SS: Online application

[ufcrusher]

Ok, so I am applying for a job at a certain large computer company in their legal department and I go to send in my resume and cover letter.

First thing, their website doesnt allow for you just to attach a file but rather has you take the text and fill in the information from your resume and coverletter. This slightly annoyed me since it screwed up the formating on everything, but hey everyones formating would be screwed up to, so I kept going.

Second, new page comes up, it took my resume and attempted to fill in a document from it. Problem is, I guess the programer didnt know that in different industries there were different resume standards. For a legal resume, you list all your legal experience and then in a different section all of your non-legal experience. So what happened, it skipped over ALL the legal experience, the stuff that matters, and fills in all the other information. Annoying yes, enough to prevent me from going on, no. So I go and change all the fields to the correct information. Somewhere near halfway down my experience, there are no more fields!

Great, so now I have half of my experience listed but some of my better looking experience was back a few jobs....down in the ones being skipped. There is no where to put in anymore information. So I pick up the phone and call the company, asking if I can fax in my resume and coverletter since the computer program seemed unable to take the information from me. "Sorry sir, but there is no way you can apply except online." Great!

Then it ask if it can contact my current employer....yes or no. Well since there is no N/A listed I hit no, with the explanation that you cant call someone who doesnt exist.

Finally it ask for when did I start working....can there be a more ambiquous question? Do they mean, when did you get your first real job after you finished your schooling and testing or do they mean the first job I had. I mean come on, according to the IRS my first job was back in the late 80's, but I was just a kid. I dont know about you, but I dont consider jobs before I graduated high school to be real experience. So I have no clue what to list there.

So I try to continue on, have to fix my degree since apparently the program doesnt recognize a juris doctor.

Get through that and all these other fun ambiquous questions follow....I finally just said, screw it, i will do it later when I have someone else to help interpret the many gray areas on this application.

For crying out loud, why cant I just fax or attach my resume to an email like a normal place!

[Grimm]

Originally posted by ufcrusher
...
Finally it ask for when did I start working....can there be a more ambiquous question? Do they mean, when did you get your first real job after you finished your schooling and testing or do they mean the first job I had. I mean come on, according to the IRS my first job was back in the late 80's, but I was just a kid.
...

What they mean here is "please sue us for asking your age". They can't ask any question that will reveal your age. They just take that year, subtract the time required for schooling and subtract 18 and they have the year you were born in, or close enough. Any question that will reveal your age is illegal for them to ask.

It's age discrimination and it is illegal. Call the labor board and bust them. Or get screen prints and then call and ask to speak to their legal department.

[ufcrusher]

Funny thing is, its for work in their legal department. I ended up just leaving that space blank, it wasnt a required field.