Lured in by ‘quick apply’; which is isn’t. Distracted by having to choose a telephone country code for a country in which I am applying for the job. Even worse, parsing the information so badly that I have waste even more time reformatting it putting the right bits in the right fields. And obviously deleting the special characters which have appeared and that aren’t recognised in a letter-box sized field that isn’t large enough for me to express my experience; yes, my experience at my last role does extend to more than 4 lines!
These white labelled products (of which there are a handful) I now recognise have been built with one thing in common – to put off potential candidates and only allow those who are the most determined to suffer through to competition.
As a video of Steve Jobs recently popped up again on LinkedIn from 1997, successful products begin with the user not what the technology can do; without a meaningful problem to solve the technology distracts from the outcome. In the case of these job application portals, they start with ‘us’ the organisation rather than the most important individual in the process – the applicant. Without an application, the role won’t be filled, the more work someone else has to do, the worse people feel and then the whole process starts over again.
If I have spent time investing in, revising and optimising my CV why should I need to be asked to supply the exact same information again if I am prepared to supply it in a format that shows my skills and in a widely and professionally accepted format. If you can’t be bothered to read (at least skim) what I have to say, do I really want to be talking to you?
Why should I be prepared to accept this? The reason is because I have to; I don’t like it, but in order to start the conversation I need, I have to go through this pain to realise a goal. It’s unfortunately much the same with the products that we use day-to-day. We have to accept mediocrity or poor experiences to get things done; poor user experience is ubiquitous but we are forced to accept them.
If your organisation removes that pain point that I am experiencing then I will come back again and again. Even worse and I guarantee this, that poor experience will be fine until I find something better; but then it may well be too late, you’ve already lost my… well, all of me. And if you’ve got this far, then look at the image at the top again; this was the best and most excited I ever got about a job offer.
Frazer Cooper 