Job applications - a rant!!!

downshifter

I've just spent nearly the whole morning shredding unsuccessful applications for an admin job in our small community organisation. It's a paid job, local government conditions of service etc. What a shocking waste of paper. One of the cvs had 8 attachments, several were references from abroad in a foreign language. Another wrote reams and reams ( well 5 closely typed pages) of information about his work as a senior architect and the projects he'd worked on around the world. I'm sure some of it was relevant to the post but if so, we couldn't find it. I happen to know he works with someone who has a very similar role to ours, but he hadn't spoken to her about the role or asked what was involved. (He told us that, I didn't ask her!) Another wrote very proud details of her publications, including lots of photos. I'm sure some of it again, might have been relevant, but god knows where we would find it among all of that.

We eventually appointed someone who had made the effort to actually find out what the job/organisation was about and to angle his experience to the job description/person spec. He still wrote far too much, going back to details of O levels (books studied in English for example) in the 60s but at least he managed to pull some relevancies out of it all. The job of an interviewing panel is hard enough as it is, as you want to be fair to everyone, but the Chair took a look at a couple of them and just said no despairingly after about page 3.

Rant over - surely there's plenty of help out there that people should get this right? Hopefully young people are getting better advice which will help as they come through their careers. If you're job hunting, please, please take all the guidance you can about how to do an application/cv/letter.

Rant over, thanks!!

DS

SuzieSue

I agree. When I was recruiting, I expected to see a covering letter highlighting how their experience was relevant to the job spec I had posted. However, very few people wrote a covering letter/email and when they did, they did not tell me why I should to consider them for the post.

pmd123

I've seen this the opposite way a lot, people who fill in their application perfectly aligned to the job specs, so we invite them to a test and interview, and then at that stage, we find out all the things they've said were made up, and they can't answer any of the questions, so wasting both our time and theirs.

Very frustrating.

FBaby

I agree too. In the application I review, I would say that in about 80% of them, I can tell within 2 minutes that they have copied and pasted their cover letter/personal statement. In some cases, it is insulting when they forgot to remove an small element relating to another role.

It so obvious that those people just can't be bothered to take the time to tailor their applications to the job. Then I come here on the forum to read about posters who never get offered an interview and complain about the system because it's not their fault if they are still unemployed.

DKLS

FBaby wrote: »

I agree too. In the application I review, I would say that in about 80% of them, I can tell within 2 minutes that they have copied and pasted their cover letter/personal statement. In some cases, it is insulting when they forgot to remove an small element relating to another role.

I can't blame them, I have stopped applying for anything that requires an application form.

Cv and cover letter if requested should be enough for the first stage of recruitment.

robatwork

Although I agree I also have to complain.

Your rant clearly wasn't over at your first "rant over".

tomtontom

FBaby wrote: »

I agree too. In the application I review, I would say that in about 80% of them, I can tell within 2 minutes that they have copied and pasted their cover letter/personal statement. In some cases, it is insulting when they forgot to remove an small element relating to another role.

Like the other company name? Have seen that more than a few times

FBaby

DKLS wrote: »

I can't blame them, I have stopped applying for anything that requires an application form.

Cv and cover letter if requested should be enough for the first stage of recruitment.

Why? Because it demands a bit more effort? Do you make sure your cover letter comes across as if it's been written specifically for the job? If not, good luck being shortlisted if applying for a competitive job.

DKLS

FBaby wrote: »

Why? Because it demands a bit more effort? Do you make sure your cover letter comes across as if it's been written specifically for the job? If not, good luck being shortlisted if applying for a competitive job.

I value my time, so cba with application forms, its lazy and poor HR process and ime indicates a duff organisation. Am more than happy to tweak a cv and cover letter, but usually don't bother with a cover letter. The roles I apply for usually have 10 or less candidates, often less than 4. So slightly different than the competitive roles.

At quite a few organisations where I have been doing the interviews the cover letters are binned without being read, and CVs anonymised before I see them and tbh its easy enough to make a decision on a candidate based on an interview and a 1 or 2 face to face interviews.

gettingready

I guess the lower on the career ladder the job is the more they want people to put effort into application form/cover letter.

More senior posts/better paid jobs - CV and a short cover letter is the norm. I Have not filled an application form in at least 8 years. Only CV/short cover letter.

Some companies are still in stone ages I am afraid...expecting people to fill often poorly designed application forms and then being surprised people attach things to them as there is nowhere to put what they want to be seen about their experience etc etc.

FBaby

he roles I apply for usually have 10 or less candidates, often less than 4. So slightly different than the competitive roles.

You might be lucky to be in a niche industry. Most are not. Saying that, my industry is niche too, but I still get rid of applications where I feel the person has made no efforts to sell themselves. My view is that if they are too lazy to bother making a good impression, they will most likely be too lazy to be productive at the job. Not worth wasting my time interviewing them.