Why do job applicants waste everyone's time by...

Mr_Oink

For me, quite apart from the crooked little 'wannabie' bedroom hobby recruiters, my pet hate is data harvesting and theft. If we look at the big players for a moment; Monster had a massive breach a year or so ago. Reed and their various siblings do a daily spam of 'matching' vacancies - slotting in add from paid recruiters that often seem ethereal in quality, and the government offering is often spammed with rubbish for dodgy windows and kitchen firms. Probably the worst for me is 'Fish4Jobs' - I've seen a number of scams and 'too good to be true' positions jump on and off on a six weekly rota.

When using any online recruiter I suggest using a 'null' cv containing the phrase "to protect my data, and verify that you are a genuine recruiter please contact me with a job specification/description. If my skills are a good match you will hear from me by return with my CV". It worked rather well for me when I needed it, keeping the chicken boners and scammers reasonably well out.

Any recruiter responding is then checked for common no-go's like hotmail/gmail/live, registered address, street view etc and against a private blacklist of known recruitment 'bad eggs' (It's kinda like the anti-christ of the personal data they tend to share around).

People need to take real good care of their data and not just give it away. I bet a fiver I could put an add on Craigslist or Gumtree this afternoon for any random vacancy and get a pile of CVs full of private information. Really - don't prostitute yourself like this, make the genuine recruiters out there earn their money. Good candidates are *worth* a little effort and data privacy is always respected by professionals.

Uncertain

heretolearn wrote: »

What you do in your free time is a hobby, not a skill.

Don't agree on this point.....

Many people develop great skills in particular areas as a result of a hobby. They may well be of use to an employer.

Have a look at a model engineering exhibition sometime for example.....

terra_ferma

Years ago the Guardian Job website was hacked and they emailed me to let me know my data was at risk.
And I'd never saved my CV on the website.

When you send your CV through a website, even if you don't actually save it and you don't even register, it's saved on their server, together with your email.
Now if I need to apply for a job I get hold of the company's own email address and send it like that (I research them online anyway, so it's not difficult to do).

Slinky

brokeinwales wrote: »

I was chatting to my hairdresser a while ago about the trouble she was having recruiting a new trainee - apparently only about half of the people to whom she offered an interview actually turned up for it, and most of the ones who did didn't seem terribly interested in the position. Most were currently on jobseekers allowance - she suspected that the applicants were just going through the motions of applying for jobs in order to satisfy the job centre staff at their regular interviews, so they can continue receiving the payouts.



When proof-reading one of my own applications once I was embarrassed to find I'd written "I have excellent attention to detial". Happily I spotted it before I sent the application off, not afterwards, or I'm sure someone would've had a greta laugh at my expense!

Greta? :rotfl:

heretolearn_2

Uncertain, yes I agree with you really, I've used skills acquired through my interests in my career and in applications. But 'internet surfing' is def. a hobby and not a skill!

Woohoo just got a fab application in, she's actually read the job description and person spec and written a great cover letter telling me how she fits. She's booked in for interview already!

(by the way I'm not a 'recruiter', this is for our own small business. Some of those stories sound awful!)

Mr_Oink

heretolearn wrote: »

(by the way I'm not a 'recruiter', this is for our own small business. Some of those stories sound awful!)

Why did you go and *say that* ! They will be PM'ing you now offering their services - they have clients waiting to fill your roll you know!

heretolearn_2

ha, get enough of those already 'cos we advertise on Job Centre online thing, they just get marked as junk mail senders and blocked. They can waste as much time as they like sending rubbish through to my spam folder :-)

heretolearn_2

oh another one, phoned them to arrange an interview. It is a part-time job 5 afternoons a week. Permanent job. I always check they've taken notice of the hours and are ok with them. Yes, she says, but she'll be starting a college course 2 full days a week in September. Riiiiiigght. Let's forget about the interview then shall we. She sounded surprised.

PasturesNew

Why do they want a degree for a job answering telephones part-time on a temporary basis?

Mr_Oink

PasturesNew wrote: »

Why do they want a degree for a job answering telephones part-time on a temporary basis?

You need to be a graduate to qualify for the special 'not tidying up behind you and leaving s**t all over the place' dispensation. In exceptional circumstances this requirement can be mitigated to 'teenager'