150 applications for one position!

mro

Polarbeary wrote: »

Plenty of jobs in healthcare! My friend works at a large hospital in the south-west and they have 100 nursing vacancies...30 people applied for the 100 jobs. St Barts NHS Trust is short of 1500 nurses and apparently there is a 5000 shortage of nurses in London!

Same with Occupational Therapy...especially OTs working for London councils and London NHS Trusts. I was speaking to somebody who works for a large London Trust running their internal temporary staffing bank. They recruit constantly for medical secretaries as they don't have experienced meds secs apply.

Seem to be plenty of PA jobs in London too. I was on the recruitment panel when my team wanted a new PA. We had to re-advertise as hardly anybody applied! That was a 29K job for someone with a year or two of experience working in the City.

And ?

I assume you want people to match jobs or are you going to make usual excuses why people were not suitable !

gingerdad

We always get around 100 people apply for our driving jobs been around the same number per advert for the last 10 years, fairly low unempolyment area, still always get loads.

red_devil

its nothing new there are more people than jobs.

belisha-beacon

Helvetica75 wrote: »

Come on, I have been rigorously applying for jobs the last 5 years. Most forms are clearly a torture. They could ask you to complete a test or a few questions, that would be a reasonable method of filtering. Not entering your whole education history, work history, professional memberships, etc again! But they want the CVs standardised, that's why they do it. Not to mention unis. If you apply for a uni job, they all have the same standard form, hugely extensive, but you cannot use the details to apply to another uni!

If you've been applying for 5 years then it may be that your technique could be improved, and it might be sensible to take some of the feedback you've been given by other posters on board rather than accusing them of being torturers! :eek:

Whatever you think of the application forms, the fact remains that if an employer is going to spend thousands of pounds on someone (and don't forget that as well as the salary there's NI contributions, possibly pension contributions etc to pay as well as training costs and so on), they're entitled to expect some effort on the part of the candidate. I can see why it's onerous to fill in lots of different application forms but frankly, if you're not going to bother and you're applying with a CV instead then you may as well not apply in the first place - it's a waste of your time that could be better spent on making your other applications even stronger.

I've been on lots of shortlisting panels and would automatically disqualify anyone who didn't fill in the form. This is not 'torture', it's just that it's an obvious and sensible filtering strategy. Firstly, I have to be able to prove I've treated all candidates equally and for various reasons, application forms make it a bit easier for me to show how I did that. All of the candidates have had to answer the same questions in the same format, rather than me making assumptions about how their CV applies to the role I'm recruiting for.

Secondly, if someone is committed to the job and really wants that specific post (rather than 'any job I can get'), they're much more likely to have taken time to fill in the form properly and to say why they are suitable for that particular role. If someone hasn't even done the most basic thing I asked for ('fill in this form'), then it suggests they're either incapable of following instructions, or the sort of person who is applying for hundreds of different jobs and sees this particular job as neither here nor there.

You say "is it fair to make them spend hours to fill in your form? Imagine they do this for hundreds of jobs", and I can understand why it feels unfair to you. But from the other side, think about the employer's point of view. They're thinking "This application process is to decide whether we should work together. I'm offering thousands of pounds and am spending two days of my time shortlisting to make sure I give the best person the chance. I don't know yet what you're offering in return, but the very first thing you're telling me is that you couldn't be bothered to make my job easier by filling in the form. Apparently I should take into account the fact that you have hundreds of applications on the go so you don't have the time to. Perhaps I should give the job to someone who really wants it (because they'll be committed and work hard), and you can maybe get one of the other 99 you're going for". It sounds harsh, and I don't want to come across as critical of you because it's genuinely meant as advice.

The main thing I suggest to people who are looking for a job is, "Never send generic applications. Send five good, personalised applications rather than 100 identikit ones - your aim should be to make sure that none of the employers would guess that they weren't the only people you'd applied to". We always have a list of the skills we require from the person who gets a particular job and you wouldn't believe how many people fail to take the opportunity to tell me that they have those particular skills. They just write in the application form, "See my CV", and there's not even any mention on the CV of teamwork skills or whatever it is I am looking for! Explain how you meet every one of the requirements they have listed. Look up the company online, see what makes it tick, and write something which shows that you understand what they're about and why you'd want to work there.

belisha-beacon

Helvetica75 wrote: »

Maybe if UK bans immigration, we won't have employers being so spoiled and become more willing to employ a capable person without experience than someone who has experience but is worse in his job?

That would backfire massively on you wouldn't it, given that you've said in another post that you're not from the UK? :undecided:undecided:huh:

Polarbeary

mro wrote: »

And ?

I assume you want people to match jobs or are you going to make usual excuses why people were not suitable !

Without trying to be mean...some of the people applying had a poor ability to construct sentences too.

I have found that rather a lot of people do not know the difference between there and their, your and you're etc. If you cannot get that right on application form, I am not going to interview you.

makeyourdaddyproud

Polarbeary wrote: »

Without trying to be mean...some of the people applying had a poor ability to construct sentences too.

I have found that rather a lot of people do not know the difference between there and their, your and you're etc. If you cannot get that right on application form, I am not going to interview you.

Even recruiters are dimwits;


"Admin Assistant needed. Must have good spelling and grammer"


... from a well-known UK recruiter.

Polarbeary

makeyourdaddyproud wrote: »

Even recruiters are dimwits;


"Admin Assistant needed. Must have good spelling and grammer"


... from a well-known UK recruiter.

Reading comments on the Daily Mail website makes me want to weep! Should OF instead of should HAVE is a common error. People wonder why they can't get jobs. It seems like it's hard to find a PA who can speak clearly too. One girl I interviewed littered her conversation with "innit" and mumbled. Another wore flip flops to the interview.

pinpin

Polarbeary wrote: »

One girl I interviewed littered her conversation with "innit" and mumbled. Another wore flip flops to the interview.

lol

Someone was barefoot at a group interview I once went on, and her feet were dirty as hell! lol.

Polarbeary

pinpin wrote: »

lol

Someone was barefoot at a group interview I once went on, and her feet were dirty as hell! lol.

The mind boggles! It seems it's too much to ask to dress smartly to go to an interview these days.