Online application systems are maddening

I've applied for jobs using this silly process before, and if you don't meet whatever criteria they have pre-established it will usually spit you out automatically.

I've weeded through five-foot tall stacks of clips packets before, and while it's a PITA, who knows how many potentially great candidates would just get tossed by either a computer or an HR person. One paper I worked at required all candidates to go through a phone interview with HR. This HR person, while a very nice individual and clearly competent within the fiefdom of HR crap, was absolutely clueless as to what the people actually making the dang hire were looking for in a candidate. It was a tremendous waste of time and needlessly dragged out the hiring process, which was glacial to begin with.

As for me, the only time the electronic resume process has yielded any fruit has been when I know somebody that already works there. I wouldn't ask anybody to put on a full-court press, but maybe ask that the actual hiring folks at least take a look at me.

 

Hell, I would settle for just having a name of a hiring folk or department manager.

 

Pick a random reporter or department, and ask a real working stiff for the hiring manager's name. Coax it out if needed: "Hey, I'm just trying to get my foot in the door. You can appreciate that, right?"

 

There is no computerized or centralized screening in my shops. We advertise, people apply online, I log in and see everybody from the person with a master's degree and 15 years of experience to the college sophomore who thinks it would be cool to be a sportswriter. Have hired a couple full-timers and a bunch of part-timers this way over the last 12 months. Applying and hiring this way don't bother me much, but I haven't seen much of other companies' systems.

 

Some online application systems are better than others. I don't care for ones that ask you to attach files, then can't seem to upload said files.
My bigger pet peeve is companies that don't give you any updates at all. I'm not just talking about ones that don't even give you confirmation of receipt, though that is annoying. I'm talking about sending in your packet and then hearing NOTHING back, even after repeated messages asking what the status is. If I'm not one of the finalists, fine. Just a copy-and-pasted short e-mail telling me I didn't get the job works for me. I mean, how hard is it to do that? If 100 people applied for the job and five got interviews, can't the HR person blast off a quick form rejection e-mail BCC'd to the 95 non-finalists?

 

OK, so I completed an online application for a position at a major company publication. But I also personally emailed my letter and resume to the department manager, who got back to me almost immediately (and yet requested I fill out the online application, which I had already done but never got routed to him). So here's hoping now that he knows the online application is out there somewhere in cyber space, he can request it.

But I seriously wonder if I had not contacted him directly if he would have ever received it.