When I apply for a job I have actually done in the past (either the exact role at another company or LITERALLY THE SAME JOB AS I’VE HELD IN THE PAST), and I get the boilerplate “we found more qualified candidates” or “we don’t have any jobs that fit your skillset” e-mail back, because not only do I feel I should’ve gone further in the process, but I am further insulted for it.
I know full well that I am being bullshitted. I wish they’d have the courtesy to not bother.
Yeah…I want to know if I’m no longer in the running, but they really don’t need to make up a “why.”
I also hate ridiculously complex online application forms/processes. Just get my basic info and resume in front of the recruiter! If we get past that stage, then you can ask for my blood type, my dog’s favorite color, etc.
I think part of this is that they want to hire someone who is capable of sitting down and following directions. Doing that five different times with five different employers, though is a bit much. Couldn’t an industry group get together and offer a “Certificate of Following Directions” that one could get by demonstrating this once or maybe even twice? Then employers will already know that yes, you can sit down and fill out 50 pages of miscellaneous forms with fewer than 10 errors.
One rather annoying facet of a lot of applications, especially online ones, is asking the same question multiple times. I filled one out one time where they asked me to verify that I was over 18 at least three times. E.g. “What is your age?” and then later “We need to verify that you are over 18. Are you over 18?”
I too hate being told I’m not qualified when it’s something perfect for me.
For a job I did eventually get, I was told by the HR manager I shouldn’t get the job because some bullshit personality matrix said I would be bored. I had already been doing the job on a temp basis for 3 months. So yeah, let’s go with the test rather than my actual performance. I stayed at that job for 4 or 5 years.
I hate when they want all my personal info on an application. You can have my SSN when you hire me, ok?
Today I was looking at some job postings that were a few weeks old on company-specific websites (as opposed to Craig’s List, for example). Do I assume it’s still open if it’s still posted? Or maybe they don’t have a good in-house system for removing ads.
I’ve been looking for a job since September. In the process I’ve had 2 interviews where no job actually available. My last job was a nightmare that only lasted two months. I had interviewed for these firms previously so they called back just keep their options open (I guess - shy would you interview someone of you had nothing to offer?!).
Another firm kept me there for three hours before informing me thay I lacked a key skill required for the job. They had my resume and knew that before they called me so why put me through joys of tests accounting, spelling, grammar,logic with 6 essays. When I mentiord how time consuming this was they said I was the only one who had actually sat there and finished the whole. They were impressed but not enough to give me a job.
I’m typing this out on my phone. I promise my written test was better!
The part that gets me on the online applications are the odd little psych tests thrown in. Some of the questions are so Barbara Walters that you just have to go “huh?”
That sounds freakin’ horrible! At least they could have given you a job as a test administrator.
I’ve been job hunting. I’m a driver, so the process goes like this-
Fill out application:
Name, SSN, address, previous address
Attach resume
Give contact information for every employer you’ve had in the last ten years
Explain any employment gaps
Give personal references
BS some interview type questions
Give drivers license information
Print forms authorizing them to contact former employers and department of transportation, sign and date, scan, and attach.
Interview:
Drive from the nice residential neighborhood where I live to the shitty industrial neighborhood where trucking depots are, during rush hour, arriving 15 minutes early.
Fill out more forms giving identical information from the application.
Wait an additional 20-30 minutes to get called back for a panel interview in front of 3-5 people. One will be barely literate and fumble every other word from his part of the script.
Either get barraged with corporate mindfuck open ended questions written by a psychologist OR reduce your years of experience into a dozen yes or no questions.
Get dropped off back in reception while they “discuss.”
Road test:
Hand over your CDL and DOT physical card.
Wait.
Get directed to a tractor and trailer.
Hook up and inspect tractor/trailer.
Drive around with a supervisor or safety director taking notes from the passenger seat.
Contingent offer or invitation to compete further pre-offer screening:
Compete a drug test. Urine, sometimes even hair.
Get a DOT physical. Vision, hearing, BP, medical history, height & weight, sleep apnea screening, reflexes, hernia check.
Fill out a background check form which is exactly the same as the application process. Same information, same printing out forms to sign and date and attach or fax.
Wait 3 weeks for the background check company to contact prior employers and personal references and run a criminal background check and sometimes a credit check.
Then you either get an offer or get hired, or you don’t.
Of course you’re not going to start the process with one company and blow off all your other interviews, so you start the process with at least 3 companies and have to dump all but one, looking like a jerk for wasting someone else’s time and money on what was really only a “safety” job in case it didn’t work out at your top choice, knowing that due to the cost of the whole process they probably stopped looking as soon as you interviewed and are going to be understaffed when you turn down their job. All while kids my age with a shit load more education than I have are complaining that they can only get a minimum wage job with their master’s degree.
Assuming you’re looking with national carriers, don’t feel too bad for them. There’s never a shortage of applicants.
I still think that can wait until someone has at least looked at my resume. The only other thing I need to be asked for up front is my salary requirement: if that’s in range and the hiring manager agrees that my resume looks good, then initiate whatever gauntlet is necessary.
I just read this a day or two ago in a B. Traven novel: “It is less humiliating to beg for a meal than to beg for a job.”
In my world (veterinary medicine) a “working interview” is common place. After you submit your resume and sit through an interview, they want to you to come back to see if you can actually do what you say you can do. I can completely understand that. However, when you say “we will make a decision by next Wednesday”, then don’t call me back that week at all, don’t return my message when I call the following Monday, don’t answer the phone on Tuesday, and don’t call back AT ALL, I’m pretty ticked off. Especially after we discussed how rude and unprofessional it is when people do exactly that!