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9 reasons why applying for jobs is a pain
22 March 2010
By Hannah Dee
Continuing the 9 reasons theme.... here's why I hate job hunting.
1. Online application forms designed by clueless web-monkeys. I filled one in recently which wanted me to list all my school qualifications, and each qualification needed a separate entry with subject, month, year, level, grade, and institution entered into individual drop-down lists. If you missed out the month you got an error. I don't really see how my qualification in Drama (June, 1990, GCSE, B, Sydenham Girl's Comprehensive School) is likely to impact upon my ability to do any job any more.
2. Covering letters. I assume most academics are like me and keep a general CV which is altered to fit each job - the facts are the same, but the details and emphasis changes. Covering letters take a lot more work, and I'm never sure quite how much information you should repeat from the CV.
3. Jobs without set interview dates. It's now normal in academia not to tell the applicants when they're unsuccessful until the appointment process is completely finished (if then), so you do all the work, send off the CV/Covering letter/application form, and then wait. And wait. And wait. At what point do you give up hope? Last Sunday I got a rejection letter (finally) from a job I'd applied for in November.
4. Jobs.ac.uk - OK this is a good thing as well as a bad thing - but their email alert lets you specify by subject area and not by job type so you end up getting lists of all PhD positions and Professorships when you're only interested in the research fellowships and the lectureships.
5. The other stuff that goes with being interviewed - tests (written tests, programming tests, timed presentations), research presentations, meeting everyone in the new team, going for lunch with the other applicants... It's all an extra layer of stress.
6. Getting dressed up fancy. I hate that. Can't we wear jeans please?
7. Travelling - in smart clothes - and trying not to spill coffee on your blouse before arrival.
8. The actual interview. Enough said.
9. Waiting for the phone to ring.
George Whale22 March 2010 at 03:49 PM
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Good list Hannah, I especially dislike 1 and 2. A couple more: 10. Being interviewed by people who know little about the research topic. 11. Watching them give the job to somebody who is patently under-qualified or inexperienced, for reasons of "equality" and "diversity" (this has been mainly a public sector thing, but is creeping into the private sector also).
Nathan Ryder23 March 2010 at 10:13 AM
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Good list! I particularly agree with point 3, albeit in a slightly modified form, because in my experience institutions don't tell you that you've been unsuccessful! When I was finishing up my PhD I applied for seven or eight temporary lectureships/teaching fellowships at various universities in the UK, and out of those I got one rejection letter. Several of them didn't even acknowledge receipt of my application. And I've been on the other side of point 5: a group of us PGRs at the time would be asked to take the applicants out for lunch after they had given presentations in the morning, so that the interviewing panel had time to think about the interviews in the afternoon. You could tell that half of them did not want to be chaperoned by graduate students over lunch, and would much preferred to have been pacing up and down outside the department!
Sarah Davies24 March 2010 at 06:26 PM
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Nice summary, Hannah! I'd also like to add those antiquated HR departments that ask you to download an application form in Word and fill it out by hand or as a new Word document. You inevitably end up messing around with the formatting or trying to get it to use a decent font - as well as having to remember what grades you got for what subjects in your GCSEs... I also find it tough that, to write a good covering letter (and research plan, where required), you have to get yourself pretty psyched up about how this job would work for you. Which naturally makes it harder when you don't hear anything back...
Elizabeth Dodson25 March 2010 at 03:13 PM
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12. Driving to the interview, to find that the car park has approximately 3 spaces - all taken, and that there is no other parking within a 5 mile radius (a slight exaggeration - but close to something I have experienced - thanks to Google Earth & Street View at least it is now easier to see what parking nightmares you might face in advance!)
Elizabeth Dodson25 March 2010 at 03:17 PM
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13. Arriving at the interview to find that all applicants were given the same interview time, and that in fact you will have to sit and wait for most of the day while they call you in one by one - sods law for me - in reverse alphabetical order. (A rarity I imagine, but yes this did indeed happen to me once)
Sarah Davies25 March 2010 at 04:09 PM
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Surely the public transport experience has to be worse than driving? It's common to have to travel a long way for an interview, and you have to make the choice between sitting on a train in smart clothes and turning up crumpled and (possibly) food stained, or changing when you arrive and looking like a bag lady (or man) with half your wardrobe in carrier bags. Not to mention the hike from the train/bus stop...
Elizabeth Dodson25 March 2010 at 04:37 PM
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I think travel can be an issue either way. An example for me was that I applied for a job in the midlands some time ago (which should have meant a 30 minute drive to the interview). A couple of weeks before - they switched the interview location so that is was several hours away (at their other site - even though the job was still in the midlands). As it was an 8.45am start for a whole day assessment centre it just seemed too far to travel on the day of the interview - so I then had to weigh up the additional costs of a hotel in order to attend (as the employer was not prepared to contribute to travel or accomodation costs in any way). Trains were extortionately expensive and anything but direct - so I felt my only real option was to drive - which was a horrible traffic jam filled nightmare. Oh the joys of job hunting and interviews :-)
Hannah Dee25 March 2010 at 04:41 PM
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You think that's bad? Last week's interview involved taking 3 day's annual leave in order to be in the north of the UK for a 1pm slot on Wednesday. I guess it's my own silly fault for taking a post-doc in the south of France, but blimey, 10 hour tram-bus-plane-train-train-bus journeys do take it out of you. (And I didn't get the job.)
Elizabeth Dodson25 March 2010 at 04:55 PM
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You have indeed trumped me - I only needed to take 2 days leave for my not quite so long distance interview - which also didn't result in a job! Hope you are successful in securing a new position soon.
Nick Pearce29 March 2010 at 01:04 PM
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i agree with all your points, but most especially 6. as a man i feel under quite intense pressure to wear a suit for a formal situation even for a job where i will never wear a suit (any research post surely?). the pressure mainly comes from my partner, who was incredulous when i went to an interview during a heat wave in smart/ casual but with flip flops! her parting comment to me really didn't help my nerves, but when i turned up the interview panel were dressed even more casually (shorts etc.). i didn't get that job, which my G/F still blames on the flip flops, but i would have been very overdressed in a suit, not to mention uncomfortable.
Blanka Sengerová29 March 2010 at 05:15 PM
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>> [...] I then had to weigh up the additional costs of a hotel [...] Trains were extortionately expensive [...] I have actually found that all places I went to for interview (both pre-PhD and pre-postdoc) re-imbursed my travel costs except for one, which was only going to reimburse costs above £50 (I think, could have been £30, but certainly more than I paid for my train fare), presumably for the people who were going to be travelling from abroad, but they did pre-arrange and pay for a taxi from/to the station. (Ironically, it was the academic jobs that offered full reimbursement and the industry job that didn't.) >> Smart dress I actually quite like the smart dress for interview - it gives you the opportunity to wear that suit once in a while (I only wore my current for interviews and for my viva!) and lets you give the impression that you are putting an effort into the job-search. What I do object are places that insist on you wearing overly smart stuff after the interview (once you actually start), but not many of us find ourselves in those places as acadcemics/postdocs. Yes, I did feel distincly oversdressed when I was at my last interview, but better to be overdressed than underdressed? But then I am amongst the people who will put on a smart top/shirt and smart shoes (not suit though) rather than trainers when I am giving a talk at a conference, which many others don't. >> Covering letters Again, I disagree with the original post as I think a covering letter gives you an opportunity to bring across your abilities to the employer in a way that a CV wouldn't. It means you don't have to modify the CV quite so much for each job and you can concentrate on the specific "knowledge and experience required" when writing your covering letter. Good luck with the job search, though, Hannah!
Tennie Videler30 March 2010 at 02:54 PM
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I agree all these practical points are a pain, but for me the real crux is more intangible. I'll try to explain. With every job application I imagined I really was going to get the job and start thinking- how am I going to manage x, y and z (all the practical aspects such as commuting or moving, child care and schools).... especially if it involved relocation. Then I started swotting up on aspects of the job that I was less knowledgeable on and imagine how I'd be going to do the job. As work is an important part of my life I started to imagine the new person I'd be. I needed to invest in a job search like this to write an enthusiastic letter and come across well in the interview (getting to interview really intensified this aspect). Then there was the idea of being judged, which is integral to the process of course…. But all in all it was an exhaustive process in an emotionally draining way. So good luck Hannah and everyone else.