Every job application ever

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 12/05/2014 at 12:26 • Filed to: None

21

22

I saw this posted on linkedin today, and since I'm the director of career services at a tech school, I stuck it on the cork board behind my desk. I even used the color laser printer for it. These are the kind of important management decisions I make on a regular basis.

William Byrd > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:27

1

haha that does happen a lot. I'm noticing a lot of higher end companies are using a very smart resume text recognition software though that auto populates those fields with the right stuff.

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:28

3

I did this on my first day at my new job. "Oh you're hired and can bill for your time but we still need you to re-write your resume into this Adobe document".

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:29

0

As someone who's sending his first job aplication EVER today (I'm 33), I kinda fear this..

Textured Soy Protein > William Byrd 12/05/2014 at 12:30

1

My resume format is slightly different from the usual, because I was promoted a couple times at a particular company. I have sub-sections under that company for each position. It breaks the auto-populate every time.

MonkeePuzzle > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:33

0

promoted by the color red > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:45

0

That's good, because the software will - more often than not - scramble the information it retrieves. Or cut out random portions. Or ignore spacing to maintain arbitrary character limits it doesn't tell you about.

StingrayJake > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:50

0

I applied at a handful of car dealerships during the summer months. All but one of them asked me to go to the dealership for an "interview" but it was really to fill out a paper application.

Textured Soy Protein > promoted by the color red 12/05/2014 at 12:53

0

I've worked as a recruiter in corporate HR departments.

The only purpose of re-entering the information is so if that person gets hired, their employment information is stored in their personnel file in a standardized format. Even though you would already have that person's resume in the file.

As a recruiter, I never once used those forms. I just worked off resumes. Which were left intact by the applicant tracking system.

davedave1111 > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:54

0

Such a dumb thing for a business to do. It just rules out any decent candidate, because they can get jobs that don't require them to jump through stupid hoops.

In my experience the businesses that use them are ones you don't want to work for anyway. If they're not competent enough to extract the information from your CV, or they don't care enough about the value of your time to do so, that's going to come out all the time if you go and work for them.

BorkBorkBjork > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:56

0

As someone who is currently searching for a job, this is hilariously accurate.

Also, I forgot where I read it, but I remember hearing that somewhere around 95% of resumes submitted online never get seen by human eyes. The article was written by some human-resources company tasked with filling open positions at other corporations. They said once they had a client who never found a single qualified candidate for an open position that had been posted for months. Upon further investigation, they found that over 50,000 people had applied for the job, but their automated resume selection system rejected every single one of them before they got to HR.

I think there are even services out there that will build a resume specifically for the automated system that the company you are applying to uses.

OPPOsaurus WRX > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 12:59

0

as does mine. my school pushed having a graphically unique resume.

Manuél Ferrari > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 13:02

0

Also - WHY THE FUCK do automated phone systems ask you to enter your account number when they just ask for it again once a person picks up?

Textured Soy Protein > BorkBorkBjork 12/05/2014 at 13:21

0

I've worked at a couple staffing firms, and in the HR department at a subsidiary of a big tech company. When I was in the HR department, there was no automated resume filtering. We had to look at resumes ourselves. So given that I only had so much time available in the day, I wouldn't see all the resumes for people applying to our jobs.

Textured Soy Protein > davedave1111 12/05/2014 at 13:24

0

Whether or not a company's application has the ability to auto-populate employment information from your resume into the application form, mostly depends on which off-the-shelf applicant tracking software their HR department decided to buy at some point. Some applicant tracking software auto-populates the application, others don't.

In my experience having a slightly non-standard resume format that breaks all the auto-populating applications, I have to go back and correct the auto-populated information anyway. The auto-populate is far from perfect.

davedave1111 > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 13:32

0

It doesn't matter why they're incompetent, just that they're incompetent. If they can't even do something as simple as checking your CV the right way, they're not going to be competent in other areas. It's a massive red flag, as far as I'm concerned.

Recruitment's a two-way street, and you shouldn't let prospective employers forget that - if only because acting like you can take or leave their offer gets you lots more jobs than appearing really keen on it.

Textured Soy Protein > davedave1111 12/05/2014 at 13:40

0

You're saying "they" as if people at the company are checking the resume and entering it into a form. The applicant tracking software if what does that.

The auto-populate feature of applicant tracking systems are more often than not, very unreliable. Applicant tracking systems universally suck, but that's just how things are nowadays with pretty much any decent-sized company.

A company choosing an applicant tracking system that doesn't auto-populate, or disabling the the unreliable auto-populate feature on an ATS that does include the feature, does not make that company "incompetent," and is not indicative of their general way of doing things.

Because the overwhelming majority of all companies use some kind of ATS, and like I said, most ATSes are crap.

Sounds like you have unrealistic expectations of how hiring should work.

davedave1111 > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 13:47

0

"You're saying "they" as if people at the company are checking the resume and entering it into a form.

No, I'm saying it as in the people who are unable to accept a CV for a job application, and instead play silly buggers with forms to fill out.

"Sounds like you have unrealistic expectations of how hiring should work."

No, I just got fed up with working for idiots, and realised a lot of it was my fault for not seeing the warning signs during the recruitment process. I have no trouble getting work from non-idiots instead. People ought to be much more picky about who they work for, but too many of us lack the confidence we ought to have. Unless you live fifty miles outside Nowheresville, there are always other jobs out there for you.

Textured Soy Protein > davedave1111 12/05/2014 at 14:30

0

The number of places that let you apply by emailing a resume are vastly outnumbered by the places that use applicant tracking software. That's just how it is.

There are many business reasons to use applicant tracking software, even though, in my opinion, it makes for a worse candidate experience. In companies with a large number of positions to fill and large numbers of applicants, it makes the overall hiring process much more efficient, especially if their HR department isn't particularly large.

The fact that a company has chosen to use applicant tracking software, is probably one of the worst possible ways to determine whether or not that company is run by idiots.

If you refuse to apply to any job that makes you fill out an admittedly annoying form because you believe that all companies that use applicant tracking software are run by idiots, the only thing you're accomplishing is limiting your own potential job opportunities.

If it works for you, great.

promoted by the color red > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 17:27

0

Oh good. SAP didn't tell me about character limits so they straight up wrecked my info.

ranwhenparked > Textured Soy Protein 12/05/2014 at 21:46

0

Followed within 4 minutes or less by an automated "after careful review of your resume, we have decided to pursue applicants that better meet our current business needs" email. God, how I hate every talent management system ever devised.

davedave1111 > Textured Soy Protein 12/06/2014 at 08:05

0

"The number of places that let you apply by emailing a resume are vastly outnumbered by the places that use applicant tracking software."

The number of places not run by idiots are vastly outnumbered by those run by idiots.

"even though, in my opinion, it makes for a worse candidate experience. In companies with a large number of positions to fill and large numbers of applicants, it makes the overall hiring process much more efficient"

Yes, that's right. Before they've even got you through the door, they're dumping on prospective employees to their own benefit. That's highly significant.

"The fact that a company has chosen to use applicant tracking software, is probably one of the worst possible ways to determine whether or not that company is run by idiots."

It's a pretty good signifier, but the important thing is that it's the very first sign you get.

"If you refuse to apply to any job that makes you fill out an admittedly annoying form because you believe that all companies that use applicant tracking software are run by idiots, the only thing you're accomplishing is limiting your own potential job opportunities. If it works for you, great."

Well, no, acting like you don't have to take any shit from employers increases your chances of getting a decent job by more than you decrease them by being as picky as someone who doesn't have to take any shit.

Textured Soy Protein > davedave1111 12/06/2014 at 13:29

0

Whatever you personally believe about what it says about a company when they run applicant tracking software, I really don't care.

You can keep repeating it as much as you want, but the fact is, the only thing you can learn about a company from whether or not they use applicant tracking software, is whether or not they use applicant tracking software.

Any assumptions you make about the quality of that company based on their decision to use or not use applicant tracking software are just that: assumptions.

Regardless of your assumptions, it is entirely possible that a company that uses applicant tracking software is a lovely place to work, and it is also entirely possible that a place that does not use applicant tracking software is a terrible place to work.

If you rule out all jobs at all companies that use applicant tracking software, you'll never find out if those companies are decent places to work.

The only thing that will happen if you stick to this stance of yours, is that some day, you'll be looking for a job, and you won't be able to find any that don't use applicant tracking software.