Galen College of Nursing

Galen College of Nursing's ATS is everything that's wrong with employers' attitudes today.

It starts by demanding your salary requirements (and everyone wonders why salaries have been stagnant for so long). Then, it throws in the first disqualifier. If you admit you're unemployed, REJECT...

If you lucky enough to be employed...what fucking right does this corporation have in invading your professional space by asking to contact your employer???

Next, they demand the personal information of your colleagues and clients, information that can be misused and abused in the wrong hands.

Next is the employment history. There's the offensive-as-hell demand for salary history (illegal to ask this now in MA, MN, and a few other places), and yet another demand to contact your supervisor. Are they planning to tell him/her what you typed in the "Reason for Leaving" box?

And, finally, we wrap it up with the ultra-offensive demand for an explanation of gaps in employment. 

I've already shared my thoughts on the topic of "employment gaps" in an earlier post. 

I keep asking, how does a member of the new and oh-so-wonderful gig economy complete an application like this.

After reaching my point of complete disgust, I closed the window and sent them a message via their Facebook page, "I was interested in submitting my resume in response to your ad for a multimedia specialist, but after getting very frustrated with your ATS I gave up and closed my browser window. Is there a human being to whom I can directly send my resume to be reviewed?"

After five days, I still had not yet received a reply. I sent another message, "I find it incredibly sad that you couldn't be bothered to reply to my very simple message...One last thing -- please tell your HR department that demanding a person's current salary in a job application is now ILLEGAL here in MA. It's just a matter of time before that law elevates to the national level, so I strongly recommend you remove that offensive aspect of your online application. It's costing you good applicants (I myself walked away from applying)."

This finally prompted a reply from them: "We apologize for not getting back to you sooner.  Every applicant must apply through our online application process.  Can you please provide me with your number and I will have someone from HR to reach out to you for assistance?"

In other words, no, I can't send an old-fashioned resume to anyone, because they're too dumb to know how to read it. Gotta have that ATS do it all for 'em. What a sad state this country is in.

Thoughts on "gaps in employment"

Some time back in 2015, I stumbled across an epically awesome comment left in a StinkedIn article from an unemployed engineer (from what I recall, he was a structural engineer in his 40s). I failed to nab a screenshot, so I'm going to try my best to reconstruct it here. It quite nicely conveys what I think of insensitive/clueless HR twats and hiring managers who demand to know every facet of our lives today...

I'm not certain where prospective employers get off. If a person takes six months off from working because they have savings in the bank and simply want to take six months off, then that’s all there is to it, and no they don’t have to be "learning something job related" or anything else. If they climbed rocks then that’s what they did. If they learned to play chess or a whole new programming language, then that’s what they did. If you’re not on my birth certificate, marriage certificate, or in my will AND you don’t pay my salary then I don’t have a responsibility to "account" to you for anything. I have two things to do in this life. Live my life, and die. Everything else is an opt-in and if you’re seriously more concerned with hearing explanations about six months that weren’t job related than 20 years that were, then validate parking and I’ll be on my way.

How to answer the stupid question of "Why did you apply for this job?"

Yes, it IS a stupid question to ask a job applicant. For those who disagree, let me pose THIS question: When your toilet backs up and the plumber you called arrives, do you stop him at the door and say, "Before you enter my house, I want you to tell me why you want to fix my toilet?"

WGBH: For a company that begs for a living, they sure are picky

Let's see...first, they reject you because you have no current employer (either you're self-employed or *gasp* unemployed)...next, they reject you for having "too much" experience...finally they reject you for making too much money (not that it's any of their business how much money you currently earn)...

Silly questions from Sciex

Of course, there's the offensive and tacky demand for your current salary, but for now we'll put that one aside (hopefully, the state-level laws forbidding this question in Massachusetts and Minnesota will be elevated to the national level soon, at which point we'll revisit this one to see if they comply). Let's look at the next question with the lovely typo, "Why do you want to apply for his position?" I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this is a dumb question to ask a job applicant. To those hiring managers who disagree, let me pose this question: When your toilet backs up and the plumber you called arrives, do you stop him at the door and say, "Before you enter my house, I want you to tell me why you want to fix my toilet?"

Sanofi really cares about your current manager being informed

Anthem really gets serious in demanding salary requirements

The Smithsonian demands your date of birth and SS# in its job application

More of the stupid in Stinkassachusetts

I recently stumbled across yet another display of stupidity in Stinkassachusetts. Here's a "confidential" job posting on Indeed, with a serious shitload of bullets (29)...

For those who don't see any problems here, look closely at that box in the upper right corner...

Good job posting anonymously, Fusion Design Consultants. Maybe next time you'll get it right.

Happy Independence Day from Verizon

I just love getting rejection emails on holidays. This one comes courtesy of Verizon (note the date in the right side of the header):

What I found more appalling than the timing of this email (and the fact they didn't proofread it -- "and hope you'll continue" should read "and we hope you'll continue") was the fact that I had applied for this job way back on January 11. After six months, was this email even necessary?

One final observation is that I never expected anything but a rejection email, considering they judge you based on what year you graduated:

Merry Christmas from Lexia Learning / Rosetta Stone

Having already been mistreated once before by Rosetta Stone, I really should have known better than to have applied to their Lexia Learning branch. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

I applied for their senior graphic designer position on October 7, 2016. As expected, they showed zero interest in my design background, my qualifications, my eLearning experience, or even my teaching certificate. Here's the rejection email I received a few months later; note the date in the right hand side of the header:

I decided to send them a message via their Facebook page, "To send a job rejection email to candidates on Christmas Day is the epitome of tastelessness." Here's Useless Reply #1 that I received via Facebook Messenger:

I'm very sorry to hear about this experience you've had. Please know that I will be passing along your frustrations to the appropriate people on our team, and I will work with them so that we can prevent something like this from happening in the future. Thank you for reaching out to us, and have a nice day.

And, here's Useless Reply #2 which came via email a few days later:

I want to follow up with you regarding the rejection email you received from our recruiting team on Christmas day.

First, I want to reiterate our apologies to you for this disappointing experience. We have the utmost respect for people who are interested in joining Lexia, and we strive to handle our communications with sensitivity and care. We are sorry if we failed to meet this standard in our earlier communications with you.

The email notices regarding hiring determinations are sent out automatically 2 days after a decision is made. The person who made the hiring decision for the Senior Graphic Designer position you applied for failed to realize that the timing of their decision on Friday (12/23) would lead to rejection notices being sent out on Christmas. I have communicated to them the impact of their oversight here, and the understandable frustrations you’ve expressed, and I am working with our  recruiting team to make sure that a similar situation does not occur again.

Thank you for pursuing this opportunity with Lexia and should you have any questions or if you wish to discuss further opportunities, please don't hesitate to reach out to me directly. Thank you again for your time and I wish you the very best as you continue to explore career opportunities.

Ah, yes, "the dog ate my homework" has been replaced with "the algorithm did it!" which really comes in handy in Stinkassachusetts, where not having the intellectual capacity to "realize" that December 23 plus two days equals December 25 makes one fully qualified to be in charge of making the big decisions.