Job application process: when do you say enough WRT info requests, etc?

[glenn1]

Applied for a job with an academic institution a while back and it's rapidly becoming a huge time sink. Filled out their voluminous online application tool with hundreds of fields to fill, another app with mostly repetitive info to allow background check, now they want super detailed work history with addresses, manager names, etc. This process has already takenat least a couple hours of my time with them asking for increasingly less useful information on making a hiring decision. At what point do you decide to cut your losses with a neurotic potential employer and tell them "no longer interested"? I don't *need* this job and I'm thinking if this is the way they run their organization while recruiting, I'll probably hate my life if I were hired and was constantly being asked for stupid and repetitive information requests.

 

[cbrunny]

With an attitude like that, I'm sure you'll be their first pick too.

You either want the job or you don't. Period.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

With an attitude like that, I'm sure you'll be their first pick too.

You either want the job or you don't. Period.

I honestly agree with him to a certain extent. If your basing your employee's on some information that anyone can type (in that great of a detail), then I'm really not interested.

If I can't fill something out with auto-fill and tab-typing within 20 minutes, I could careless. Regardless of what I type you have no fucking clue who I am as an employee. That's why we do interviews.

 

[TheGardener]

Applied for a job with an academic institution a while back and it's rapidly becoming a huge time sink. Filled out their voluminous online application tool with hundreds of fields to fill, another app with mostly repetitive info to allow background check, now they want super detailed work history with addresses, manager names, etc. This process has already takenat least a couple hours of my time with them asking for increasingly less useful information on making a hiring decision. At what point do you decide to cut your losses with a neurotic potential employer and tell them "no longer interested"? I don't *need* this job and I'm thinking if this is the way they run their organization while recruiting, I'll probably hate my life if I were hired and was constantly being asked for stupid and repetitive information requests.

I worked for a university in the prior decade. Funny how my experience was different. I never filled out an application and there was no background check, as far as I knew. Besides the multiple interviews and my resume, that was it.

Really it is not unreasonable for a prospective employer to contact prior employers about an applicant that they want to make an offer to. If you don't want to give out a manager's name, then give them the phone number of the HR department. Chances are all the information given out will be a validation that you were employed between such and such dates. You can say that the company requires that all requests go through HR.

It may be that the institution may not be a good fit for you. You need to evaluate them as much as they need to evaluate you. Well I guess the answer to your questions depend on how desperate you are or how good the prospective job and benefits are.

On the bright side, you have hopefully saved the information that you provided to the institution. That way you can cut and paste the details for future purposes, as you must have covered all the bases, should similar requests come up again with another prospective employer.

 

[sourceninja]

...

 

[purbeast0]

when i am looking for jobs, if there is a huge form i have to fill out, i simply will pass on the company. that is typically a sign that the company is way too corporate for me and not a place i would really want to work anyways.

i was looking at positions out in san diego and looked at some of the big companies (raytheon, leidos, boeng) and every one of them had some stupid shit like that and i simply did not apply due to it.

all one needs is my resume and they can find all of that info. not worth my time to fill out all that other shit when the company i'm applying to could figure all of that shit out by simply looking at my resume.

 

[Anubis]

Govt jobs can be even worse

hope you remember every teachers name/roommate/whatever for the last 20 years

 

[mikeford]

I think the reason is that people are starting to get caught in resume lies, or "enhancements" and people doing the hiring want hard info that is less likely to be disputed than found in a typical resume.

OTOH lots of hiring is BS, candidate is picked, but they have to do due diligence in looking at other people.

 

[NoTine42]

Govt jobs can be even worse

hope you remember every teachers name/roommate/whatever for the last 20 years

Federal job applications are a huge pain ... But at least it seemed a profile is saved, which helps applying for other federal jobs. (Large companies can be a bit like that, too. The 1st job application is a big deal, others are easier.

School districts seem to have their own versions of that system, plus a bunch of additional detail that really only makes sense for teaching positions.

 

[Imp]

How badly do you want the job?

I switched out of a government job because I got tired of the applications. You had to write out a multi-page essay about how you were qualified for the job where I worked. On top of that, you had to load it with keywords to get past the computer screening AND to probably make it easy for HR to back-up why you were qualified in case of a lawsuit. Each application took at least an hour, sometimes many hours to fill out. And the opportunities were few and far between, occasionally with hundreds of applications for a spot. Fuck that.