What happend to the paper (job) applications?

Not everyone has done away with them.

I prefer online. I can cut and paste things.

As a guy looking for a job myself, I think its an excellent way for a company to simultaneously accept a lot of applications and not feel bad ignoring all of them.

It’s just one more way HR can get out of guilt trips.

But for the person who spends the 2 hours answering the whole web-form and then hears exactly zero back from the other side, it sucks ass, and is the worst kind of private humiliation.

not to mention that it’s classist…many people can’t access the internet

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Public libraries typically have computers people can use, as well as school libraries (or school computer labs).

Also around here some places like Albertsons have machines right in the stores with which you can fill out that bullshit questionnaire that @Axemusica mentions.

@Sarcasm libraries are very few and far between in some of the poorest places here in Brooklyn…in my middle class neighborhood the two nearest libraries have been ‘closed for construction’ for over a year…and (I am very familiar with libraries in poor areas as I used to work on a project joining libraries and cancer services) in other areas there are NO computers in their libraries, because they can’t afford them and if there are computers, they’re always busy and their connections su—uuucks…

Everything will be online soon. Including any job you apply for.

@Axemusica That is the plan. It’s to make businesses (& one day society) paperless.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir In my area the businesses that have online only apps have a computer(s) set up in their lobby for applicants.

@SpatzieLover hey that’s cool!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir It helps break barriers of class, race, creed. I like it! We have some forward thinking companies in Wisconsin.

@SpatzieLover I’m sure few and far between

@Simone actually we have a lot of them in SE Wisconsin

@SpatzieLover man, I gotta rethink my view about Wisconsin

Well, yea places do have the in house computer thinger you can fill out your app with, but it’s like they’re just lazy. Most of the things you’re asked in these online application things are things they should be asking in the interview. If all these questions are answered then what’s the point of the interview? I hate the idea of a paperless world. There’s other ways of making paper you know. Like the original way when it first hit the scene was from rice. I don’t see them trying to perfect a way to make paper out of rice instead of waiting hundreds of years for a tree.

@aphilotus said, ”...then hears exactly zero back from the other side, it sucks ass, and is the worst kind of private humiliation.” The same goes for these in house dealE-Os. When you’re turning in a physical object someone physically takes it from you and from there you might be able to talk to someone of managerial status and have a job in a few days or sooner. This whole electronic thing is automated bullshit. More and more it seems like the world is actually turning into that movie Idiocracy.

Obviously this differs for places like a dinner. I never heard of them having the electric thing, but I don’t want to work in food. It’s not fun and I already have a full time job & would like something that is not so intensive.

@Axemusica Apps, whether paper or electronic, are used to keep in your personnel file once you are hired (and can be used against you if you lie) The point of the app is to get your basic info, the point of the interview is to judge whether or not you are qualified for the position (and to see how you are in person under scrutiny. Do you know how to speak, answer questions, would you interact well with fellow employees/customers, etc

As for a paperless business, it will happen. It’s not about saving trees. It’s about progression, organization, and ease. Computer storage makes more sense and takes up much less space & energy in the long run.

@SpatzieLover good points, but I do not like the idea of doing away with the physical aspects of it. That’s just me though.

@Axemusica If it makes you feel better:

Some companies make you do both the electronic version, then make you sign a paper copy. I know this because my husband, due to the economy, has done much applying over the past few years. FYI-Some companies DO NOT do in person interviews until after a phone interview (or two or four)...at least that is the case for tech positions now.

Although i think the online applications are a good way to save trees and such, I do find it slightly discerning when you walk into a store for an application and they tell you to fill out online. I’m not sure why i feel this way.

It’s also cheaper and easier for the company and a way to cut costs. They don’t have to hand out hundreds of paper applications, many of which will never even be filled out and returned.

When they do a partial interview online they can weed out a certain portion of applicants without wasting a real person’s time interviewing them on the phone or in person.

Digital applications can be searched, categorized, and sorted based on certain criteria without having to sort through hundreds of pieces of paper. They can eliminate people with no degree, or look for people that have steady employment histories with the push of a few buttons in seconds.

Also some large corporate chain stores and businesses don’t do the hiring themselves. They are screened by the corporate office and then contacted by a recruiter at least for an initial phone interview, then finally sent to the in-store manager for an in-person interview. Helps the manager focus on running the store rather than sorting applications all day.

Furthermore now that it is atomized these “morality/character tests” are taking the place of interview questions. You got to do a couple of the tests before you get the hang of them and they are quite tedious and annoying.

I’ve been hearing the paperless society touted for 40 or 50 years. What people discovered when they started to bring computers into the workplace was that they had more paper than ever. And, as one business owner said, “Every time we generate another report, I have to hire somebody else to read it.”

Until they make computers a little more reliable, hard copy stored in a safe place is still the best security. I would not want my only proof of ownership, account balances, credit and career history, etc., to reside in a highly transitory and corruptible form and under the control of others who are not accountable to me and have no interest in my welfare.

@Jeruba At one of my husband’s former employers, the accounting side of the company went from generating 3–4 large file cabinets of paper each year to reducing the size of all stored office paper to just 3 large file cabinets.

I’m on the prowl for a job for the millionth time in the past 3 or 4 years and I have noticed you cant fill them out in more and more places now too. I really hate the phone applications though. They take forever and are inconvenient. Same with the internet, though. The paper ones are usually simple and to the point.

Ok, so I’ve been recently applying for or at least trying to apply jobs via the internet and I just get frustrated. For instance the BestBuy up here in the AK has a musical instrument department and I thought I’d try applying for it, ya know, since I am currently job hunting. Well, after 20 mins of filling out personal info it comes to a screen saying I need to physically sign a background check form and if I was not in a store location to go to one to sign the paper. I ask, what’s the point? I mean really…