A rant- Application Forms

[WX Man]

I AM FUMING!!!!

http://www.rivnet.net/fuming.jpg

This is primarily directed at anybody out there that designs online application forms:

"Employment" sections: put in an option for "Present"!!! PLEASE!!!

I am sick and ******* tired of seeing application forms that only let you enter in past dates in your employment history.

There. Rant over. I thank you.

[ChocksAwayUK]

I sympathise. See also an inability to save your progress so far, and forms that are only supported by IE (why would anyone voluntarily use that) - and pressing submit to find "error, please fill out again", or whatever. Oh, and having to type my school and dates 13 different times, once for each GCSE or A-level - why no "copy" option.

And the most frustrating thing is that my 270hrs dictate that there's not much chance of my application ever being considered anyway! :{

Anyway, your attached image was me at approx 6pm yesterday when I got some kind of "empty cache" message following an hour form filling.

[Flintstone]

RANT


Why not just enter your present employment details in the latest section and under 'dates of employment' where it asks for the leaving date write 'present'?


Or am I being too simplistic?

[ChocksAwayUK]

Far too simplistic I'm afraid - that field must be in the following format: xx-xx-xxxx (not xx/xx/xxxx or xx.xx.xxxx or anything else) or the system will whinge petulantly. Even if you try 99-99-9999, to make it obvious you are still at that workplace it won't accept it. So mine looks like I left my job the same day that I filled in the application form.

[no sponsor]

Another suggestion would be to filter applications as they are written. BA's application process will not let you continue if you do not meet their requirements for hours.

So, it would be nice to assume that if the airline will only look at 700hrs guys with an FI rating, or those TR on a TP/jet, then they apply a filter in the application process. Or as an alternative, at least give an indication to the applicant that a filter has been applied and they are in/not in the first tier of applications which will be examined.

For instance, I have absolutely no idea why Flybe has not progressed my application. Is it due to my hrs, experience, etc? Some filter has been applied and it would be useful to understand which one so I can do better next time around. An automatic message such as 'insufficient hrs' would be nice, or perhaps 'too handsome'? :rolleyes:

[WX Man]

Actually, the rant wasn't directed at the flybe application form...

... because the flybe application form deserves a whole lot of seperate ranting on its own!!!

It was just a general rant about not being able to get an automated system to recognise that, ahem... I actually have a job (albeit one I'd like to move on from).

The flybe form has got to be one of the worst I've ever seen (and let's face it, we've all seen a few).

From memory, faults did include the employment history thing. But the design of the Education history page is just utterly diabolical. And what's with the "yes/no" accompanied by a tick box? It's obvious that if the answer is "yes", then tick the box... so why not just state "yes"? I could very legitamately tick all the boxes and when quizzed about it later, inform whoever that I assumed they meant "tick the box if the answer is no".

I've also never been asked before how much P1 u/s time I have. How much time have you spent taking tests which you succesfully passed?

And the Medical date... what's that, date of expiry or date of issue?

And regards getting it to fit different browsers, I didn't have any problems getting Camino on my Apple Mac to do it. It worked on Firefox as well, so it's not *all* bad... :)

[ToneTheWone]

Actually the Flybe application form isn’t as bad as it may first appear. It’s certainly far better than their first draft last year.
Since then you do have the pages available in ‘pdf’ format so you can see the information required before you go ahead and start on the form. Last year you just had to go in blind and complete it in one go. A total nightmare if your computer hung up half way through. Or if you trip over the Internet cable when you’d almost finished! It happen to me and I could have thrown the computer through the window:{
Another great improvement is you can go out of the application form and when you go back in double clicking on the box will give you the answers entered before. Likewise double clicking on boxes that require the same as the pervious line i.e. your school, brings up previous entries. Not perfect but a great improvement.

Good luck all and keep calm:ok:

[boeingbus2002]

Hours breakdown gets me!!
Some have separate Captain and First Officer columns or P1 and P2.
P1/Captain hours are obvious, and if you are already flying for airline, the P2/FO is simple. However as first job application it looks like you have harly any hours apart from 100h P1.

[Flintstone]

Maybe the forms are in themselves a filter?

Only those who have the tenacity to complete the forms will have their application, erm.....................ignored.