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| Liono |
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Liono
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| Pete. |
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Pete.
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| Cunnington |
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Cunnington
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 Posted: 23:26 - 14 Mar 2012  Post subject: |
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Having just completed an application for a promoted post with my current employer, I can understand both sides of the coin - the online form was stupidly complicated (based upon a template that tries to narrow down options with no options to complete, so you have to select <other> and fill in the data manually in a complex and protracted manner etc), and lacks any form of spellchecker, that we have all become so used to.
My approach was to copy headings into a Word document, complete the text within Word then cut and paste into the form.
The final step was to save a draft and print off for a final proof read - it is amazing what slips through.
Having endured 2 days of presentations for a £15M tender this week, it is amazing that 5 out of 7 had the name of the location of the project incorrect.
Six shortlisted from only 90, did you advertise? Seems like a poor uptake given the current climate.
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| angryjonny |
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angryjonny
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Posted: 23:41 - 14 Mar 2012  Post subject: Re: Shortlisting |
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| Liono wrote: | I've spent most of my evening shortlisting 6 candidates for a professional level job down from over 90 applicants and have been amazed at the number of people who got the name of the organisation wrong, put their own name in the wrong fields on the application form, made very elementary spelling errors and simply made daft mistakes. These went straight in the reject pile.
I know there have been a number of threads on here about applying for jobs, so my top tip to those people applying is to check everything with an obsessive level of detail! |
There are people on here who would argue that you're just discriminitating between those who can and can't fill in an application form correctly and if you can't appreciate their genius (instead getting hung up on mis-spellings, punctuation misuse, an inability to use their/there/they're correctly, grammatical errors, split infinitives, no knowledge of the difference between "lend" and "borrow", ending sentences with prepositions, using apostrophe's for plural, not actually knowing which company they're applying to, ending sentences with prepositions, repetition, repetition and repetition) then you're not worth working for anyway. |
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| GhostRider |
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GhostRider
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| Pete. |
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Pete.
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| Posted: 23:57 - 14 Mar 2012 Post subject: |
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| Ariel Badger |
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Ariel Badger
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| Liono |
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Liono
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| Posted: 07:23 - 15 Mar 2012 Post subject: Re: Shortlisting |
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| angryjonny wrote: |
There are people on here who would argue that you're just discriminitating between those who can and can't fill in an application form correctly and if you can't appreciate their genius (instead getting hung up on mis-spellings, punctuation misuse, an inability to use their/there/they're correctly, grammatical errors, split infinitives, no knowledge of the difference between "lend" and "borrow", ending sentences with prepositions, using apostrophe's for plural, not actually knowing which company they're applying to, ending sentences with prepositions, repetition, repetition and repetition) then you're not worth working for anyway. |
The ability to use language correctly is a key component of the job. Some of the applications had minor errors in which didn't really bother me (although my boss had put big red pen marks on them, which gives you an indication of the sector the job is in!). However, the ones who couldn't even get the organisation name or even their own name right were rather frustrating to read. |
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| Dr. DaveJPS |
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Dr. DaveJPS
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| G |
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G
The Voice of Reason
Joined: 02 Feb 2002
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| Posted: 16:37 - 15 Mar 2012 Post subject: Re: Shortlisting |
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| angryjonny wrote: |
There are people on here who would argue that you're just discriminitating between those who can and can't fill in an application form correctly and if you can't appreciate their genius (instead getting hung up on mis-spellings, punctuation misuse, an inability to use their/there/they're correctly, grammatical errors, split infinitives, no knowledge of the difference between "lend" and "borrow", ending sentences with prepositions, using apostrophe's for plural, not actually knowing which company they're applying to, ending sentences with prepositions, repetition, repetition and repetition) then you're not worth working for anyway. |
For a "professional level" job I would expect applications to be able to if not spell and punctuate correctly, certainly to be able to pass their application on to someone who can to check over.
Ok, for a first-stage I might not, but I most certainly would later on - and that's because I'm reasonable confident in my ability to not make a negative impression with common mistakes and the like when I've made an effort. Of course would depend on the job, too.
Someone might be a genius in the main area of work, but if their genius makes a bad impression of their abilities when translated to the written medium; for an awful lot of 'professional' jobs they are pretty useless.
Not just for communication with customer and supplies, but also for general internal communication. Certainly I would expect that if I employed someone who was creating reports etc for other parts of the company that they looked professional as other people will have similar bias against poorly presented information, however great that information may be.
I suspect people may actually a little concerned about offering feedback that could offend or lead to possible prosecution - I'd still worry that "you can't spell" would get returned with shouts of discrimination and wasted time sorting out silly legal action. |
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| swampy |
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swampy
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| angryjonny |
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angryjonny
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| Posted: 17:25 - 15 Mar 2012 Post subject: Re: Shortlisting |
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| G wrote: | I suspect people may actually a little concerned about offering feedback that could offend or lead to possible prosecution - I'd still worry that "you can't spell" would get returned with shouts of discrimination and wasted time sorting out silly legal action. |
Exactly. An accidental comment of "we didn't think you'd fit in" could be interpreted as too old, too young, wrong gender, wrong sexuality, wrong skin colour - any of which could land you in court, when you probably just meant "irritating nob". This is why even when you get a "sadly this time your application has not been successful" letter, you're unlikely to get any reasons. Similarly, even references these days tend to go along the lines of "Person X worked here for this period" and nothing more.
As for the "I don't need to be able to spell to do my job" argument; no, maybe you don't. But the application process isn't about finding someone who can do the job, it's about finding the best applicant. Probably 50% of everyone who applies can do the job. But if you want to be in the magic few who get an interview, get someone to proof-read your CV or at least have it spell-checked, The best applicants for any job may well have edited their CV specifically for that role - concentrating on the important bits.
Of course, if you make the process too hard like someone's experience with aptitude tests in another thread (Ghost rider?) then you're basically employing lucky people, not skilled people. You might as well say "flip a coin, get 10 heads in a row and the job is yours." |
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| Bomberman |
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Bomberman
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| Ayrton |
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Ayrton
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| Tenko |
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Tenko
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| G |
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G
The Voice of Reason
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 14 years, 118 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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