Why Completing Online Job Applications Is a Hassle

If you had a bad day at work and think, “I am going to get a job online now,” you first need to know where to get job applications that do not waste your time. Even when that is done, you still have to experience what makes completing online job applications such a hassle.

Knowing what makes it such a hassle will help you find out if you have the time to get a job online now, or if you need assistance.

If you think you have found the best place for job applications, there is something you should know. The most common job boards out there include LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor. At times, you will notice the exact same job posting on each of these sites.  

Last week, a client of Find My Profession asked for our assistance with completing online job applications. As we started to apply, something interesting happened:

1. The job boards the client found jobs on carried a heavy subscription fee.  
2. The same jobs appeared on Indeed, LinkedIn, TheLadders, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter.
3. Then we found the same jobs on websites that required registering, with an email list.

Then something else happened

1. We found many jobs on the company website career sections.
2. Several jobs had already closed!

So, knowing where to get job applications may simply mean knowing what websites give a false appearance of a job opening. Job seekers and stats on jobs available per website can be misleading.

Tip: If you really want to work for a company, go straight to the company’s career section.

I realize the Internet has always been about “freedom”. People should have the freedom to post what they wish online and let the choices of others freely decide what works and what does not.

But if completing job applications is a hassle and then the jobs being posted are not real, there is a greater demand for quality assurance of those claiming to offer work. There are some job boards claiming you can get a job online now that have an abundance of job listings with the following issues:

• Job postings for the purposes of web content
• The job posting is purely there to advertise the company.
• Bait-and-switch job listings

The job listing uses the right words to find the right candidates. But when the job candidate shows up for an interview they are either sold on a new position, find out the company is not what it claimed to be, or the job description was misleading. You thought you knew where to get job applications. All you found is spam listings.

An example of this would be the company that posts a listing for Marketing Manager, and during the interview, it is revealed the company is selling a product. Then, the company states, “You will be managing your own marketing as you run your own business to sell our product.”

The job listing originated on an original site and is then sold to the job seeker on a new site. You are completing online job applications on websites that took jobs from other websites and passed them off as their own.

You want to get a job online now and you are looking at it on your screen. Great. But then you tackle the company’s version of its own job application submission process. The technology is not as sharp as what you find on job boards.

Buttons do not work and you can never select a password that actually works twice. Some companies even have application processes that are not Google Chrome-compatible.

It is not terribly efficient to have a job board with its own “way” of having people apply for jobs and gathering information. When a company website asks a series of questions to get personal information, before completing the online job application, you start to feel like you are wasting your time and telling your life’s story.

It means you are completing online job applications when you could be networking with people who can get you work faster.

If you have not already tried this approach to job searching, I would highly recommend starting with networking on LinkedIn.