Applying for jobs these days is such a mind numbing laborious task these days.

[ApriltoNovember]

And the majority of the time you still end up hearing nothing from the company.

I know most businesses don't give a toss if you are applying for one or 50 jobs a day and they have to ask certain questions in order to filter out the hundreds of applications but my goodness, the questions they do ask now often seems so intrusive and time consuming.

DD17 has been looking for part time work for quite some time and is getting so despondent from endless filling in of endless application forms and each one is so long winded. When I was her age, you saw a job advertised, picked up an application form, sent it back, would get an interview say on the Thursday and start the following week but now simple part time jobs seem akin to applying to become a special agent in MI5.

I sat with her yesterday as she filled in yet another form this time at a local holiday park for seasonal work. They were asking questions such as 'Did your parents go to university', 'when you were at school were you eligible for free school meals', 'what are your parents jobs' and then a whole host of tick boxes asking endless medical questions like was she anaemic (she is due to heavy periods but will that hamper her application?). Does she have ear trouble, diabetes, headaches, heart trouble, 'nerve troubles', a cough, rheumatic fever and on and on it went.

I appreciate we live in a day of inclusivity and diversity etc but these are all for basic, often temp NMW jobs which she is more than likely (from the past experience of a year) not to hear back from anyway.

Everything these days seems so complicated. My poor daughter feels she will never get her foot on the employment ladder.

I didn't realise they were asking these questions for this sort of role

I find it really irritating to be asked what my parents did to be honest. It's beyond ridiculous.

People are just going to start lying, aren't they? The only forms I filled in, those sorts of questions were part of the equality thing so they're supposed to be separate from the form.

I work for myself, but I had a phase where I thought it would be better to be employed by a company again, and this was definitely offputting.

Therebhave always been companies who are asking 1 million questions but there used to be some who would just ask for a CV and a cover letter.

I work for myself too so haven't had to fill in an application form for decades.

It is beyond frustrating, I'd understand if these jobs were highly paid vacancies requiring years of experience and qualifications or something similar but often they are simple entry level jobs and yet they are asking such ridiculous questions.

I don't know why everything has to be such hard work these days.

@ApriltoNovember "I don't know why everything has to be such hard work these days"

yes
Add in all the technology that doesn't work and everything is just a nightmare.

I'm of an age where age discrimination for employment is bad. And like your DD is, was getting pretty fed up of inane questions and lengthy application forms for minimum wage jobs or just above, that are all specific to that company. And having to set up accounts for them all. To keep my work history short I cut off work history from more than 20 years previously and put a comment to state I would provide further details of these, if required, if called for interview. When you know how many applications are now being AI screened it is soul destroying. And I don't believe it is making the work force any more competent or efficient.

The questions about parents etc are for diversity monitoring. They allow a company to track how their workforce compares in areas such as social mobility. They are generally simple tick boxes. Its important because there are unseen discrimination issues that companies want to address and need the data to support this

It's soul destroying for teens.I feel for them . Hope she gets something soon.

That's really grim, OP. My DC's last summer job involved my seeing an advert in a shop window and then some brief email communication and that was that job landed. Local Facebook pages are helpful too. Flying under the online/AI radar.

I understand OP. I applied for a job this morning and as soon as I clicked "submit cv and apply" they automatically asked me to text them a video of myself and include my DOB. I withdrew my application. I explained I didn't want to take part due to risk of discrimination.

Also, it made me feel that perhaps they weren't a great employer. So many red flags. I'm protecting my peace and integrity by withdrawing from the process.

No doubt their HR professional will post some drivel on LinkedIn about candidates who aren't willing to follow their cool interview process. Followed by the rocket emoji 🚀

I know that is the reason but when you are filling in yet another online application for the umpteenth time that day for a job you know you are unlikely to even hear back from is pretty soul destroying regardless how much these companies want to track info for their records.

It just shows we now live in a world that is more interested in statistics and box ticking than the general population of this country. At 17 I feel my daughter is being discriminated against due to her age when it comes to job hunting but no amount of box ticking is going to solve that issue in this country.

My BIL is having the same issue at 57.

I think this is the only way dd will get a job, even summer work at our local holiday parks is becoming difficult (we live by the coast). When I was her age we could just go into the reception area and they would hand over an application form and you'd often get an interview on the spot. Life is far more complicated these days.

I don't blame you one bit.

My DC as teens and young 20s have spent vast quantities of time filling out forms, very rarely getting any form of reply from companies, the questions asked are often complex and take time to answer. And this is for minimum wage hospitality / retail part time and holiday work. It’s ridiculous. Both have got work but it’s a crazy waste of time.

My DC has actually done several holiday/evening jobs and has got almost every one they've applied for, without having to jump through much in the way of hoops. I'm sure that's partly to do with location, but also my keeping an eye on the local Facebook page (got a couple of jobs that way, I think that there was a short interview for each but that was it). The other thing I'm sure has helped is that DC got their first job at 16, which is an attractive age for employers because the national minimum wage at that age is very low. And then of course DC could point to having done that (evening job) for a year, which is attractive to the next employer, and so on. It's harder if you start at 18. However, I'm expecting DC to get a huge shock on leaving uni and trying to get a permanent job. I don't really understand what employers are playing at.