Originally posted this about two months ago on the Electronic Recruiters Exchange (www.ere.net) and various LinkedIn groups (including SHRM, NCHRA and other HR related groups and associations.) Several responses from several resources seem to confirm that I am not the only person to experience difficulties when it comes to submitting a resume for a qualified employment prospect... (see Taleo Disclaimer below)
The original post is listed below. Please see LinkedIn and ERE for prior comments.
Has anyone else been confronted with technical problems during the resume submittal process - when the organization is using Taleo ??
I had some significant problems with my profile account - for a major utility here in Northern California (who seemed to be the only company hiring at the time...) By the time I FINALLY got someone's attention and my technical issue resolved - the position had been closed.
I've experienced problems with URL connections - that just seem to lead to the Taleo Enterprise Edition scene - and have no idea where to go to from there... (recently experienced when following up on a resume submittal to an online/ecommerce pay-system company!)
Most recently submitted my resume for recruiting account manager position with a major banking organization here in San Francisco... = received an email confirmation of the resume submittal (which I flagged for follow-up) - only to log in ~a week later - only to find a resume account that showed absolutely no resume submittals of any kind (yet I had an email confirmation that I did.)
I'm sure someone from Taleo will eventually read this email note = so if anyone else has experienced similiar problems - would greatly appreciate hearing from you !!!... (actually digging through business cards and emails - from the recent NCHRA HR West conference - trying to find the local Taleo rep's business card.)
This just might be cyber-suicide... - but I am a little upset and concerned about experiencing these technical issues = when it comes to submitting my resume for prospective employment opportunities... - I'm also grateful that I selected these submittals for followed-up or I would have never have known about these issues.
I HIGHLY suggest that people follow-up on resume submittals - and the status of submittals via these applicant tracking systems (ATS). If these systems are not monitoring resume submittals properly - why bother submitting the resume in the first place ??
I've been exposed to a LOT of different Applicant Tracking Systems... - most recently from the "job seeker" side (than my career usually required in the past)... I'm just wondering why I keep having problems (as a job seeker) - with company websites that seem to be powered by Taleo ??
If anyone else - has experienced similar issues (when submitting their resume to an organization using Taleo) - would greatly appreciate you sharing your story here on this LinkedIn Forum !! (ideally - have some electronic communication to back-up statements... - thank you !) I PROMISE to provide to any Taleo person who responds - as well as share the results with everyone participating in the conversation.
Found this disclaimer on Taleo's website today:
For more info: Taleo Corporate Headquarters (1.888.836.3669) or http://www.taleo.com/about/contact-us.php
Comments
I, too, have had problems applying for positions through Taleo. It's happened with several companies. I haven't been able to even finish an application. When I hit "submit" I get a message that says my task cannot be completed. It's very frustrating, having been out of work for nearly 20 months! Maybe Taleo is a scam that's stealing our information for some scheme. I've missed out of some really great jobs because now I'm avoiding companies that use Taleo.
If the company has an application through Taleo I refuse to apply. It's truly a terrible vendor and companies I would have to assume are loosing quality talent in the application pool. I hope Taleo clears up many of their issues with the online application forms that are terrible.
I'm glad to read that I'm not alone. Taleo has caused me grief. I thought maybe the problems were browser-specific. Nope. Firefox and IE rendered similar frustrations . . . Attempts to save yield a 505 server error. I can place my cursor into job history fields yet can type no characters. I submit the application and review the archived submission and it looks decent (sans the aforementioned job history fields), yet I receive a subsequent email informing me that many required pieces appear to be missing (such as my résumé). I double-check and see my résumé in there, yet the email notification says it's not there. I'm holding out hope that my perseverance in completing Taleo-powered on-line applications will put me among a small group of applicants. FYI: I copy every answer I type into a Taleo-driven application form and paste it elsewhere. Why? I've learned the hard way that the system will likely crash and I'll have to redo all of my work.
I agree, but I would really like to work for some of the companys that use taleo ATS. The HR people no longer use any other forms of application so unless taleo admits to being near useless and gets some support... we are stuck!
I believe this is a "blackballing" method used by Taleo. In an application process during a past interaction with a Taleo serviced entity, you may have been blackflagged. This information which reflects negatively on you, which was submitted by past hiring agent, manager, or even some mischievious co-worker is being shared with other companies who also use Taleo to remove you from their candidate pool based upon this reflection of you from another company.
This is merely a guess based on information to which I am privy.
I'm not a fan of Taleo, but since I support Taleo for a staffing agency, I can shed some light here.
@Anonymous - There is no interaction between different company’s instances of Taleo. I can't get at information about a candidate from any instance of Taleo other than the one my company uses.
Business teachers tell students "recruiters only spend 15 seconds looking at a resume, so you have to make yours stand out!" That used to mean pink paper. Now it means clever formatting that confuses resume parsers.
During my last job hunt, I realized all resume parsers have problems. Taleo's big issue is it doesn't fail gracefully. You get a cryptic error message, and it’s "Game Over". Google helped me find a paper at the Sovren Group’s web site entitled "How to write a resume a computer can understand." Their advice worked. My resume went in the first time just about everywhere, saving lots of time.
The free paper is no longer on their site. However, they gave me permission to share the paper with others. If you would like a copy of the paper, please send me an email through the Examiner.
Disclaimers/explanations -
I'll send you the PDF within a day or two at no cost, but will include a pointer to the staffing agency I work for.
The paper will be sent by an email filtration rule that will send the paper and delete your email without saving your email address. We won’t try to contact you.
OOPS - If you want to request the resume guide I mentioned, send me an email through the Examiner and please make the subject of your email, "Resume Parser Survival Guide". That will let me automate the fulfillment process.
Thanks,
Kalvan
Taleo is a simply maddening program used by scores of companies for their application process. How can so many reputable companies use such a clunky, outdated, non-user friendly system and not know it? You have to ask the question. Is it a test of some sort? Is it some sort of game? The system is so bad that you seriously have to ask these questions and wonder what the answer is.
These are the problems with Taleo:
1) It will accept your user name, email and password once but only once. The next time you go to Taleo and attempt to sign in to complete an application, it won't remember any of these things. Indicate you forgot your password, and it will ask you for your user name and email, but it will only give you two boxes to fill in and BOTH ARE FOR EMAIL. Silly.
2) Get past the arduous log in process, and then the redundancy starts. Upload your resume. Upload your cover letter. Done! Well, not so fast, sailor. Then, they ask you to cut and paste both of those documents, and the formatting will be completely off. So you have to go in and manually fix the formatting.
3) Next, it's more redundancy. You'll have to fill out the fields indicating your work history and education. Error city will ensue.
It's basically Chinese water torture. There was more, but I'm limited to 1500 characters.
My experiences using Taleo confirm your being blackballed from applying to positions using Taleo. I am able to log into Taleo and apply for jobs to my previous employer. After successfully submitting over 3,000 jub submissions I am no longer considered a possible employee unless I agree not to pursue litigation for a violation of my 4th amendment rights to privacy within my home. I had a reasonable expection of privacy even if I dialed my own telephone number electronically transmitting a fax attempting to use a manual multi-page feature I had successfully done before.
This time, though, the manual multi-page feature did not work so I used a newer facsimile machine that was the same brand which had an automatic multi-page feature. frfom my primary telephone number without pre-programming my name as the owner and originator of documents from my facsimile machine. So it was extremely easy for me to now the document presented in court as my signed release agreement was obtained using an illegal telephone wiretap. BellSouth Telecommunications, Incorporated or now after the merger AT&T Southeast may not want to employ me but they still cannot place an illegal telephone wiretap on my home telephone.
Then block applications using a systems error after I successfully log in on Taleo.
I've experienced the same type of issues.
I'm now using portable Thunderbird and the Lightning calendar PlugIn on a USB flash drive to track my job applications because Thunderbird is free, and Outlook isn't in my budget right now.
I also emailed Taleo suggesting that they create a local java application that that would run on both Mac and Windows computers that users could use to create a database file of the most commonly requested information so that they wouldn't have to repeatedly reenter it when applying for a job.
Judging by Taleo's customer service response, their programmers hadn't thought of this because they are blessed with top level internet access, and haven't had to apply for a position from a public library or a wifi hot spot with a slow or unstable connection.
This sounds like another case of bloatware and insufficient field/usability testing to me, but then I've never had a high tolerance for unfinished (beta) software that was rushed to market.
I have had problems all afternoon trying to submit my resume to two different Taleo sites. My frustration grows!!!
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