to think that people have no idea how to apply for jobs?!

[myteenytinyteapot]

Just that really. Hiring for a senior admin person at the moment and have had hundreds of applications but honestly only about four shortlistable ones. I have had:

• CVs which include full-length glamour model style photographs of applicants
• CVs without cover letters when the advert clearly asks for a cover letter
• CVs and cover letters riddled with spelling and grammatical errors
• CVs which are 20 pages long and go into loads of detail about the hobbies and interests of the applicant. Also hardly anyone uses page numbers!
• Cover letters which are obviously just generic copied and pasted mass send out jobs - "I am writing to apply for the position advertised". Couldn't even be arsed to put in the job title!
• People applying who don't have any of the essential requirements listed

AIBU that I'm not surprised people can't get jobs if this is the general standard considered acceptable?!

And there's me just wanting a few hours a week, due to health reasons, with a properly done CV and cover letter saved on my daughters laptop. And I can't even get an interview for four hours in a shop

Quite, Citadels.

We posted an advert stating that applications without a cover letter would not be considered.

150-ish applications went straight in the 'no' pile as a result. The job require attention to detail!

I actually hired the woman who was under qualified, but having actually read the ad, she made a really clear case in her cover letter displaying her learning to date and her plan to acquire the missing qualification.

You also get those who send a good cover letter - then once you email them, it falls apart, because it quickly becomes apparent that they had significant help!

The job advert is the first step in a communication between the employer and employee. Responding to that well shows the sort of mental acuity that is valuable in absolutely any role. I never bother to pepper generic applications all over the place. Carefully crafted applications have never failed to get me an interview.

(the less said about my interview technique the better though!)

Yes!!!

Thank YOU.

I've recently started a recruitment agency and it's opened my eyes a lot.
I cannot believe the applications I get through.
I've just advertised a position in a nursery school and one woman submitted a cropped photo of herself where she's clearly naked, sprawled in bed and covering her nipples with her hands.
Most people can't spell.
Or read job descriptions.

In my experience many people are clueless. I had one applicant answer the application form question “why do you want to work here?” with “coz i liv across the road “. She was in her thirties! Part of the job required writing reports so she was instantly binned!

I once got cv with a pic on it. She was in a bikini by swimming pool.
Another CV had pink flower frame.

Also literally one sentence cover letter.
ONE sentence.

I had one position for a House Manager and the first line of the job advert said

*Female Applicants Only - this role will be within a private residence"

80% of the applications were men.

I've had people accuse me of selling sex slaves because I've had positions advertised in the Middle East.

I've had promising candidates just disappear off without warning on holidays, the day before their interviews, despite knowing they were applying for urgent hire positions.

I've had candidates get all the way through, accepting a negotiated job offer, hundreds of hours of everyone's time spent, only to drop out a week before the start date because they'd forgetten about their notice period.

I've had candidates swear profusely at interview - when applying for a job with a Royal Family and being interviewed by said Royalty, in their Palace!!!

I could go on and on and on.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started this.

Completely with you!

I've also had people just email their CVs. Nothing in the subject title or the body of the email, no indication on which job they want to apply for, no cover letter...

I would say between 70-80% of applicants to any open position are not relevant to the job.
10-15% then need heavy intervention in their applications because something is inappropriate or wrong.
It's very rare a candidate comes forward who actually has everything ready that we've asked for.

Oh and then there are the candidates who want 50% more than the advertised salary plus twice the holiday and a package to cover their children's schooling and whole family's relocation

Dh was saying this the other week. He had advertised for a new assistant and was short listing. Out of 70+ applicants I think about 5 were offered interviews. The rest had eithe not included a covering letter or cv or the covering letter was just a sentence along the lines of "please find my cv attached". One application was from a well qualified and experienced lady who put in so much jargon and management speak it was completely unintelligible.

I'll stop. It's just my whole life at the moment and it came as a shock!

Surely that's just how you separate the wheat from the chaff - not everyone is cut out for a professional role

@ReasonablyIntelligent unfortunately that just tells me that your job adverts aren't well written or you are placing them in the wrong areas... can you pay a consultant to help you with this?

Some people send in ridiculous applications to fulfil a Job Centre requirement.

Mind you, I did like the one who put, in answer to a question about salary expectations, "Astronomical".

This is the result of job centres making claimants spend 35 hours a week applying for jobs or face sanctions. It’s impossible to only target relevant jobs without facing those sanctions so job seekers apply for jobs they know they can’t do- often on the advice of their work coaches.

Bloody hell. I spent about 5 hours last weekend working on an application. It took that long as I had to fill in every job I have had since 1981 and every single qualification ever earned as well as a massive page of blurb to cover the person spec. I didn't even get shortlisted and the rejection email came through so quickly after the closing date that I suspect age discrimination was at play as the minute you state that you took O levels in 1979, they know how old you are. Can't believe people are dumb enough to send those kind of photos etc although I see this all the time when looking for lodgers; 'professionals '(apparently) who send me snapchat filtered cat images of themselves etc.

I think that about interviews too. Most people disqualify themselves by ridiculous answers to questions.
EG
Can you give an example of a difficult interaction with a colleague and how you resolved it?
" I was doing a complex exercise, then SHE came Into the room and told me to tidy up when I'd finished. I lost track of my task and just went home there and then"
Can you give me an example of a Health and Safety issue and how you handled it?
"I set fire to the office"
Do you have any questions?
"Is accuracy important in this job?"
Or my personal favourite:
Why did you leave your last job? "because the bitch sacked me"

unfortunately that just tells me that your job adverts aren't well written or you are placing them in the wrong areas... can you pay a consultant to help you with this?

All jobs are advertised in places relevant to their speciality and the job adverts are written in the most accessible way possible, stating qualification and experience requirements clearly and the job spec outlined in a simple, easy to read way - appropriate level of description, reasonable length whilst still being informative. I can't see how they could be written better.

I've also spent a lot of time in airports recently, and am just coming to the conclusion that the general public are just not that intelligent (people crowding the carousel, people not listening to obvious instructions, people failing to read clearly written signs etc)

I set fire to the office

I received a CV once where the applicant waxed lyrical about her jobs in a fish and chips shop and the ice cream parlour at The Odeon. Her ‘proudest achievement’ was running it alone the weekend a new Harry Potter film came out. This would have been fine if I was hiring someone to run a cafeteria - but I actually wanted a junior marketing manager. The really odd thing was that the one relevant role she’d had - a marketing internship - got a couple of lines. She spent longer telling me that she liked to ‘shop to a competitive level’ in her spare time.

A colleague once interviewed someone for an office manager job and she said her biggest weakness was that she was ‘quite disorganised’. Although my favourite answer to this question was when my co-interviewer asked ‘So what don’t you excel at?’ and the candidate replied ‘Sport’

Just opened one that started with "Dear Sirs"

We are a women's charity and one look at our website would have told you that our staff are all women.

Yet I cannot get an interview.

It's mind boggling, interviews are the same. And yet the most incompetent person can end up with the job if they know how to play the application game. I think it helps when you get to a position where you start short listing and interviewing yourself, although not in all cases reflecting on some of the recent management applications I've looked over.