tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73740277620311674472012-02-01T22:31:20.230-08:00How 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.Kadimnoreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-32796118537797968862009-08-28T02:19:00.001-07:002009-08-28T03:24:09.801-07:00

Well I had a little period of unjustifiable job applying, and the results of that is some new usability annoyances, my gift to you, loyal readers.The first starts off with a Taleo complaint. Keep in mind, I'm not sure if this issue is caused by Taleo, or the hiring company, who has not well-configured its setup.This comes from the initial Taleo page for a random company (it's actually Kroll, but

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-58201314276294974502009-06-21T11:25:00.000-07:002009-06-21T12:29:02.440-07:00

Today's rant has to do with Oracle's strange job application software system, and the fact that I've found it notoriously unreliable.I have fought with this system when applying for jobs with Huntington Bank and Dish Network (applying for a job with the latter was nothing short of a 2 hour fight with the worst system ever made.)Now to be fair, I can't tell if a lot of the error messages I

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-62529213200036480962009-02-19T23:09:00.000-08:002009-03-01T23:39:30.438-08:00

A fellow job searcher wrote in to say...."I've been unemployed since Oct 2008 so I've had to use Taleo to submit my resume for many different positions. So this morning I start my job search from my daily Indeed.com email alerts. I see a position I may qualify for so I click on the link and start the process of submitting my application through Taleo, but it won't let me. What's up with that?

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-81733272855747017882008-06-13T11:37:00.000-07:002008-06-13T11:45:36.894-07:00

I know why employers ask for it. But why do they make it so painful?Tell us how you heard about this jobSometimes it's not really a describable path. Sometimes I don't actually remember (often I use a search aggregator like indeed.com which takes me to all sorts of different job sites. I don't care what the site is which found the job, and since I usually won't apply to it using that site it

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-69352732141920347632008-05-06T23:51:00.001-07:002008-05-07T02:16:53.734-07:00

I had to laugh at Robert Half International's candidate system, which included this moment:Yeah, I could have solved this issue by saying "Russian and French." (Though the former is a major and the latter is a minor, which this form doesn't take much into account, not that it matters.) However, why does the field need to be so persnickety? Is it really trying to save some massive SQL database

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-82423073984107869912008-04-01T23:16:00.000-07:002008-04-02T00:16:02.146-07:00

Well now we're back to using Chase and its job application system. If you recall from the original entry on this topic, their password requirements are a bit on the heavy side, so I did indeed forget my password, and had to revisit the issue all over again. But let's start off with this:I show that image because I'm amused by their language for what happens when you put in the wrong username.

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-40804440754307855502008-03-31T03:29:00.000-07:002008-03-31T03:50:14.699-07:00

So, one of the things that makes good sense to me is to open a second browser window or tab when applying for a job. See, that way I can have the job description/requirements open in one tab to refer to, while I'm actually applying for the job in the other tab. Taleo, of course, doesn't allow you to do that. Why? I dunno, I never run into any other site that doesn't allow this. *Throws his hands

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-85205941830061092192008-03-12T02:18:00.000-07:002008-04-01T03:13:52.854-07:00

When you apply for a position via Taleo, they send you a pretty standard soulless form letter telling you that it was received and not to call anyone about your future. Lovely...hey, what's that extra icon? Well apparently it's an attachment, and if you click on the attachment, it's basically just an html file that has the exact same text in it. I'm not sure why that's necessary, or why it's only

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-27573991066359414612008-03-09T19:42:00.000-07:002008-04-01T03:10:23.811-07:00

I had to establish a new password on Taleo's site for Chase. The password requirements are:Now to be fair, Chase has decided on the password strength--other Taleo sites do not have this requirement. These requirements are maddening, particularly because I try to use the same username/password for all Taleo sites (what's in my profile is basically my resume and contact information. Information

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-76724735886833105532008-01-29T03:22:00.001-08:002008-01-29T03:34:16.755-08:00

Today I applied for a job with an employer who uses Kenexa/Webhire. When I got the main application screen, I was greeted with this:Hallelujah! Amazing! Beautiful! I could set up a profile or not setup a profile! Even more impressive, it asked me just those questions shown on the screen. I could then copy and paste in my cover letter, copy and paste (or upload) my resume and I was done. It took

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-55712706771115770702008-01-03T22:41:00.000-08:002008-01-03T22:48:52.395-08:00

This blog went through the reasons why registration pages suck, and what a good registration page looks like. It's tangentially related--sometimes all you want to do when applying for a job is send in a resume and be done with it.

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-55266276385168728922007-12-24T12:15:00.000-08:002007-12-24T12:47:46.303-08:00

You're at this blog because your heart sinks just as much as mine does when we see this:Oh a fun time awaits let me tell you!Of course one of the reasons why this login screen is so frustrating is that it's so familiar. You've been to this screen dozens of times, but you don't necessarily know if you have been to *this* one. Have I applied for this company before? What username could I have used?

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-62844895653163876882007-12-23T00:58:00.000-08:002007-12-23T01:23:03.024-08:00

Today's job search frustration is brought to you by Brassring, which I have found to be marginally better than Taleo's offering. Which is not to say that it doesn't have its own lake of suck. Let's examine it:Time Warner uses Brassring. When I get to the career search for the US, I get this:*Sigh* A minor irritation to be sure. It's probably a minor oversight, but it's the type of thing that a

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-26844444324308091772007-12-23T00:19:00.000-08:002007-12-23T00:53:05.542-08:00

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

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-51414135650916556812007-12-22T22:51:00.000-08:002008-04-01T23:32:07.418-07:00

As far as I can tell, companies which use Taleo don't actually maintain the servers which we use to submit our applications. These servers are maintained by Taleo as indicated by the root URL when applying for a job: company.taleo.net. (Like chase.taleo.net for Chase.) Ahh, that makes life easy. When I need to return to a job site (to edit an app, find more jobs, or whatever) it seems that I

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7374027762031167447.post-54268950075147029812007-12-22T22:34:00.000-08:002007-12-22T22:51:29.777-08:00

You've arrived at this blog because you either searched for the term Taleo or you actually put two and two together and searched for "Taleo Sucks."The point of this blog is a place to air out bad corporate job sites. Taleo appears to be market leader of this mediocrity--supplying an outsource job listing/application system that is used by quite a lot of companies. Undoubtedly it's a great tool

Kadimnoreply@blogger.com7