To think employers want applicants to bend over backwards

[jobhunter25]

During the recruitment process? I'm currently searching for a new job and can't believe how many hoops some companies expect people to jump through, for shitty pay/benefits might I add. I left my last role around a month ago (unhappy for years, toxic environment) and luckily I had some savings I was able to live off but I'm now ready to get back into work. I've applied for around 15-20 jobs and I've realised that employers don't just invite candidates in for an interview if they like their C.V anymore. It's so long winded. For example, a role that I applied for (pay is between 18-22k btw) wanted me to take a 45 minute test, and if I passed they would call me for a pre-screen chat and if they thought I was suitable they'd invite me in for an interview. I actually emailed them back this morning saying I'd been offered another job as I really couldn't be arsed with the hassle, not for 22k anyway. I understand companies being more thorough with a high paying role though. AIBU?

@Tabitha005

That honestly has made me feel unwell! I’ve had to unpick stuff like that before and it’s a total ballache.

I had a ‘mere finance assistant’ who was more than capable of doing my job - she just didn’t want the responsibility for many reasons and she was brilliant.

It’s an undervalued role in many places - I hope you get to make some improvements in your role. Maybe your FM will realise she’s out of her depth and ask for help 🤞🏽

I'm now feeling quite worried- I'm a part time HCSW in the NHS, and soon all my immediate colleagues and I will have to be re-interviewed for our jobs as the wards are being 're-organised'...
considering my original interview years ago was a 15 minute chat with the previous Matron & Clinical Leader because they knew me anyway as I did agency work on the ward... I really am dreading it!!
I've actually completed the Care Certificate as I realised that despite having a degree I hadn't got a qualification relevant to my actual job, only lots of experience.
I hope they don't make us jump through too many hoops for what for me is basically part time min wage care work.

A former colleague / friend of mine asked me to act as a referee for her for applications.

Yesterday she told me about a job she interviewed for.... zero hour contact, £16 an hour for the hour worked (which is not too bad in the sector) BUT.... at the interview they told her they expected her to do overnight trips for 12 weekends a year but there were 'no funds' for this to be paid in the budget so she would have to pay travel and accommodation herself.

Cheeky fuckers.

My BiL recently applied for a minimum wage shelf stacking job with a supermarket (night shift so no customer facing aspect)... He had to complete two lengthy online aptitude tests, a phone interview then a further two separate face to face interviews!

The even more stupid thing is now he's got the job it's obvious the supermarket are struggling to recruit staff for similar unskilled, minimum wage positions yet they still insist on having such a convoluted and drawn out candidate selection process.

I had a whole interview day which involved a test, 5 seperate interviews and an activity. For a low paid job with no prospects, just last year. I actually asked if I was in with the wrong set of candidates and was interviewing for a different role.

Ugh the process is hateful isn’t it. I’m applying for very specialised roles (need a PhD+ relevant experience) and they do things like ask you to complete a task within five days, then take four weeks to get back to you for the next stage.

Another stupid thing was the company who are apparently desperate to recruit multiple of these very specialist people, but their office is outside a small city with no public transport to get there, and they want people to be in the office at least two days a week (when it could be done entirely from home). They’re obviously struggling to even get anyone interested as different recruiters from different agencies have approached me about it.

As a rule I never apply for a job that:

• doesn't have the salary in the job ad
• requires silly, random psychological or aptitude tests/assessments
• comes with a convoluted, endless application form
• lists a ridiculous number of essential criteria for the candidate

I am happy to do up to two interviews for a role and to do a basic presentation as part of the interview but that is it.

That's my way to weeding out rubbish employers who expect everything for nothing.

I work in comms/marketing and at some stage there were quite a few employers who expected applicants to develop and present a full communications and marketing strategy for a campaign or even for the organisation and present it at the interview. My thoughts on that was always ''no mate, that's what I would do for you if you hire me, you are not getting that for free''...it always seemed really exploitative and a way for them to get their brand and work reviewed by several people at no cost.

I think rubbish recruitment processes play a big part in the fact that some employers bleat that they can't find staff without accepting that low salaries, unrealistic expectations and tortuous recruitment process simply put people off.

it's weird - i see that at some places, and withdraw any applications that I've sent.

But. I have recently been offered a job and they said "well, companies have to pay better attention to recruiting, there are lots of vacancies chasing fewer and fewer candidates, we really have to offer something." one of those somethings, at this company anyway, is a much shorter recruiting process and quicker feedback/decisions to candidates.

Good luck, OP

I know. Where I work, they make the ‘essential’ criteria sound like it’s all bells and whistles but actually someone with GCSEs could do a band 7 Job. I recently did the APM Project management fundamentals course (the basic one) and there actually were several project managers on there despite it saying on the advert that you needed a Masters degree 😂 They didn’t have a clue. I’m one below PM and I knew more than some of them. I’m wise to it now and now I’m job hunting again I kind of know what the terminology actually means and therefore whether I stand a chance.

This sums up the cornish job market. Many roles are just £19k ish, require 14 pages of application forms and a presentation. And 5+ years of work experience.

One employer last week asked for 5 references!

Seasalt HQ in Falmouth are one of the worst. They pay awfully, require 5 years work experience, degree etc = £19-21k

Takes the absolute PISS

Sadly, this rules out most employers in Cornwall.

A recruitment agency messaged me last week and asked me to handwrite an application form (9 pages), and visit them IN PERSON to apply (fill out another form!) for a freelance role of £10PH that's 10 hours a week.

Also requested a presentation but the recruitment agency wanted to check the presentation before the client saw it 😂😂😂 so I'd have to present twice.

I was like....no. they have no shame here.

If you can't be arsed to walk through that process with us, then we will assume that you aren't that interested in the job, and frankly, we can do without you.

given the number of companies moaning about how they can't fill their vacancies, I think I'm beginning to see why.

If I’d pre-tested them and had a 15 min zoom I’d have saved us all a lot of bother.

so why not do a 15 minute Zoom first? then invite? This is the process that was used to recruit me. 1 zoom, 1 f2f with the team, 1 f2f with the partner, all within a 2 week period and the job offer was made before i left the partner's meeting. (actually)

This sounds like Truro College. I went along. They said "if anyone wants to leave the process. Please do"

So I did 😂 I haven't got time for that. Admin role on NMW

A company who bitches about being busy. Pays NMW and has a recruitment process like that has all the red flags of a toxic workplace.

Then they moan about the skills gap and have vacancies on Indeed for 4 months.

If you have a shit interview experience please add it to Glassdoor so people are aware before they even accept an interview in the future x

Eyeroll, when I see email invite. We Invite you to take..........piss off.

Last place I applied for.

Online test just to see if you made it past minimum expectations. Then, a 200 questionnaire form. Then, an application form. Then they asked for a casual chat about CV. Then, online interview. Then, another stupid online test. Finally, the interview. But oh. I had to do the 200 questionnaire again before the interview to see if my answers were the same. Once in the interview room, I was already dazed and cba with it. One question struck out to me, and I walked out. The question was. If you had to hurt an animal, would you. Wtaf. All this for a job with no benefits shit hours. Zero hours contract and less than 18k.

I've changed jobs every 2-3 years for the last 10 years, for a mix of personal and professional reasons (plus covid) and I've seen so much poor recruitment practice. I've also seen some shocking hires come out of it in the companies I have worked for.

In one role I applied for, I had a call with a recruiter, psychometric testing, follow up call with the recruiter, initial call with the company, call with HR, call with another member of the company, then a 'quick chat with the director'. Each one of these took an hour to do, and in some cases several hours to prep. Then they ghosted me. I was not impressed with that, and politely declined when they invited me to apply for another role 6 months later.

I have also failed online tests for retail roles, I don't take that personally though. I think there is a knack to passing those tests, and despite plenty of retail and customer service experience in my younger years, I apparently don't have that knack!

One role I applied for, the interviewer asked me a very specific scenario question, not related to the actual work the company did at all, but very relevant to the industry their product served. If you didn't work in the industry you would likely not know the answer, and you couldn't wing it, there was only really one right answer. The five minutes I spent describing in detail the answer to that question apparently swung the job for me, more so than any of my skills or experience. They were desperate for people with industry knowledge apparently.

On the other side of it though, I found my current job through a recruiter, and if I ever decide to change role again, I would probably go through them again. They did an initial chat with me where they told me about the role, the package and salary range, and I told them what I was prepared to accept if they offered me the job. So right away I knew whether it was worth my time, and so did the recruiter. They reviewed my CV, set up an interview with the hiring manager, and then there was a second interview with the hiring manager and one of the C level managers. Then they offered me the job, at the salary I had asked for. Not easy, I still had to prep for the interviews and do well in them obviously, but reasonable for the role, which is mid level, client facing and requires a mix of technical and industry knowledge as well as client management.

Their fairly reasonable approach to recruitment is indicative of the company as a whole they're pragmatic and realistic and treat staff with respect and decency. Which is really the minimum I want from a company.

It's so annoying. I once applied the push trolleys in Tesco's and had 2 application forms, 3 online tests and 2 interviews. One question that stuck out to me was 'if you are going on a one way trip to the moon what would you take with you?' I mean, come on! It was a zero hour contract for 8.50 and hour!

This.

So sorry @startrek90 for the crap companies put people through.

Presumably the answer was "my Tesco Clubcard" - these things are so dire.

That's a fairly damning condemnation of GCSEs. If someone has a decent pass grade for English then it should not be necessary to test for basic literacy.

I don't really think schools nor examiners place as much importance on basic literacy, spelling, grammar, etc than they used to. Yes, they deduct marks for poor "SPAG" as they call it now, but once those marks are taken off for the first few instances of poor literacy, they don't get taken off again and again for additional/repeated errors. If, say, 10 marks are available for good "SPAG", the maximum deductible (or not given) are those 10 marks, you can't get 20 or 30 marks deducted if you're barely literate. So, it's quite possible to get above the "pass" mark (personally I think grade 4 is ridiculously low for a "pass"), without anywhere near good literacy if the examiner can read your answers despite the mistakes and your answers are reasonably competent in terms of what you're trying to say.

In my "competency" test, my example where candidates have to highlight errors include a "month end" date with the wrong number of days (either 30 February or 31 June usually), the wrong spelling of stationery/stationary in the context of pens and paper, a few random spelling mistakes, a couple of examples of wrong use of apostrophe (eg directors' or director's fee/fees), etc.

Same with the arithmetic side of the test, columns of figures that don't add up, a percentage calculated wrong, adding a figure when the narrative says "less", etc., a figure in brackets when it was positive, etc.

The sheer number of people who don't pick up on any of them is shocking, especially considering these are people with both GCSEs and A levels and where Maths and English GCSE at a "good" pass are basic requirements (many candidates have far higher qualifications often including degrees).

It's all so stupid anyway, the system is completely stacked against the employee with there being very little in the way of employment protection rights in the first two years (assuming they are not discriminating against you). So why go through so many hoops for a job that most people could do with some training and common sense? Give them the job and get rid of them if they are no good. But in the vast majority of cases they will be fine.

Employers need to learn to do more training and be more patient with new starters as well.

And then of course having put you through all these hoops to find the best person they reject you because you are overqualified. Sigh.