I had a nice dinner with former colleagues who are hunting for a new job (in IT sector). It became clear from the discussion about what they are experiencing that online application is a real nightmare. They have in average 10-15 years experience in IT/telecom yet they are not able to find jobs. The recurring pattern is sending online Cv+cover letter and filling out a form, sometimes you get an automated email response confirming application. Then they don't hear anything for 1-3 weeks until they decide to call to ask about the status of process. Funny responses provided by HR: we have no deadline, we did not decide yet, we call you back etc.....and nothing happens.
I started reading reports about the employment market in Switzerland and found the "Recruiting Trends Suisse 2011" from Monsters.ch (500 companies asked about recruitment status) claiming that 42% of the published position are difficult to fill because of lack of candidates. The reports states that there is high demand for candidates with specialized skills.
Another study from Potentialpark surveying online application states that 70% of applicants are unhappy with the online application process of most companies. The recurrent word is "blackbox" and lack of transparency. A top rating of best company carreer sites is given in the study for European countries, asia, US.

So what is happening? On one hand companies having difficulties finding good candidates with specialized skills and on the other hand skilled candidates applying but not getting offers. Where is the truth?

Thanks for this post. I find both ways, online and via snail mail pretty depressing. You actually have to get back to them to get an answer.

Obviously both:
1. Currently the job market is good for qualified and experienced IT people. Loads of jobs out there. What typically happens is that the employers that are used to pay under-average rates start to moan how difficult it is to fill positions. I bet they don't have the problem at the more popular employers.

2. The overall attitude on "How to deal with applicants" is getting worse and worse. Not only here, but everywhere. In the past, putting an ad into a newspaper was expensive - so companies only did publish jobs they actually wanted to fill. Now there are a lot of ads out there that do not really have a job behind them - its basically free to put them online, so why not look how good the market is and who responds... in the past, you could expect a timely invite or a rejection letter that gives some reasons why you don't fit. Today these online systems, especially at larger employers have some prepared standard texts and the apprentice who filters your CV will simply hit a button which sends you some standard response... or nothing at all.

On the other hand am I sometimes wondering if applicants would send out equally shitty formated CVs if they actually had to print them out and look at them...

I filled out an online application with the beloved U.N. in December of 2010. I just got a response yesterday saying they Nopsies.

When I receive applications for a job I want to fill, I pick half of them at random and throw them in the bin. I don't want to employ someone who's unlucky.

.

I always suspected something like that.

you did like that customer of an expensive restaurant who was served a lobster with a missing claw. He asked where the 2nd claw is. The waiter responded:"it was lost in the aquarium during a fight with another lobster". "For this price bring me at least the winner" shouted the customer.

they do keyword spotting. If they don't find the keywords mentioned in the ad text they throw away the CV.

There is some similar relevant points here State of the job market

Switzerland being Switzerland, everthing (business) hinges on relationships so it would be fair to assume online applications are similar to online dating - you can see what is out there, but would you really want to marry them?
If you are serious about finding a job, find a good recruiter/headhunter in your locale and field, listen to their advice on what your options are with your current CV. There are a lot of crap recruiters out there.
As it stands here at the moment (IMHO) education is everything, experience is nothing, every employer wants a PHD for a Batchelors price (Batchelors don't get a look in - regardless of experience), sorry sad but true. More education doesn't directly translate to being better at your job. This is more relevant to sales and marketing positions, without a degree no job but if you have a degree are you really a hotshot sales person? A vicious circle.

Yes, I can confirm that. Two particularly annoying things I have seen recently are:

Job sites where, in addition to filling in all the usual info, submitting a CV and motivation letter, candidates have to respond to one or two "key questions" like, for example, "Do you have at least ten years' experience as an IT project manager ?". I suppose the result of a wrong answer is that your application never even gets as far as the recruiter's inbox, which can only encourage lying on the candidate's part. JobUp.ch is doing this a lot at the moment, presumably at the request of the companies who are using them to search for candidates.

Job sites where candidates actually have to pay for "premium status" before the can see the full text of the jobs that they want to apply for. Quite honestly, the very principle of expecting someone to pay for the privilege of being allowed to apply for a job makes me want to vomit . One site in particular whose name starts with an E uses this practice.

I found references to old studies mentioning that only 4% of job seekers find a position through an online site. Your network & referrals are still the most efficient way to get hired. Therefore the Linkedin, XING and other business social networks can improve your chances....I'd rather look there before monsters.ch or the fee-based experteer.ch.

Lots of companies have off shored their hr department, meaning that the first and maybe second scan of the cv will be handled by less-trained personnel. You especially have this when using an e-recruitment system

Hmmmmmm, I'm going to apply London rules to this, so please don't groan, it is what I know.

Getting new employees is a difficult process, you want the best, you need the best etc..

The web is the best option to get everyone on board, but how do you determine who is the best? A decent CV will get you looked at - I'm not a newbie to the internet but I always constantly trim my CV to the job I'm applying to - this I think in my experience is the cause why people go 'no one looks at my cv'

I can only apply this to IT, but, if you are applying to a job which wants SQL and DB why have those 5 lines of how good you are at coding VB.......?

It works both ways - and if you were in the UK, you'd have someone phoning you up saying that there is the perfect position up north for half the money you are looking for, and why don't you go for it.........

The Swiss want qualified and experienced people - they get the qualified entry level from home, that extra bit from working in NYC, Paris, London, Sydney that's the deal breaker....

Just imho....

The situation is identical in the UK these days, too.

Looking around, I think a lot of people are coming from Asia and of course they think 60'000 is an excellent salary. The companies tell the Swiss government they can't get Swiss people, they employ Asians and save themselves 50% HR costs.

I was once a paying user of this website and can confirm that it is not worth your hard earned cash. Their business model worked very well in a financial crisis, but as soon as the markets improve - as right now - nobody gets desperate enough to believe their bull claims. No, there are not more headhunters waiting there for you than on the free sites as monster.

I think your a bit off the mark (Asians) and out of date. Two or three years ago a lot of companies were searching "not Switzerland" for cheaper employees but post GFC and comparing apples with apples, the Swiss person will get the job every time, there is still a reluctance here to employ foreigners.

Just a fact a found, most recruiters have nothing to do with what they are recruiting for, i always research the recruiters profiles on linkedin, most of the time, they have previous experience in sales, marketing or any un relevant career, still they're responsible for hiring for IT....so unless you copy paste what matches in the job description to your experience (and i really mean copy paste), you're never getting contacted by them.

With internet, you never know if the job offer is real or not.
Some companies just put it online out of marketing reasons, faking growth or for propaganda purposes within their field. The aim is to give a false impression to the competing companies.
Some companies need an official advertisement in order to fullfill the visa application requirements, even if they already have the right person for the job. In private schools, it's a huuuuuuuuuuuge problem.
Some companies are just testing their attractivity and adjusting their salary policies. The adds aime at potential candidates to see what money it needs to attract what kinf of profile and that becomes part of the internal HR cuisine.
Some companies post unachievable prince charming adds in order to have a huge reserve of excuses to say no to candidates for reasons that would be illegal if they said the real reasons.

Still, there must be some adds of jobs that actually exist. So I've heard.

I would agree with you on this. I found my last job through a recommendation from within my personal network, and my impression is that this is the best chance I have of finding my next one.

Funnily enough, there was an article about this in yesterday's edition of L'Express, the local paper in Neuchâtel. The statistics they quote are:

25% find a job through online sites like Monster or JobUp
20% through networking and contacts
18% through an employment agency
10% through adverts in the printed media
2% through social media such as LinkedIn or Facebook

Not sure what happens to the remaining 25%... presumably they are still looking ?

How & where do you find them??