A Jobsite Indeed, And A Tale O' Woe O' Taleo

Haven't posted or been on Facebook a lot of late, but for good reason. I've found a new job board that's a considerable improvement over Craigslist, Careerbuilder,  Monster and the various specialty boards I use.

It's called Indeed.com and it has a LOT more listings that are relevant to my skill set (or anyone's really). It basically aggregates the listings on other sites and (here's why it's so good) pulls up listings on company sites too.

Company site listings are extremely tedious to find and pull up, you have to go to each company and search their listings, and some companies won't let you do that unless you register with them first, a time consuming process especially if what you discover is that there are no listings that match your skills/experience.

So I've been spending a lot more time applying for jobs that match my skills/experience nowadays, a very good thing.

It's also been time consuming because companies are increasing using a job application vetting service offered by taleo.net, a notoriously difficult and time-consuming piece of software that will set you way back in terms of time whenever you run across it.

Now I know what some of you are thinking, being an experienced mind reader and all. I'm unemployed, I am looking for a job, what better thing do I have to do than fill out job applications, however long, difficult and, well, pointless they may be? Well, I hear you, I DO fill out the taleo.net forms. But just because I am unemployed, it does not mean my brain has stopped working, and I'm perfectly able to see a wasteful and inefficient job application form when I see it.

For example, one taleo.net job I applied for recently had about eight sections. ONE of those sections was a 38-question multiple choice form detailing various kinds of job issues and asking for how I would handle them. The form said it generally took 60 minutes to fill out the section, but they'd give me 90 minutes. Well, I filled it out, took 30 minutes, it was fairly easy for me because figuring out which answer was the right one is old hat to anyone who's every worked in a managerial position.

But still ... 30 minutes for one section of a form that was actually useless, because ANYBODY with the basic language skills to do the job would be able to figure out the right answers ... kind of a waste for the company. Yeah, you probably screened out the people who lack the patience to fill out a long form like that, or the skills, but once again ... people who have editing and writing skills/experience tend to have those skills in spades. I doubt the form did any significant weeding out for the company.

And that's on top of filling out a job history form going back ... well, a long way back! After uploading a copy of my resume ... which is of course where I got the information to fill out the job form from. Just sayin' ...

(No I won't say which company it was or what job it was ... I might get the job, I don't want this post coming back to bite me in the posterior!)

So anyway, I highly recommend Indeed.com for anyone searching for a job, and as for taleo.net ... sucks, but you gotta do it if you're serious about looking for work.

And here's a link to others' complaintsabout taleo.net just so you know I'm not alone here. One guy actually thinks companies might be using taleo.net to scare away applicants from applying for jobs they're advertising that are bogus. (i.e., jobs where they intend to promote from within but are forced for legal or other reasons to advertise anyway. Hey, we all know it happens.) I wouldn't go THAT far ... I have a rule never to ascribe to malign intent that which could be the product of simple stupidity and ignorance.