting around thinking"Well he has a masters which we won’t hire for retail jobs, but maybe if we bring him in for an interview he’ll actually be so fucking stupid, that he will can slip downward into the category of being qualified for the job"? I’ve been wondering if I should get drunk and hit myself in the head several hundred times so as to give a bad enough interview that I can sneak back into the less than over-qualified rating? Fuck, I would have an easier time finding something to pay the bills If I had been in prison for the last two years, rather than grad school. Maybe the best career step I can take is doing something to get arrested, to balance out some of those over-qualifications a little.
When I was unemployed a few years ago, I finally bit the bullet and went to temp agencies to find work. I found out really quickly that I had to dumb my resume down A LOT just to get a job. My masters degree was the first thing to go. It was horrible - I kept thinking “Temp agency. Temporary. Then they say ‘You’re overqualified, we’re worried you’ll be bored. Plus, you’ll probably find something much better as soon as you start with us, then you’ll leave.’” Uh, hello! Did I miss something here, or is this a TEMP AGENCY?!? I hated that.
Not to mention, you have to fill in the same information every time you go to a temp agency, even if you have sent a resume. Then there are the typing tests that you have to do over and over again, then testing on software, whether or not you already have previous scores. Urgh.
“You’re over-qualified but you don’t have enough experience.” Um, ok? How the hell am I to get this experience IF NO ONE HIRES ME??!!! God I hate that.
I will say that I didn’t have to take those dumb tests at the last staffing agency. They were having a job fair and more people than expected showed up. The guy I talked to basically said that since I have a degree, I must have some sort of computer skills, so he didn’t really need to test me. Plus I had just been tested that morning at a another place (pre-employment thing) and I had my scores from that. Those tests are all the same so I’ve improved a whole lot and only miss one or 2 questions now. They need to mix things up.
I hate job hunting. But it seems so much easier to get interviews here in San Antonio than in DC. Whatever.
In a more GQ vein, sometimes the reviews for the individuals performing the interviews grade those individuals based on the number of persons they interviewed. So… that can be the “why”. This may be especially common in temp agencies and consulting firms.
