The Idiocy of Making Job Seekers Jump Through Hoops
Spring and fall seem to be the busiest times of the year for recruiting conferences so it is at times like this when I'm most able to connect face-to-face with employers and college career service office professionals. And it is at times like this when I am reminded how -- pardon my French -- idiotic some recruiting practices can be.
Many but probably not most recruiters, hiring managers, and other human resource professionals believe that it is a good thing to force candidates to feel some pain in order to apply to a job. That might mean a lengthy application form, an on-line assessment, or even just the typical refusal of most corporate recruiters to make themselves easily accessible to the very people that they should most want to communicate with.
I hear over and over again from employers and other HR professionals that candidates who refuse to spend a lot of time applying to one of the employer's supposedly coveted job opportunities are candidates who aren't serious about the opportunity, lazy, or both. These employers are wrong. Just dead wrong.
There's little doubt that students searching for internships, recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs, and other job seekers who do a more effective job of searching for employment opportunities will have a better chance of being hired than those who don't spend as much time or invest as much of an effort, but I caution those who believe that the best candidates are those who try the hardest to be hired. The truth is that candidates who try the hardest to be hired actually fall into two groups:
- Highly qualified candidates who know what they want and go after it with a vengeance. These are the candidates we all should salivate over.
- Desperate candidates who don't know what they want (or who mistakenly think they know what they want) and go after it with a vengeance. These are the candidates who send hundreds of resumes and put up with the most brutal application processes. These are the candidates that we should all fear as they suck up a tremendous amount of our time even if we weed them out and do a tremendous amount of damage to our organizations if we have the misfortune of hiring them. They tend to be good people, but poor fits for our opportunities.
I regularly hear employers talking about how they think it is a positive to require all candidates to endure their 20 minute on-line assessment or some convulated application process that is required because of the applicant tracking system they use. These employers are either kidding themselves or too afraid to do what they know is right: force their organizations and their vendors to do what is right for the candidate. Whether we're wearing the hat of a career service office professional, recruiter, hiring manager, ATS, job board, or anyone else in the recruiting world, our ability to be successful has always been and will always be driven by what is right for the candidate.
In the current economic situation, it is hard to get a job you want. Sometimes it is wiser to hand it over to an employment agency to help you find the ideal employer that suits you. All of my experiences with them are successful so far. I think that everyone who is looking for a job can consider approaching an employment agency.
"... believe that it is a good thing to force candidates to feel some pain in order to apply to a job."
Maybe the influx of recruiters' loss of business, and those going out of business, is the result of karma? After all, maybe those who think "job candidates should feel some pain" need to be reminded of the uncomfortableness and stress associated with job-searching. Maybe if one good thing comes out of this recession, I vote for an increased understanding of what others experience, which hopefully results in a bit more compassion.
Regards,
@teenarose
Unfortunately, I think you're correct. With the economy and job market the way it is, however, hiring managers certainly have the upper hand on job seekers. Until then, we just have to play by the companies' rules ...