Online job applications...Ugh

[Grime]

I need a job, and I have started looking online now since most places I have gone lately tell me I need to apply online.

The problem is companies wanting my SS# right off the bat. I don't feel comfortable putting that out there from a computer. Anyway around this? Think I'd have any chance of getting a job if I just provide 000-00-000? (I don't want to waste a bunch of applications testing it out.) I think they ask for WAY too much information right up front, I have no problem providing it, but AFTER an interview would make more sense, and definitely not from a computer.

Frustrating to say the least.

[sniper7]

Pretty much the way it is any more. Then again illegals still find jobs. Just depends on what "field" you're interested in.

[blacklabel]

The last two jobs I've applied for wanted nothing but my resume. It's been a nice change compared to the 8 page questionnaires I'm used to.

[Lurch]

The one that really get me have you input all your personal info, work history, and references and then at the end you get to submit your resume. Why can't it just pull all that info from your resume?

[Great-Kazoo]

If you're a vet pm me, i'll send you the weld cty vetrep's info. As with most other members looking for work, what are you looking for?

[StagLefty]

I ran into the we want your SS# on several when I was looking. I'm with you on not providing it at this stage of applying. Why would they need it until it's time for background/credit check ?

[brutal]

What industry?

My company has a bounty on your head if you're an A player techie and want to travel.

[Justin]

Taleo is the devil.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[generalmeow]

I sure as shit wouldn't give my social security number to someone online. Any job I would want wouldn't ask me for my social security number before I have the job. Because why would they need it unless it was for my paperwork? To check my credit? Don't want to work at a place like that. I'm not interested in a company that wants to know about my credit. I've always thought that's weird.

I was unemployed for a few months about 5 years back, and filled out a multitude of online applications and never heard anything. I must have applied at 100 places via Monster.com and other online services, and I'm convinced that most, if not all of them, never ever got looked at. For every job posted, there's probably 1000 applicants. I was qualified for every job I applied for, so there must be some reason like that. Or maybe they got so many applicants, there were bound to be people who were overqualified, and those people got the call.

The next time I'm looking, I'm going to try one of two things:

1) I'm going to make a nice sandwich board that says I'm looking for a job, and it will have a brief outline of my skills. Get some simple business cards made up with my contact info. Then I'm going to dress up nice and go stand on a street corner in a nice business oriented area (Tech center, Cherry Creek, etc.). How could you not get a job in a day? Someone is going to drive by you that is looking to hire, and appreciates your effort. They'll drive by and turn around and come back. Doing this says something about you is different. Do it for a few days and you'd probably have multiple jobs to choose from.

So what if the best job I can get is making $15hr at a good company? It won't last long. I'll be working my way up the ladder quickly. All I have to do is get my foot in the door.

2) I'm certainly not applying to any jobs that are advertised online. Too many other people applying. Find out the places you want to work, and go straight to them. Most openings are not advertised. Figure out the bosses email, and email him/her. Even if they say "we're not hiring", start a conversation with him. Become an acquaintance, and it might lead somewhere. It will still be better than sending a resume into a black hole.

At my work, every once in a while I'll answer the phone and it will be a guy who says bluntly "You guys hiring?" "Nope, sorry". "Okay, thanks". Click. That's not the way to do it. If I knew up front that I wasn't talking to a shithead, and they sounded legitimate for my line of work, even if we weren't hiring at the moment, and they did or said something that made me want to remember them, I would keep them on file. Or I might recommend them to other business acquaintances who I knew were hiring. When we're thinking about hiring, it's usually for a position that needs filled quickly, and we usually reach out to friends and acquaintances first to know if they know of anybody qualified that is looking.

This is kind of an aside, but I've been reading a book called "The Tipping Point", and to this point it's basically about why certain trends get started, and how. But one of the things they talk about is how you have friends (people you see and talk to all the time), and people have acquaintances (people you would recognize and talk to). Your friends can't help you find a job (or help you find any new information) as easily as an acquaintance, because your friends live in your world, and your acquaintances do not. By definition an acquaintance is more likely to know something that you don't. The author gives some examples of really unique people who concentrate a lot of effort on developing and keeping contact with acquaintances, and how successful they are because they have so much information that most people do not, and so many resources to turn to. It's a long term strategy and wont get you a job right now, but it's something we probably would all be well served in doing. The next time you meet a random guy at a party, just take it an extra step and remember his name and ask for his business card. Then call him or send him an email every once in a while. You don't have to get together, just touch base.

We have a certain amount of friends because we don't have time and don't want the effort and obligation of cultivating new ones. But we meet people all the time that could help us with a little extra effort.

[Jer]

What industry?

My company has a bounty on your head if you're an A player techie and want to travel.

Interested.