Pongo Resume

A friend of mine recently applied for a job. He was well-qualified, and he made sure his resume and cover letter fit the job description and linked his past experience to their present needs. It took some time to tweak it, but it's got to be done if you want to stand out from the crowd in this job market, right?

So after uploading those documents into the company's online application program, he was a bit miffed to find out he could not just submit them. Oh no! You have to earn the privilege of applying to this company by also completing an online form that asks for all the same information.

And those online questions are mandatory, even if you've uploaded your resume. (A friendly little note confirms that, in so many words.)

For this very-important company, job candidates cannot reach the Submit button until they provide additional data on their most recent jobs, their former supervisors, two personal references, and their minimum salary requirements. The unwritten message to prospective employees is, "We want to put you at a complete disadvantage before you apply for a job here."
 
That, alone, should have been enough of a red flag to realize this company has its collective head up its collective butt. But hey, when you need a job, you do what you gotta do. So my buddy put in the time, and begrudgingly provided all the intrusive and redundant information. It took almost an hour, but he finally was able to submit the application.

Two days later he found this response in his email inbox [emphasis mine]:

Dear _____, 

Thank you for your interest in _____, Inc.  It is always a pleasure to encounter individuals who have the desire to participate in our very exciting and rewarding industry.

Unfortunately, you do not meet the minimum qualifications we have established for this position.

We do wish you the best of luck in your job search.
 
Sincerely,
etc.

Excuse me???

We all know these rejection letters are not personally written for each candidate; this was a generic form letter. But someone in this company actually wrote that form letter at some point. And someone else in this company (probably several someones) actually approved the notion that it was OK to tell every candidate, regardless of experience, that they do not meet the minimum qualifications. Brilliant!

Well, company [whose name I would so love to reveal but won't], your online application process is obnoxious, your rejection letter is insulting, and the entire experience you create for job applicants is probably an indication of how poorly you treat the people who wind up working in your "very exciting and rewarding industry."

But we do wish you the best of luck in your quest to find quality employees!

Have you ever received a similar employment rejection that needlessly added insult to injury? Please leave a comment and vent away!

RELATED LINKS
Ditch the Gloom: Keeping Your Head Up in Bad Times
Not Quite Qualified? Apply Anyway
The Art of the Follow-Up Letter

I have to shake my head and agree. I am searching for a very technical job, and I find that often the person screening the resimes and conducting the initial search has little or no knowledge of what is the position's needs really are. Heres another one for you - just this week I tried to apply to a job posting. The ad asked applicants to apply via the web site. No contact name was provided and the add stated "please do not email". And you guessed it. The website's only option to submit something was a generic "E Mail" us button.

@Bruce

Nothing like a classic Catch 22 to keep you motivated in your job search! Maybe it's a test to find out how you deal with challenges. Yeah, that's the ticket!

-- Julie

As always, Julie - WELL SAID!

This has to be one of my biggest complaints about job searching in this day and age. You spend hours on Monster and HotJobs and all the other job search sites only to be faced with another hour on every company website. Super convenient!!

It kills me to think of who is being overlooked (ME!) by forcing everyone through the same funnel. Mass recruiting may reach a wider audience but then recruiters are complaining about how inundated they are and how much more difficult it is to find a well qualified candidate in the sea of applicants.

Well, when any old yahoo can sit home in their pajamas and apply for 20-30 jobs per day (despite how relevant they are) it really makes it difficult for candidates who aren't doing that.

There is no more "personal interaction" in the application process anymore. Recruiting departments are secured like the Hope diamond. WHY? We all know that the "feeling" you get about a person when you meet them often has as much weight as the interview/application, if NOT MORE! It wouldn't kill you to accept a phone call or an in-person applicant. AND isn't it a recruiter's job to find TALENT, not hide behind locked doors and voicemail?

Why are recruiters isolating themselves and causing these traffic jams and free for alls? Do companies actually see better hiring results from it?

I remember the days of filling-out an application, then sitting down for awhile while 'HE' went over the application and then went in personally to discuss the job face to face. I ask " What better way is there than human contact to arrive at a satisfactory decision for both parties?" It has worked throughout human history; why not now? There is something fundamentally wrong with society when someone "who wants to work" is thrown into the bizarre world of saying anything pretty resumes written by strangers for X-hundred dollars then magicly channeled to alledged employers by more strangers for even more dollars! I want to at least say something using a human voice with a face attached! Anyone Agree?

One of my biggest complaints is that nowadays if what you put down doesn't contain the right "buzz words" and enough of them, you're out. But how do you know what the "buzz words" are when you have to wade thru a 45 minute "psychological" test and posting your resume? Then you get an email saying thanks but no thanks within hours (even during the middle of the night) because a software program, NOT an actual person, rejected you.

Interesting and totally frustrated.

My question is do many of these automated systems like Taleo and such allow the hiring managers to easily filter out candidates? Things like an out of state address, eventhough you may currently be in the market where the job is? That's my fear with these crappy systems. It allows the HR people to completely absolve themselves from any form of thinking, and many qualified candidates get tossed into the black hole. I think these systems are a huge time waster.

Well get this, I have five years of admin/clerical experience and I applied at DHC for position called Specialist III. The requirements needed were to pass typing test of 25 wpm and customer service. This is what I rec'd within just a couple of hours after applying. Thank you for considering an opportunity with DHC as a Specialist, Clerical Supp -III. At this time, however, we do not feel your experience matches our needs. You are welcome to apply on our website to other positions for which you feel you are qualified.

Again, thank you for your interest in our company and best of luck with your future endeavors.

I get alot of these and it makes me wonder if there are really jobs out there.

I've had to search ardently for part-time jobs for supplemental income. In the past six months I have filled out dozens of online applications. These past few however, I've decided to be a complete pain in the butt. I go to these places and hand submit a resume with a cover letter, talk to whatever manager/ supervisor there is, get a phone number for whoever is in charge of hiring and I call everyday and email every other day. Overkill? Probably, but I'm ticked off.

This system is horrible!

I have tried to work around it by handing in a resume, and cover-letter in person while I was dressed very professionally. (Probably too professional, but you get the point.)

The hiring manager looked at me confused with her googly eyes, and said "You know that we take applications online". Guess what? I had already applied online, and was sick of this generic email reply. I thought the follow up resume/cover-letter and my in person presence would help me stand out. Instead I feel like a fool for dressing up, and wasting my time and gas to get there.

Some of these "openings" have probably already been filled as some of the listings have been on the company site for 4-5 MONTHS.

And, even for wage-slave jobs, it's the same process. Grocery stores, Wal-Mart, a gas station, fast food restuarants. Apply online. And you don't even get a rejection. Just no phone call. No email response other than the canned auto-response thanking you for applying.

Seriously, gas station (in a rural area no less) just fired someone the day before I applied. Can't apply there, oh no. Gotta go to the website. Spend an hour filling out an application for a job selling cigarettes and gas. No response.

This Talent Management & Recruiting company is one of the worst written pieces of crap ever. Let's start with compatability, their own website indicates their programmers are too lame to support even the most basic three or four browsers dominating today.

If you own a Mac - forget it. Hey, PC dude - we understand. Microsoft is now #2 and Apple is #1 in size (well let's face it PC clown, we were always larger in size, if you know what I mean :-) Now the indignation of PC people never getting laid while their Mac counterparts party along is made even worst through the empirical reality that they are indeed #2 - as in bowel movement #2!

My major problem with this system is half of the information "they" ask for is none of there business. Every application requires that you provided you SSN but, with identity theft we are told constantly NEVER to provide our SSN online. No wonder unemployment is raising. It takes forever just to fill out one application for it to collect "dust" somewhere in cyber space for someone to hack in and steal all of my information. What happened to face to face and a hand shake? At least with that they could look me in the eye when they tell me I'm not good enough for the job. Online applications just give some company's the ability to be cowards.

I'm using Taleo to apply for a job at this moment. I got all the way through the redundant mess, and just needed to attach my resume, references and writing samples. Guess what happened? It won't attach anything! I've been trying since last night to do this one, supposedly simple, task. How in the world am I supposed to stand out and show this company what I can do? Companies who use Taleo may as well add a disclaimer to job postings saying, "QUALIFIED CANDIDATES NEED NOT APPLY."

I'm using Taleo to apply for a job at this moment. I got all the way through the redundant mess, and just needed to attach my resume, references and writing samples. Guess what happened? It won't attach anything! I've been trying since last night to do this one, supposedly simple, task. How in the world am I supposed to stand out and show this company what I can do? Companies who use Taleo may as well add a disclaimer to job postings saying, "QUALIFIED CANDIDATES NEED NOT APPLY."

Love the article! I've been job-hunting for over 3 months now and the repetition of online apps is killing me. The worst are the Taleo ones that have the long honesty/personality test at the end. Well, I guess the broken ones that dont actually work are even worse.(yeh, spend 45 minutes filling out all the info just to get an error message!) And yes, some of the info requested is silly- do they really need an exact address for each previous employer? Exact dates to include the specific DAY you were hired?(for jobs you worked years ago...) And forget it if you dont follow the specific format for each field, esp for the sites that dont tell you WHAT format to use - mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy? Hey, I got all day to keep guessing- I'm unemployed!

And yeh, asking for sensitive info is just wrong. The final insult is the automated responses that leave wondering just who, if anyone, actually reviewed your app. And who else will have access to all that private data.

I have experience with this system from both sides. I worked for a super market and we were always understaffed. Reason: dozens of applicants and only a few are even available for you to review when using Taleo. Candidates get color coded red (losers; you can not even view their info) yellow (you can view their info, but already you are labeled as sub-par) and green (I could never figure out why these applicants were acceptable). These systems are truly hurting qualified people from gaining employment, not even giving them a chance. And companies using these systems are hurting themselves also. I have no idea why it is still being used. So very frustrated!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

One widely used software package in particular (Taleo) drives me up the wall because it takes SO LONG to get through an application.

I got so fed up that I contacted the company and suggested that they create a Java app that would run on both Mac and Windows so that applicants could upload a local file to cover 80% or more of the recurring questions. when applying for a job.

I don't know about anyone else but when you're using either a tethered phone or the public computers at the public library, 45 minutes per job application becomes an issue.