On Line Job Applications Don’t Make Life Easier
Read more articles on Let Me Share With You and Careers.August 11, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
August 11, 2007
Posted by Karen Amato Schwartz
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Well, after 5 years of child care leave and 8 years of working part time (including freelancing here and other ‘net locations), it’s time to return to a “real” job. I figured if I start looking now, I may just find one before the holidays and get 2008 off to a really fresh start. Little did I know about on-line job applications; those suckers could set employment back decades…
Wishing to get in with a large employer, I targeted a company that appears to offer so many different positions that my skills are bound to match needs somewhere. Well, they do not accept paper of any kind; only electronic resumes and applications are processed. Hmmm….OK; I guess I can understand that; who needs any more paper falling off desks?
The problem is, submitting electronic information such as this is user-unfriendly, as well as frustrating. It is actually scary to think that this is the crucial point on which careers hang in the balance!
I think the programmers who designed this particular process should be told they must be transferred to another part of the company, and must use their own electronic form to do so (They will then understand why I gave their creation the rating I did on their customer survey.)
OK-I know you all want details…first, this thing randomly decided if and when it was going to accept my login and password. Sometimes it did, and sometimes it didn’t. I ended up making a new login just to get around this, since they didn’t offer a “forget your password” option…Next, in addition to a professional resume, the same experience, training and references needed typed onto their application. Well, it wouldn’t be half so bad if they provided enough space to thoroughly explain, but since they limit characters, applicants must condense their life’s work, which I don’t think is advantageous to anyone. There is no way to save the information, either, and if you quit in the middle of this 45 minute process due to answering the call of a phone (or Mother Nature) and someone inadvertently logs you off, you must start over. Other annoying aspects werethat the screen “blipped” every time a section is finished; the information could not be moved around once typed, and there is no easy way to go from point A to point B. The very worst thing is that every question needed an answer or the page wouldn’t advance. Some questions simply fell outside of the parameters of the answers from which to choose, and I had to become very creative. It shouldn’t be this way. Why do “they” do these things to us?
Obviously, I know nothing about programming or managing huge volumes of data, but these issues don’t seem as if they require rocket science to correct. I finally got my information submitted, but, to be honest, don’t feel too confident about it. There’s also a small part of me wondering if I really want to work anyplace where something as relatively simple as detailing work history should be made into such a convoluted exercise.
Apparently not a whole lot has changed since I left the work force-it often seems that things are made more difficult for the public just to keep others in jobs…Ahh…a little cynicism every so often isn’t so bad, is it?
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