Experiencing Online Applying For The First Time

Within the week my wife and I will be transporting my son from Florida to Michigan State University for his freshman year of college. As my wife and I have been prepping to move him, we have strongly “suggested” he begin applying for jobs in East Lansing now, as he will be there in a week.

While he has worked locally here in Florida, those jobs came from him going into an establishment and applying, getting an interview, and then doing paperwork. Last night was the first time he has had to follow a blind online application process and I’m going to be blunt. HE HATED IT!

The volume of complaints we received from him last night on the various corporate application processes were numerous. "Please upload your resume, now repeat your resume by typing out all of your work experiences that are already included on the resume. blah blah blah.. what a waste of time." In one case, he was timed out as he was looking up his high school grade point average because that was required.

To his credit, he wanted the exact number for his grade point, but the system timed him out and he needed to start the entire process over. The system didn’t even save his progress. To say he was angry, annoyed, and frustrated is an understatement. His statement was this…”this is stupid, why would I want to work there?”

Much to his chagrin, we again “suggested" he do it again and he did, while grumbling and being annoyed, but it got done. But, and this is the moral of the story, his first impression of these large corporate organizations is negative.

If you spend more than 5 minutes on LinkedIn, it will not take you long to find candidates angry and frustrated with hiring today. What my son experienced last night is not unique to him. Keep in mind that Gallup recently posted new data that 51% of employees are currently looking for a new job. So not only are current candidates going to be frustrated with current hiring processes, there is going to be ample talent on the market in the coming months that will continue to amplify their frustrations with these impersonal, and slow, application systems and hiring processes.

Frankly speaking, I would say that about 50% of our candidates come to us simply because they are frustrated with applying online and want to work with someone they can actually speak with and feel valued and appreciated. This doesn’t mean we can find them all jobs, as much as I wish I could. But what I can provide, or at least try to provide, is a place where there is human interaction and transparency. We are not for everyone, and I can't help everyone. But I completely recognize the frustration of candidates today and got a first hand visualization of it through my son last night.