To think job application forms have become nuts?

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Why does everyone have an online form lately?

20+ criteria boxes to write in at length? It seems counter intuitive. Surely with cover letters and CVs you can judge much better the candidates literacy, ability to write at length and capabilities using computers? Particularly if they’ll be writing reports in the job.

Drop down menus for employment history, an hour or more of slow clicking instead of a few minutes typing up an employment record.

I’m looking at a shortage area too, with real recruitment issues. Disproportionately low pay too. Yet they give themselves another hoop with a 15/16 section form with fiddly drop downs.

The process with applying for someone jobs has become so lengthy it puts candidates off. I’ve just applied to two jobs with reasonable forms and ignored three with stupid forms. One of these contacted me to ask me to reply, I was eager, but I’m busy. I don’t have a life where I can or want to waste 6-8 hours on forms which could be potentially skim read and ignored.

Even a preliminary stage of CVS would be useful, before expecting candidates to wade through hoops.

Before my current role I withdrew from a job I wanted because they had a form, then test, then more online forms, then more tests (all with massive time delays too) for a 28k position!

I used to recruit, like of CVS and cover letters. Easy to read, simple and spoke volumes. I wouldn’t as a recruiter either want to deal with the fuss of online forms sectioned into many pages on my
screen.

(I do check for typos went not ranting online 😆)

It's mad. My mum wanted to change jobs after 20 years in the same job and has no idea where to begin. She only wanted a nice little admin job.

Now if she wants a job, I do the application for her in return for dinner. But I worry about people who don't have someone on hand to help...

Totally agree......why ask for a CV and then get you filling in long forms with the exact same information in a slightly different format. Even for higher end jobs, they should be more interested in testing knowledge rather than fact checking. Its ridiculous. I have also pulled out after getting half way through a form that has been badly created and it just makes for a truly miserable experience. Don't the companies realise that they have to sell themselves to us as much as we have to sell ourselves to them!

When I worked with care leavers this was definitely totally off putting - Tesco's had a long form and an online test - for stacking shelves!

I think a lot of it started out trying to make applications standard and uniform tooreduce bias, but it may have escalated...

So many online forms are clunky and overcomplicated 😖

I think it’s because they need to be seen to be fair and treating all candidates equally so CVs are no longer acceptable. Job applications are now often ‘blind’ to avoid discrimation - and claims of discrimination.

But if they’re just for weeding out - make them shorter please!

I work in information systems and part of my job includes system selection and implementation for automated processes, including recruitment.

Most companies, especially large public sector / global orgs, will use some form of AI to view applications, which will often be in the 100s, if not 1,000s. It would not be possible to expect a human to correctly and evaluate that volume of data.

The problem with personal CVs is that they are rarely, if ever, written in a standard form, so almost impossible for an AI-driven platform to interpret, hence pre-determined data capture methods which are programmed to seek out particular keywords / phrases etc.

Appreciate it's a hassle for employees, but recruitment is an ENORMOUS pain in the back end for employers and this is the way the world is moving.

My top tip would be that you prepare a 'cheat sheet' of the sort of questions asked (most are more or less the same), and then tweak it to ensure you capture the keywords listed in the job description, because that's what the tool is looking for.

I have a daughter in her 20s… I need to get her onboard don’t I 😂

I can imagine it will also show who REALLY wants the job. People applying for jobs for the sake of it wont bother putting in that much effort. (job centre used to tell me to apply for jobs even of i didnt have relevant qualifications or experience, hopefully that has changed now)

Yes ! I've been applying for jobs today. One said to submit a CV so I did and then received an email with a link to approximately 23,000 questions which my CV already told them 😡

I nearly applied for an evening bar job and in the end, I got put off by the application. The last question was “What’s the most mortifying thing that has ever happened to you in your personal life, and how did you deal with it?”. My thoughts were “Well I’m not going to tell you about the time I was severely ill after giving birth and dropped my baby in front of my husband’s family, and hated myself for months, and I can’t be arsed coming up with a story, so fuck off”.

^I didn’t write that! But I thought it

Job applications are absurd. Luckily I found a cracking job with just a CV application so I'm planning to just build a career internally

I can remember interviewing someone who had a well presented CV. The CV included that he had good IT skills. I gave him a job and was showing him.the company's system. He suddenly asked me how I was typing capital letters!! It turned out that a friend had produced his CV for him so that it looked good.
There is no way to weed out such dishonesty but online forms can help.

As an employer, it's actually so much easier to review candidates fairly with a standard application form. Otherwise you spend so much time digging around everyone's CV and cover letter in a different format. As an applicant I'd much rather fill in a section related to each criteria than try and formulate a cover letter. You avoid all the waffle as well, you often get in cover letters. Appreciate it's time consuming but I always keep a Word document with what answers I've used on these forms before, so if doing multiple applications I can refer to that. I think companies will move towards form more and more as it also allows for 'name blind' recruitment

What's worse is when you get past the application process and find out there's then a six stage interview process taking up hours of prep time - get past that to find out they aren't sure what they are looking i.e they just wanted some free consultancy.

It weeds out the time wasters, is more EDI proficient, and shorterns the burden on recruiters.

We've just moved to this system and I hate it :D

I’ve also found a lot of the big supermarkets post fake job listings. I noticed my local ASDA was constantly hiring for nights, I repeatedly applied, never got so much as a rejection email. Spoke to my niece who worked there and she was very confused, said there’d been no talk of needing anybody for nights and that they were actually very well staffed, in fact there’d even been a couple of redundancies! They must just be trying to fill a corporate quota.

I've got some actual data on this. The longer the form, the greater the drop off in completion (no surprises there!), simple fact. They'll get the people motivated to finish the form, but miss everyone that gets fed up and leaves. It's for their benefit not yours, IT tail wagging the recruitment dog!

A friend of mine is a Principal and cannot get exam invigilators for love of money. I am at home round the corner and would've been happy to help out. I'm registered with the Trust for various reasons including safeguarding training related, so they hold all of my information including references and DBS.

The form was 8 pages long including a full career history. I'd agreed with my friend that I would point to the answers they already had filed information for rather than doing it in full.

Didn't work. They had some kind of automatic screening process that meant it was spat back at me 23 times. I eventually had to fill it in as a career starter :-/

That’s ridiculous! Years ago people got bar jobs by walking in and asking if they needed help and if they did you started the next day. I had loads of bar jobs when I was younger without any of the hassle we get today.

I agree. I think it is totally absurd. All of these long winded online forms with psychometric testing are disillusioning and off-putting.

These days it seems like a rarity even to get to interview stage. Personally, I can sell my myself and my skills much better if I can just get into a position where I am talking to an actual person, not just doing a box ticking exercise.

One interview I did get to was with Waitrose. There were 8 (I think) of us. We were divided into twos and each pair were given a packet of dried spaghetti and a packet of jelly babies! We were then told to build a tower with them. 🤔🙄

I never did understand what that was all about. Didn't get the job (shelf stacking), and was no longer bothered after that.

I don’t like CVs, but our application forms are just basic employment history, academic history and then 2 sides supporting statement where you demonstrate you meet the person spec. Not too onerous and easy to shortlist from.

Yes, they really can be. I was filling out applications last year for jobs in a big health care org, and the forms, and the drop down boxes, were crazy. And not easy to use, they seemed to constantly lose information. In fact at one point I asked a friend why I hadn't heard from them and it was because somehow the box for "country" said I lived on another continent altogether.

I am reasonably computer literate, too, this organization is always complaining that they can't get people, well, no wonder.

Maybe it’s the level of job you’re applying for, as it’s not been my experience at all in the past 3-4 years, despite changing jobs 3 times. If anything, LinkedIn EasyApply means I haven’t filled out a single application form.

Also, CVs tell you nothing about a candidate’s literacy when so many people use standard templates and/or CV writing services to do the job for them.