Application form criteria

[Alf]

If you meet all the criteria on an application form, are you not entitled to an interview?  Can I phone the company and ask for a reason why I was rejected at this stage or do they not have to give me any information?

Thanks

[irisred]

If th company has an equal ops policy and you meet all the criteria they have to at least interview you.

You are perfectly entitled to ask them why you do not get an interview the same as you can ask why you were not taken on for the job.  The answers however, may not be much use!

 

Happy hunting!

[january_bug]

Well, with training contracts (for law) no you don't get an answer.  Most companies have minimum 1000 applicants for only 500 jobs.  You will have to meet objective and subjective criteria.  Given the stats, law firms

1. don't interview everyone
2. don't give feedback at the initial sift phase

It sucks, but it's commercial reality.  You (and I on several occasions recently) just don't meet the subjective criteria.  Forcing an interview out of them wouldn't get you the job.  Life sucks, especially as a graduate!! :-(

[january_bug]

Sorry - major typo there!  I mean 1000 applicants for 30 jobs.  One firm I actually DID get an interview, it was 1500 applicants, for 6 jobs.  Needless to say, I didn't actually get the job!

[Mrs_Pegasus]

I have been challenged on this when advertising.  The person did indeed tick all the boxes but so did the 14 other applicants.  We are told to not interview more than 6 candidates because its difficult for the interviewers to get a good overview of all the candidates.

The reason I didnt interview the individual was because their application form was untidy and the typed attached sheet was badly laid out, typed in bold and one of the criteria was for administration support.  They said they were well versed in Word but felt this didnt reflect this. 

[Sasha13]

Sorry irisred, but you're not correct... People can fulfill all criteria for a position but still not be interviewed and this is perfectly within the law, although of course not best practice. If I have 100 perfect candidates (on paper) for a single job there's no way I will interview all 100 candidates. Other things will come into play. For example, if I am looking for retail experience and all 100 (say) candidates have it, I will look at which candidates have experience that most closely matches the job at hand and start narrowing down the field that way until I have say 5 candidates to invite to an initial interview. If I don't fill the position from those initial interviews, I'll interview the next 5 etc etc.

Likewise Alf companies are under no legal obligation to provide feedback on an application, but most should be happy to (although you may need to ask for it in writing rather than phoning the company). However, if you feel that your application has been discriminated against on the basis of sex, race or disability then you need to see someone at a Citizen's Advice Bureau ASAP.

[Kirki]

I would call the company and be polite and ask them if they can give you the reasons you were not sucessful tell them it would be useful to help you when applying for jobs in the future.