To say that when applying for jobs some people should just make more effort?

[cocktailclub]

I hear all the time that people have applied for 'hundreds' of jobs and not even had an interview. I hear this from graduates as well as more mature candidates.
I've been recruiting to my team over the last year and advertised about 7 or 8 roles. They BFF e been fairly popular and I have sifted around 120 cvs per role in the first two weeks.
My point is that only about 10% of applicants ensure their cv is tailored to the role.
I spend about 3 minutes looking at each applicant so need to be impressed quickly.
Most CVs start with a statement looking for a career in science' when the role is complaints manager for example.
By making a few changes to a CV so it highlights the skills for the role you want would be easy to do but very few even try.
So I'm not surprised people have no luck in their job search when they can't be bothered with the application.
AIBU to think this is the reason they are rejected?

Well, what you're offering has by your own account led to loads of no shows, and the ones who do turn up don't give a shit or are too vulnerable. You obviously think this is enough of a concern to have raised it in this thread.

There's a labour squeeze plus a cost of living crisis, and you're not offering a great wage. It's an unpalatable fact that mediocre wages don't buy the same quality or quantity of employees as they used to.

Again wearing jeans is not proof that they didn’t make an effort

Your comment was ‘why did it become acceptable to wear jeans for an interview’ but you can’t answer why it’s not acceptable.

You have now started talking about slovenly appearance and not being interested in the role.

If you need to a dd loads of things in, then you must know you are wrong.

Jeans are not automatically slovenly, nor do they mean you haven’t made an effort. Jeans do not mean any of the things you say.

and this for a poorly paid job. No one is wasting your time in sending you these candidates. You are out of touch.

Because I don’t think wearing jeans to an interview looks as though an effort has been made to give a good impression. I think it’s important you give good impression on making yourself look presentable and show interest in the role maybe a little research.

im not likely to notice black jeans as they can pass as trousers (though we are not allowed to wear them)

Yea. You said that, but why do you think that?

i work in a very corporate environment. Where people wear, smart and cleans jeans with a shirt/blouse/nice top and look like they made an effort.

Theres nothing about jeans that means ‘hasn’t made an effort’.

No I am not out of touch I just expect what some on here seem to think of as high standards while others would consider them to be normal - an effort made and and to show interest

its not a factory production line it’s working with people with very complex needs

There is if the jeans do not look smart

as I said I probably wouldn’t notice back jeans (smart straight black jeans as you are seeming to want so much detail)

I certainly notice denim blue jeans than look very casual

But again, there’s intrinsic about jeans that means ‘no effort made’.

You spoke about jeans in general and them not being acceptable. But then changed it slight and started adding extra things in like slovenly. Using a woman who wasn’t slovenly as an example.

You say ‘it’s not a factory production line’ I have no idea what you are talking about there. Or what that has to do with anything.

you have absolutely no back up to the assertion that wearing jeans means you can’t not work people with complex needs. My dad worked in a high security unit for people with complex needs. Working with them day in and day out. Guess what, he wore jeans everyday. At the request of the person who ran the unit as they gave more protection than just trousers, should something happen.

You are out of touch because you are deciding that people didn’t make an effort based on the material of their trousers, when it has no impact on how they do the job.

That is out of touch

You didn’t say ‘why do people think it’s acceptable to turn up to an interview with scruffy jeans on’

and surely you would feel the same if they turned up in ‘scruffy’ suit trousers as well? Or is that acceptable. Scruffy jeans are a no, scruffy black trousers are fine?

Give it a rest

we have had people turn up in jeans they have made no effort to look smart they have made no effort to do any research. Are job centres and agencies now not mentioning to staff to look smart is their usual appearance isn’t or don’t bother to read the information we send you about the role

requested to wear jeans by a manager for more protection yes of course that happened 🙄

No one is forcing you reply to me

You didn’t say anything about lack of effort in appearance. You said jeans weren’t appropriate. That’s a judgment you have made with no professional reasoning. Just cause you personally don’t like them

Who said people are being told they don’t have to look smart? Though there could be other reasons, like poverty, that means they can not look as smart as they would like to.

Jeans does not equal ‘not made an effort’ is a judgment and attitude from 20 years ago.

Ok you say it didn’t happen, just like the person who told you the dress code on every unit they work on isn’t what you say it is. That didn’t happen to? we are all just making it up to prove you wrong, even though you can’t back up anything you say.

You are moaning about people who send you candidates and the candidates themselves, not meeting a standard that has nothing to do with the job so they can be paid a crap wage in a hard job.

If you reviewed these, odd, judgments and opened your mind a bit you may find that the candidates that are sent might be actually be good at the job. Rather than writing them off because you, personally, are offended by blue denim.

protection by denim and now offending by denim 😆

I shall let you get on with arguing for argument sake

I work at a job center overseas and spend quite a lot of my time teaching public sector workers how to tailor their cv and application. The short answer is they don't know how! They've been told by their university teachers that there's loads of jobs for them, which is true but lulls them into a false sense of security. Social workers are the worst for this! And employers vary hugely in what they're after too.

Most public sector applications are via a form. NHS tend to use application forms so most employees, especially doctors and nurses who tend to have a large proportion of their work within the NHS, wouldn’t ever use a CV.

Posters seem to be divided here. Recruiters: please make some basic effort because we need to know you want the job and are vaguely suitable for it before we invest time and invite you to interview. Applicants: we don't want to make an effort incase it's not reciprocated. You should still bend over backwards for us even when we make no effort at all.

I don't know how you could read the myriad problems posters have outlined and still come.to such an biased conclusio lacking nuance.
Do not know how recruiters like you can demand perfect literacy skills etc when you lack basic comprehension and critical thinking like this.

Are you from the 1950s ? I didn't know time travel had been perfected.

A very biased view. No matter - just keep moaning about the quality of applicants while your vacancies remain unfilled - or maybe you'll notice it's not the 1950s any more.

Oh fuck off.

you spend 3 minutes looking at a CV but want me to spend an hour tailoring my CV for you? Bollocks, it’s why I hate CVs going to HR rather than hiring managers who actually know what they are looking at.

@SarahSissions no need to be so rude.
I don't expect people to spend hours personalising a cv. Send a generic one but don't start it with a statement about wanting to work in a totally different career. Why would I take that further? It's a waste of the applicants time uploading it as they already don't want the job. I'm not expecting much.

I haven't sent a CV for a few years now, but I used to literally change one word in the opening paragraph to match the job title.

I made so many applications that I know for a fact there was at least one job I applied for where I attached the wrong CV.

These things happen. Its hard when applying for jobs and people are desperate.

It makes me really uneasy how so many so many people who work in HR/recruitment have a say in who's application goes ahead. The same people claiming reading a few CVs is "hard work". It's so insulting that someone who has a wealth of experience and a relevant degree get passed over because someone who doesn't have a clue doesn't understand technical language.

We put an advert out for someone who has a specific registry and degree. Only two of the whole lot met those job requirements. It was utterly bizarre

Why would I spend more than 3 minutes reading about your generic career in marketing when I'm looking to hire a researcher? Why would I even spend 1?

I stopped tailoring my CV a long time ago. I'm not good at selling myself or even talking about myself, so it would take hours just to apply for a single job. Given that, when you are on UC, you have to commit to spending 37.5 hours a week actively looking for work, trying to explain why I had so few applications to the first work coach was demoralising. If you tailor your CV to every job you apply for, the DWP say you aren't trying hard enough. Send a generic CV and you get accused of not trying hard enough by recruiters. It's a lose-lose situation. Especially when those hours of tailoring the CV to the job you've applied for don't even earn a "thanks but no thanks" email.
So yeah, if employers aren't going to give my CV more than a cursory glance, why should I spend hours on it to get ghosted by said employer?

I never said tailor it throughout. Just remove the statement saying you want a career in photography if you're applying to be an accountant. It's not rocket science and yes you really should bother.

@Jasfc surely the answer is to tailor it to the one or two jobs each week you actually want and might get? And then spam another load of companies with your basic cv to make up numbers for he job centre.