How Taleo, and other job application/listing sites, suck. A place of retreat for the job hunter. Got a tip? Send it to taleosucks@gmail.com.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

What Taleo really sucks at

So I'm looking for jobs at the Chase site. I'm squinting hard at the initial results...



Now I need to figure out how to narrow the search to jobs available just in New York, New York.

In case you can't read the words at the top telling you how to do this...

"To narrow your search by Job or Location, you must choose an item in the list, click Refine, and then click the Search button at the bottom of the Search Controls to see the results."

After clicking all sorts of different things, what you're supposed to do is click on the link that says "Job Search." (The directions are actually telling you how to execute the search after you successfully click on "Job Search." Funny, that's the easy part, the hard part was opening up the refine search tool. Why am I being given directions to do the easy thing with a tool I can't figure out how to open up? Meh.)

I guess it should be more obvious. "Job Search" has a tiny little arrow next to it that is to pointing right and not down, a clear indicator that I needed to select "Job Search" to...oh who am I kidding? It sucks.

But I click anyway, and I'm given the following:



I think I can make sense of this. I'll look for something "Admin/Secretarial" in New York, New York. To do that, I'll select "Admin/Secretarial" in the United States and press refine.



As you can see, I'm not in sub-categories of "Admin/Secretarial." Well, you can't see that, because there's no indication in the search box that I'm now one level into that category. (It sort of indicates it...it changes the word "category" to "function" but it really should be clearer--like it is in the location search box.)

We won't indicate a particular function, and just search for New York, New...



Shit. Well, that's probably not Taleo's fault, that's the bank's. Just to make sure I get everything, I'll cmd-select all three (yes, I will accept a job in North America.)

I press refine let the page update, and realize nothing happens. In my mind, refine should be updating the results in the list all along, but it doesn't. I guess that's ok, although the page shouldn't allow me to choose "refine" if it's not going to do anything (since I'm at as fully refined category wise as I can be.) So then I press search.



Well that looks good, I'll select the first job and see what it's all about.

*reads*

Meh. Let's read about the other jobs in the list...I'll press the back button to go back to the list...



"No no no" you say...you're supposed to use the really small link at the bottom of the page that says "Return to the job list."

Let me tell you something. Every other major website has figured out how to avoid this error message. Try it--search on ebay, amazon--all of them allow you to use the back button to return to the search list. It's easy, it's fun, it's also the web standard, and the one that we the internet generation, are so used to using.

Do I get frustrated getting this message over and over again because I can't learn a lesson quickly? No. My problem is that I have used thousands of webpages which all function in the exact same way (allowing me to go back to the search results) and for some reason this lame website always throws up this meaningless error message (although it does, to its credit, work, if I bother to press ok.)

This is what I mean by a strange consistency of Taleo. Why do I have to press a special link to return to the search results when the natural thing is just to go back?

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's another problem: Trying to apply for a job at my city government. You cannot have more than 5 attached files, totaled across all job applications. Oh dear: you cannot *delete* an attachment (although a Taleo error message tells you to delete one of your attachments).

Anonymous said...

It is seriously the worst piece of software ever. I've been on both sides of it. I was hiring for a position at Chase and the best part about it is that if we would specify that the minimum requirement was to have someone with a Bachelors degree, anyone with a Masters would be put into a "does not meet requirements" category. Obviously designed by HR types and, as a result, utter crap.

Anonymous said...

Yeah seriously. So what does this mean? Well it shows how much HR cares about you trying to get this job. Their loss..

Anonymous said...

I'm currently hunting jobs.

I'm surprised that so many companies use Taleo for their online job application system.

Do they have any idea of how badly the Taleo system sucks?

I've got nothing else to say actually, but the only important thing I must point out is that:

Taleo system sucks really really bad!

Anonymous said...

Taleo is a really bad system. It would be much better if we could first upload a resume, have Taleo process it, and we would then edit it. The system has all sorts of strange instabilities with scroll-down menus. Buttons are badly placed. It is extremely slow to use when you have a relatively big resume.

In other words: Taleo c'est vraiment la merde.

Anonymous said...

Narrowing down a job on Taleo sucks!!!! I end up starting all the way at the beginning everytime I want to change my search criteria, even just choosing a different city in my state.

It's gotten to the point where I just want to move on to some other company.

Just venting since I've been dealing with this for over 1 1/2 years.

Unknown said...

I am having problems deleting old documents. The only way I have found is to overwrite old documents by naming your new uploads the same as old ones. The description can be different but the name has to be identical. hope it helps.

Anonymous said...

There must be no God, because if there were, Taleo would have gone out of business long ago. Why does so much such astoundingly bad software continue to exist?!

It would be interesting to study the experiences of companies that hire via Taleo. I suspect that the average intelligence of such recruits is sub-par ... since anyone with a brain will be so annoyed at Taleo's idiocy that s/he'll just close the browser, resigned to the idea that a company that uses such lame software is someplace s/he wouldn't 'want to work anyway!

(I just want to post to help move this blog up in Google search rankings, in the off chance that some inspired HR person -- wanting to do some research before recommending that his company swallow the Taleo salesperson's spiel and buy this crap -- might reconsider the use of Taleo.) ;-)

Anonymous said...

This system is the most pathetic i have ever seen. 20 years ago we had more usable and rational software!!

I am shocked that more and more companies actually use it. But the underlying problem is the way HR works. They hire only HR people - instead of intelligent people who know how to run things. HR people are some of the worst at using and understanding any software system.
Moral of the story: when you grow your company, have only a few HR people to smile during your interviews, but leave the rest to your business and IT units :)
- Eric

Anonymous said...

I cringe every time I see a Taleo-based application. Miserable, exceedingly confusing software. Hiring organizations must just not care. I've been flat unable to complete some applications and of course, there is no other contact information available. Hiring people certainly can't be testing things out. I hate it beyond words. Finding a job is hard enough.

Anonymous said...

Just confirming what everyone's already said. Taleo software is clearly designed and sold by people who haven't had to use it in any practical context. No company that actually cares about attracting qualified candidates should use it.

You out there: Evaluating Taleo? Run, don't walk, away.

Anonymous said...

PLEASE, COMPANIES, READ THIS:

TALEO S.U.C.K.S.!!!!!!!

IT JUST MAKE THE APPLICANTS FRUSTRATED....UNTIL THE POINT THAT THEY JUST LEAVE. YES, LEAVE!!

IT GIVES YOU 13000% MORE WORK TO DO BECAUSE IT FAILS AND YOU HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN.

IF YOU SAY IN YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES.....THEN THAT FUTURE EMPLOYEE STARTS BY USING TALEO......AND START SUFFERING AS A PIG.

ANNOYING AND PREHISTORIC SYSTEM.

Anonymous said...

It's simply a shitty service they provide. Trying to log into my account on a site in IE8 and going to "my Jobpage" makes IE8 with not special add-ons go on a constant link-refresh where I can't see anything besides the companies site around the taleo interface.

What a lazy company and shame on the companies using the service and testing for easy of use.

Anonymous said...

Taleo is a scourge on corporate America. It's the most unfriendly, talent-limiting piece of garbage I have seen in 20+ years of using "corporate" software.

And, inexplicably, they have pretty much locked up the F500 market. This fact alone proves that HR basically doesn't care about acquiring talent. They care about checking off the box that says they have Taleo like the other guys.

WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA. TALEO LIMITS YOUR ABILITY TO ATTRACT TALENT! You want good people? Remove barriers like Taleo from getting people into your system!

Anonymous said...

God I hate Taleo! My company was swindled by Taleo for 18K for 1 year. Not only have they abandoned us after the sell, their website is so user Unfriendly! They promised all this one on one help and so on, B.S.! They won’t even answer the phone. What a joke. I don’t recommend anybody use Taleo! Unless you have more money that sense. DOWN WITH TALEO!!!

Anonymous said...

i try to log in and it tell me that my password or user name does not exist, it asks for my email address and it says that it will foward my information and i never get it. i try to create a new account and it will not let me because my email account exists

jelabarre59 said...

And here I thought I was alone in realizing how boneheaded and stupid Taleo is. In an internet environment where EVERY modern browser has tabs, would you think Taleo would be capable of handling them? NO, they can't.

Granted, I haven't seen the message telling me I can't open more than one window at a time for quite a while. Used to be I would do a search on a Taleo-hosted job site, open a batch of links into background tabs for a few jobs I wanted to look at, then close the main tab. SURPRISE! All I'd get on those other tabs was a message telling me that Taleo was too brain-dead to handle tabbing. And now I had lost the host site I had started the search from (trying to keep the number of tabs manageable by closing those I didn't need anymore). I lost out on a lot of possible leads thanks to the dimwits at Taleo.

I have even emailed companies using Taleo to tell them that they were likely losing the best talent because Taleo's design would serve to effectively bump them out of the site entirely.

You can't email Taleo directly, nor can you send them feedback (surprise, surprise; the feedback link is broken on taleo.com). But you *COULD* always send somplains embedded in the fields of their Sales Inquiry page ( http://www.taleo.com/company/contact-us )

Anonymous said...

Taleo is great at being cheap, that's why it's widely used and isn't going anywhere. There's one mystery solved.

Anonymous said...

I have had numerous problems applying to companies who use this software. In some cases it seems like the software was not even tested. Data disappears and functions do not work then I look like I don't know what I am doing to the hiring company. I have wasted so much time I just skip applying to companies who use this software.

Anonymous said...

I am a recruiter, and I deeply hate Taleo.

I would bet that most HR departments didn't pick Taleo - they probably inherited it. In a bigger company, it is probably hard to convince upper management to change the recruiting tool.

Anonymous said...

Thank God I found this blog site. This fckn software has resulted in screaming cursing sessions, then just give up and leave. Every problem iterated here, both my wife and I reiterate. Why any company would purchase this crap is beyond me. Employers using Taleo are not getting the best because many just click to other companies using other than Taleo.

Anonymous said...

I am disgusted at the utter uselessness of the taleo job application system. I simply cannot procede in my application, cannot revisit my uploaded CV, and cannot even deactivate my account, as these instructions "To deactivate your account, click "Deactivate" next to the page title." Have no bearing to anything on the site. Let's say it as it is: Taleo is complete junk. Period.

infiltrate taleo and destroy it said...

Taleo is probably the most evil time-suck that exists for desperate people looking for a job.

Anonymous said...

Does anybody know how to DELETE a profile on Taleo? I am trying to delete my data from the compays database...
many thanks in advance

Anonymous said...

I've been trying to delete a couple of my Taleo profile's too. Only one company actually had the "Deactivate" link. HELP, Please for those of us who don't want our information just out there. I'm a late bloomer to the Taleo debacle; thought it was just me until I started reading the blogs.

Anonymous said...

I applied for many jobs that required a MS or a PhD. The companies did not even respond even when my qualifications were an outstanding match for the job. Now I have learned that they just threw out my resume because my PhD made me "too qualified".

Anonymous said...

Taleo Sucks Balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Taleo Sucks Balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Same problem here, some years later. Cannot delete accounts, simply because the deactivate option does not exist (even though it says it does). Have resorted to changing my account information...
Nice, taleo, nice.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

My main issue with Taleo online applications is that they are horrid software that is not supported in any way by the company responsible for it. Try to contact Oracle about Taleo, and let the fun begin....
Anyway, Taleo attempts to make webforms with field for you to fill out, where some are marked as mandatory, and others are optional, but they blew it BIG TIME, because almost every page has a Save and continue button at the bottom that refuses to let you continue due to fields that supposedly have not been filled out, and often fields that don't even exist on the page. They also have madatory assessments that are necessary to submit your forms that generally will not recognize that you HAVE completed the assessments due to some shoddy coding, ad that is annoying as all get out as well.
Somebody needs to find the morons who programmed Taleo, and get some revenge honestly. Not to promote violence, but they deserve it for having completely ruined online job hunting, which is often the ONLY way to do so nowadays!!

Anonymous said...

First of all: Taleo SUCKS.

Second of all: blame the company using Taleo; its CEO and everyone down the Human Resources department for choosing this P.O.S. and not using it themselves.

Third of all: chastise ANY and ALL personS that configures Taleo for a company.

Fourth of all: Taleo's resume parsing ability WILL TRUNCATE your resume and butcher everything it does import.

Fifth of all: mandatory IDIOTIC FIELDS such as month AND year of start/finish that simply do not map to anything sensible in real life also end up in LINKEDIN!

YOU WILL END UP GIVING UP APPLYING TO THE COMPANY FOR USING THIS P.O.S.

I am suggesting a tag #TaleoSucksQuitIt to trend.

Anonymous said...

Please support this petition to Decommission Taleo for good

https://www.change.org/p/larry-ellison-decommission-taleo?recruiter=605411063&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink