Technological Absurdity leading to insensitivity....

In this age of non-stop emails, texts and meetings, who has the time to sit at a computer and possibly figure out what the designer of an online employment application is thinking????

For the last three hours I have been sitting at my laptop filling out....attempting to fill out....an online application for a very sought after position that I hope to land. Of course now....I am not all that sure that I have a shot because the Assistant HR and I had a war of emails.....ending with a phone call by her to me stating that my email to her was inappropriate. Well you know....maybe someone needs to sit and go through the online application with a fine-tooth comb and see exactly what the pitfalls are and what causes someone such as myself to get so frustrated by the amount of time spent attempting to fill out a ridiculous application. Why do I need to fill out a application when I submit a resume???? That has always been a very redundant waste of time to me, especially online.

I have come to believe that a lot of these obstacles are put in place on purpose to weed out the people who will get so frustrated and tired of trying to figure out how to move through the process, that they just give up. I know that you can grow a head of white hair filling out a government application, having muscled through a few in my career. Now I am not computer illiterate by any means. AS a matter of fact, I am very computer savvy. I know what I know...and what I don't know...I LEARN. I find Youtube, online articles, websites and whatever else I need in order to help myself become more educated in things that might be a little tricky. However the new theory of how to build the better and more concise application has become ridiculous. I love the applications that have specific areas that want to know more about your background and yet they don't identify it in their clothesline of options in positions or the diversity of the industry that you are in. Just because I am a Chef....doesn't mean I just cook???? My job description has many layers to it which that alone is a bone I would like to sit and pick with HR geniuses as well. "So when was the last time you cooked"....REALLY???? Do doctors get asked the last surgery they performed....or an attorney ...the last brief they wrote?

This HR person got upset because I was annoyed with the tone of her email to me.....instructing me at first, asking me if I had done this or that, which I had done. I even figured out on one page/section how to get around one part of the needed information. But when it asked for the emergency contact details...which is another contention I have....IF I DON'T HAVE ANY EMERGENCY CONTACT....THEN IF I PUT N/A....THAT SHOULD BE MY ACCEPTABLE ANSWER. I am a mature, self-sufficient, financially independent woman with no children or husband...so when I say N/A....I mean N/A. What I was not understanding....and NO WHERE on the form was there any indicator of how to progress....the addition of my fictitious sister as my emergency contact....there at the bottom of this section there is a "add contact" "cancel"...which to me means that I can add another contact if I wish to do so just in case emergency contact number one has an issue and unable to be contacted...there is another one. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh but alas....NOT what was being asked to do. "Add contact" meant that you are adding that person you offer up and that it is....you get the brass ring and you get to move on????? NOW WHO KNEW???? I guess I over think things.....

My experience with a lot of online information data forms it that they have never been used by the people who design them or are the ones who are trying to find qualified candidates. And I guess when you live in the HR offices of the monster companies.....you learn your form and then you can be condescending to all those who aren't mind-readers. And when you are in HR then you are of the level of people who don't need to understand just how frustrating it is to sit at your laptop......not that you have anything else in life to do....for hours....trying to FIGURE IT OUT?!!!!!

My years as a Chef has taught me a lot about a lot of things and not just about cooking. I have learned that I can zoom around a kitchen or restaurant doing 11 things at once while still finding time to have my cup of coffee I hear my staff complain, whine, drag their feet doing their jobs. I take a split second to think about what I need to do to make them feel better about their jobs or tasks. I don't get ugly but rather I keep my ears and eyes open watching when they don't know I am watching, and when I find it the right time, I approach them with a little joke or quip to help them out of the trenches.

This approach is the same with someone who is going through a very, what should be easy, difficult application. Applications are very humiliating and depending on the person's situation can break them. A person who has been unemployed for a very long time and sits at their laptop every day for hours on end searching for a job....any job.....it is escalated by an application that is not made easy to maneuver through. Having people condescend to you is another blow to ones mental state when the vulnerability of someone who is unemployed makes it that much worse. Making someone feel inadequate or stupid with a series of questions bites at the mind. When a person who has had a very successful career or is trying to get up another rung on the ladder, is putting themselves out there so all insensitivities grate at ones psyche. I have been there....with my own career that has hit the "age" wall in the last few years. The lows are deep and dark....thinking...."how did I get here?" I graduated from the BEST school in the world at that time putting me in the top of the heap when I graduated and now I can't buy a job. Then, when I am applying for a job that I feel is in an industry....or so I have been told....that is looking for people with my years of experience, I am made to feel stupid and get very annoyed with the person on the other end for attempting to make me feel this way,intentionally or otherwise.

I have come to a crossroads in my career where my patience with certain situations is tempered by my saying to myself that I can either apologize for my impatience and display of frustration to the person on the other end of the phone/email or I can just say enough is enough. I remember when I had at least 4 job offers at any one time able to go from place to place because I graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. Well that stock pot doesn't hold any water anymore. I have to some extent given up my attempt to stay relevant in this industry that I truly dedicated myself to, including giving up a good portion of my life to so that one day I would be contented by my accomplishments. Now I am working harder than ever, doing the job that for the most part gets no real appreciation other than there is a meal on the tables for those who I prepare two meals a day for. There is no glamour, no cameras, no magazine or internet articles. It is just me....chief, cook and bottle washer. I have been researching options to see if I still have it but now I am having to run the gauntlet of the HR, which in a lot of incidences don't even understand the position that they are interviewing for. I learned early on in my career to find out who the person that I would be directly answering to and making contact with them first sending them my resume directly, so that I could get a looksie, then letting them handle HR. Now I can't even do that because the person who is the POC or supervisor is someone who is 20 years younger and can't even appreciate where I have been and what I have accomplished because things have changed so dramatically.

In the end, I just had to bring this whole experience that I had today to the table for all of you out there in Corporate America to stop and read. I want you all to know that there is a whole community of Chefs such as myself who have many years of hands-on experience that is quite extensive, that are now wondering...."how did this happen....how did I get here...."