And f**k employers who do this, too

"Failure to complete all of the required fields may result in your application being disqualified from consideration. The information entered in the education and work experience sections are auto screened by the system based on the basic qualifications of the position."

Job Application Hall of Shame

I applied for a telecommute editing job yesterday. The online application had no means to attach a resume. The only way to include it was to paste it into the one-line box below; it wasn't expandable. So when you pasted your resume into the box, it was one very long string of text.


If you wanted to check your resume, you had to scroll back all the way to the beginning. Guess who didn't do that.

What were they thinking? I have no idea what they see when they open an application.

I see what you're doing here

The American Institutes for Research has an ad on Craigslist for a test development assistant.

At the bottom of the ad, AIR writes, "Email applications will not be considered." But then the ad instructs the reader to visit its website, search on the job title, and apply through the website (read: via email).

Obviously, "Email applications will not be considered" means via the "Reply to" link at the top of the ad—the common practice for most CL posts.

Maybe the apparent dead end is a way to separate the potential wheat from the (clueless) chaff.

Aborted job application

I started to apply for a job online, and then faced the crap below (click image to enlarge it), which had sections for several jobs. I just can't. WTF is a resume for! Plus, is there any area where we BS more than "Reason for Leaving." Maybe pay.

"All applicants MUST include salary expectations."

F**k every employer that includes that in a job ad.

Impassable

I tried to apply online for an editor position today.

After uploading my resume and filling in a host of boxes, I was prompted to create a password in order to establish my account—in my view a totally unnecessary but nearly universal requirement for online applications.

Despite my repeated attempts to create an acceptable password—upper/lowercase, length, use of numbers and special characters—every password I typed was rejected.

I wonder if the website got beyond alpha testing. That employer will be underwhelmed by the number of applications.