A friend was recently telling me how cumbersome it was to apply to some positions on bigger companies’ online portals. There is so much information you have to enter over and over again, the same information in so many different places, etc. It is really time consuming, and that’s just for one position! If there is more than one of interest in that company, you have to enter the information all over again!
Really? Was it really that bad? So, I took a look. I went to a really large company headquartered here in Southfield (many of us have had to deal with their customer service department at one time or another) to look at their submittal process. First things first, I set out to find a position that would interest me.
Narrowing down the selection started off my conundrum. There are a couple of local offices, which one do I want? More than one? Does that increase my chances of being hired? OK, let’s search under all of the local offices…..
Next, which category? Hmmm, most of my background is in HR/Operations, but to not limit my options, let’s just go with all. Wouldn’t that be easier than trying to figure out which is the right category? So many companies have differing titles for the same position, I don’t know which way to go here. I’ll just do all of them.
Excellent. Narrowed it down to 35 openings. Wow, that’s a lot. More than I thought there would be! Scrolling…..don’t understand what those first two titles even mean, so scrolling…..scrolling….oh, there’s one that looks like it might be HR! Nope, some sort of legal compliance and I’m not an attorney, so scrolling.…scrolling…..
Another one that looks like it might be HR. I pull up the job description and read through. Well, at least as much as I can. Honestly, I don’t understand much of what they are asking me. I am not sure if I have that experience, since I don’t really know what it is. Bummer. Maybe I don’t have the experience I thought I did. Wow, that’s really a bummer. All these years in staffing and I don’t know what that stuff means. How disheartening.
So, back to scrolling……faster this time, since I’m pretty sure I won’t understand what those other openings are either.
Done. How disappointing. Out of 35 positions, I don’t think I’m qualified for one of them. And I didn’t even get to the submittal part! How frustrating. There is a small amount of relief that I already have a job, and one that I love, but still. What if I didn’t? What if my unemployment was running out and I had to go through this every day? Tough, tough gig at this point.
My reaction will definitely be different when someone says they have been applying on line for positions. My sympathies, for sure. Fingers crossed, you have all the key words you need in your resume if you do understand the job description. Oh dear, the resume………