Why DO people apply for jobs even though they don't have the necessary qualifications or experience?

[Ceebee74]

It is so bloody frustrating. Am currently sat here shortlisting 500 applications for a job. It was clearly outlined in the advert what qualifications and experience are required - so why have at least 50% of the candidates not got what wa asked for but still applied!

Just a quick rant as I am just wasting time going through their forms!!

Worked in the industry, you don not need experience to apply to be a train driver, trust me.

Oh, I see what you mean. Thing is, these modern trains don't require the driver to actually do very much by what I hear.

Unlike steam - my dad had someone turn up for their first run on the Ffestiniog who managed to derail the engine on the edge of a very steep drop... literally hanging by the tender. Apparently he never came back for another go!

So I am given to understand

No, not to apply. You don't need experience to apply for many entry-level jobs where you can learn at work, as it were. Unlike the good old days when engine drivers were working class aristrocracy and had to serve their time, starting as cleaners and then working their way up to fireman...

my mind is boggling at the thought of needing to get experience of train driving before applying for the job - how many of us have our own private trains in which to learn to drive?

edam - these days you start off as a cleaner, find out your boss is having an affair with a colleague, bribe them, then become and even bigger old slapper. Now that's career progression

Not you obviously Edam

(My dad used to run a big chunk of British Rail, btw, so I'm not just talking from knowing a hobbyist.)

Edam, my dad was an old style train driver too, (neopotism, eh) fired on the Mallard and the flying scotsman.

iota - Toot Toot! I have one, it's very small though.

But surely they don't just give you the train on your own until you have some experience? Am having the heeby jeebies now at the thought of total fruitcakes leafing through manuals to find the stop button.

And I worked for both BR and a private TOC.

Iota, if you want to borrow one, my dad has several!

No-one would want to have an affair with someone working as a cleaner on steam engines, believe me. Climbing inside those buggers to clean them out does not leave someone looking at all fanciable...

Because sometimes teh requirements are silly and someone can do the job without them.

For my degree course I was supposed to have a B in A level chemistry - I didn't even do GCSE chemistry, never mind A level - I went ot the dept, told them my grades in teh A levels I did have (incl Biol and Physics) and they let me in. I came in teh top 5 at the end of the course.

Dh went for a job that specified 'graduates' - he isn't one but it's really irrelvant to his job which social skills, a reasonable level of intelligence and common sense are far more important - hence, despite being the only person in the office without a degree, dh is the highest biller and probably earns more than most of them.

So, there you go!

Probably because they've been told by the job centre to apply...
I have had that problem too, it's fecking annoying to have to waste so much time to find the wheat amongst the chaff, you have my sympathies.
What really p!sses me off is when I arrange interviews and they don't turn up!!

No you have to train to drive a train, could tell you stories but, am still bound by contract

My dad was taught by Bill Hoole, the driver of Mallard, and now owns her sister engine (along with a few other people, admittedly). And in the good old days when you joined BR as a graduate trainee you had to learn to drive - no bossing people around if you didn't actually know what their job entailed... anyway, enough nostalgia.

I once had 500 applications for a job in the meeja. Had clearly pointed out necessary quals and experience. Got at least 400 apps from students who thought they could just waltz into a senior job. Bless their little overconfident hearts...

Gobbledigook makes a valid point actually. For example I have held some quite important jobs but couldn't be a binman with our local council because I don't have GCSE maths (apparently higher degrees are less important than triganometry!)

May I also add that sometimes the skills required are totally unrealistic for the package that is offered. Or this may be a specialist of IT recruitment.

Debbiethemum - yeah 20 years experience in UNIX plus MS certified for £12K a year. I would be so tempted to work there.

Actually everyone I know who works in IT has lied on their CVs anyway (even me once!)

Maybe that explains it. People have to match the high-falutin' rubbish on their boss's mock-CV?

Because they have people telling them to "go for it anyway".

Also because, sometimes, the qualifications and experience demanded for jobs can seem rather excessive, and they think they can demonstrate that they have the equivalent in other areas.

Seriously, though, I've seen jobs advertised in our local rag at insulting salaries, which ask for the moon in terms of what they want. You think to yourself - did nobody on their MT hold up the person spec in one hand and hold up the job desc in the other and say: "We are NOT going to get THIS person, for THIS job, on THIS salary" ?

Gosh yes, some of the jobs you see advertised make Faust's/ Robert Johnson's deal with the devil look like a good one. (All that, and you only want my soul in exchange?")

I've only read some of the thread so far. I can understand your frustration CB but there are a lot of jobs out there that require paper qualifications when really shedloads of experience is just as good, if not better. DH has fallen foul of this a lot. The fact is, when he started out in his career it was experience that mattered so he doesn't have an HND or degree in whatever. Being able to actually DO the job is so much more important than a piece of paper in many cases, don't you think?

Our city is sometimes accused of having a "brain-drain" (actually right now it could do with a BIIIG storm-drain, but that;'s another thread!!) and often you can see why.

There are lots of low-level jobs advertised, and lots of being "chief exec" standard jobs, but very little in between. Unless they want to work for the NHS or the council (including in education), people leave Sheffield to go to Leeds or Nottingham or Manchester to seek more interesting opportunities. And who can blame them?

It's ofen said that businesses here have little incentive to invest in the city as our authority's exam results are below the national average, but that ignores the fact that people will move - in and out - for jobs. Local businesses don't always create opportunities for local people.