5 ms·

I'm hiring for several positions right now (non-engineering). At the end of every job ad is a section titled HOW TO APPLY, in bold and with asterisks like tha

I'm hiring for several positions right now (non-engineering). At the end of every job ad is a section titled *HOW TO APPLY*, in bold and with asterisks like that, with the simple instruction that the interested candidate needs to go to a linked Google Form to fill out some details. For us, this centralises all applications into one box that we can review, and also tests to see whether people actually read the job description. Around 10% of applicants actually fill out the form. It's not a tough form at all, but it's striking that so many platforms have made it easy to one-click-apply, that shotgunning job applications is very common now. So yes, fully agree that carefully reading a document is a key pre-requisite for a knowledge worker job.

electrondood 6y ago
To be fair, most online application processes are fairly broken. I'm sure everyone here knows what it's like to painstakingly enter your complete personal information and work history several times, when everything is clearly on the resume you've already uploaded. Or to have it entirely erased and need to enter it a fourth time because you accidentally went back to a previous page, etc. Often, if a job has a form that smells like this, I'll bypass for other options, as to me it indicates bureaucracy and institutional stupidity, which I don't want to deal with on the job. It's my brown M&Ms clause.
- forgingahead 6y ago
  Yes, but you wouldn't click the "Apply" button on the actual job post (ie, LinkedIn or whatever) and NOT follow the instructions would you? The point was that if you're going to apply, follow the instructions in the job ad.
- Symbiote 6y ago
  When I worked for a government agency, this system ensured no personal details made it through to the people assessing candidates. Name, age, sex, nationality etc were all removed. Sometimes other information gave the details away anyway. ("Westminster School for Boys, 1969")
sumtechguy 6y ago
I get where you are coming from. It is not a bad indicator. I as job seeker would have probably just skipped the job all together. Having been through this system recently, one more form to fill out that is hand crafted, would have made me nope out. You explain why but it does give off an interesting look you may want to rethink. Now you may be fine with that. But my level of dealing with HR form systems has dropped to a dramatic level of low, please end me, levels. A hand crafted one would make me think 'that is odd'. The whole fill out this form system almost every company has now, plus other tests has worn me out. It does not even matter how 'easy' the form is. It is just one more hoop to jump through. I also understand where you are coming from. You have 1 position and 100 resumes. At least 99 of those have to go. Filtering for not reading the instructions is not a bad one. Just be careful you can end up with a set of people who do not know how to do things that are not in the instructions, and will block out until someone corrects the issue.
user-the-name 6y ago
> Around 10% of applicants actually fill out the form. That is a very good sign that it is you who is doing something wrong, not the applicants.
dsr_ 6y ago
The ends of my ads usually include: please send your resume in HTML, PDF or plain text, and a short discussion of a time you solved a technical problem. Most people managed the first part.

I'm hiring for several positions right now (non-engineering). At the end of every job ad is a section titled *HOW TO APPLY*, in bold and with asterisks like tha

electrondood 6y ago

To be fair, most online application processes are fairly broken. I'm sure everyone here knows what it's like to painstakingly enter your complete personal information and work history several times, when everything is clearly on the resume you've already uploaded. Or to have it entirely erased and need to enter it a fourth time because you accidentally went back to a previous page, etc. Often, if a job has a form that smells like this, I'll bypass for other options, as to me it indicates bureaucracy and institutional stupidity, which I don't want to deal with on the job. It's my brown M&Ms clause.

forgingahead 6y ago
Yes, but you wouldn't click the "Apply" button on the actual job post (ie, LinkedIn or whatever) and NOT follow the instructions would you? The point was that if you're going to apply, follow the instructions in the job ad.
Symbiote 6y ago
When I worked for a government agency, this system ensured no personal details made it through to the people assessing candidates. Name, age, sex, nationality etc were all removed. Sometimes other information gave the details away anyway. ("Westminster School for Boys, 1969")

sumtechguy 6y ago

I get where you are coming from. It is not a bad indicator. I as job seeker would have probably just skipped the job all together. Having been through this system recently, one more form to fill out that is hand crafted, would have made me nope out. You explain why but it does give off an interesting look you may want to rethink. Now you may be fine with that. But my level of dealing with HR form systems has dropped to a dramatic level of low, please end me, levels. A hand crafted one would make me think 'that is odd'. The whole fill out this form system almost every company has now, plus other tests has worn me out. It does not even matter how 'easy' the form is. It is just one more hoop to jump through. I also understand where you are coming from. You have 1 position and 100 resumes. At least 99 of those have to go. Filtering for not reading the instructions is not a bad one. Just be careful you can end up with a set of people who do not know how to do things that are not in the instructions, and will block out until someone corrects the issue.

user-the-name 6y ago

> Around 10% of applicants actually fill out the form. That is a very good sign that it is you who is doing something wrong, not the applicants.

dsr_ 6y ago

The ends of my ads usually include: please send your resume in HTML, PDF or plain text, and a short discussion of a time you solved a technical problem. Most people managed the first part.