September 30, 2013

Fun Finding Work (Week 148)

Fun Finding Work (Week 148)
Since I've been out of work....for far too long, I've almost gotten used to a bunch of absurdity when it comes to applying for work. Jobs that don't really exist, employers who are only going to hire internal applicants, not finding out about your application even after you've interviewed, I've about seen it all.

I've even seen being notified with regards to an interviewed position when the workplace said they'd send out notifications!

Last week I got a peculiar email from the Department of Human Resources regarding an application I made for an open position. Evidently they scored my application a perfect 100 (probably also counting Veteran's Preference Points) but they wondered how I was able to answer the questions the way I did when they read my resume.

Ok, no problem......they have some questions...I should be able to deal with this, but I can't. See the thing is most DHR applications have an exam where you get a couple thousand characters to give a response to a specific question. This application was a simple choose options A through D kind of exam. Still, this shouldn't be a problem for me to back up my responses, but......and this is a big but....I'm not allowed to supply any new information in order to be "fair" to the other applicants.

Wait...what? How can I give you clarifying information without giving you more information? This is oxymoronic on its surface. I have until October 3rd to not give them additional information before they (obviously) just flag me as a fail on this application (and hopefully nothing else).

I respond to their email asking how I am supposed to comply and today I get a response that I'm supposed to update my system resume. The problem with doing this is that the system resume is a "generic" resume. It even states it right on the application, "This is a general resume applied to any position. If you modify it, that change is for all positions. It is not position specific."

Hmm....I have open applications in the system....and I do plan on applying for more positions with the State. By changing my generic resume to a position-specific resume I'm basically agreeing to not look for other work...and I'm getting interviews for at least one of those open applications.

Basically, as I see it, the DHR application process, for this position at least, is fundamentally flawed.

2013.10.11 Edit
I just got an email saying this job posting announcement had been cancelled.....so all of this headache for nothing.

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