The job hunt

A friend of mine was applying for an IT position posted on a staffing/recruiting company website. The position was for Director of IT for a Dallas energy company and it seemed like a good fit for her.

She went to the staffing agency website, entered in the basic info and uploaded her resume. She was then sent to a secondary page for more details (Contact info, etc). After filling out the contact information, she was directed to a page that had specific questions related to the job.

Imagine her surprise when she starts answering the questions and gets to #4…there’s no question (See image below).  Question #5 has no question either…yet both ‘questions’ are required before you can proceed.

(Click Image for larger view)

She took a second to think about the type of company that would would require someone to fill out an answer for a non-existent question. She surmised that it was a simple mistake…we all make mistakes right? She decided to go ahead and submit the answers and she wrote “this question doesn’t exist” on #4 and #5…and took a screen shot just to be on the safe side.

She’s glad she did. She received an email a few days later stating “Because you didn’t answer all of the questions, your resume isn’t being considered for this position”. She responded with #4 and #5 being blank and sent them the screenshot, which they flatly refused to accept.

Needless to say…she wasn’t’ real heartbroken by not getting an interview. She passed along this story (and screenshot) to me and I immediately asked to use it on my blog (which she agreed to of course).

Moral of this story? If you use technology to screen candidates, at least make sure it works.