Want a job? It's all done online

Job seekers are finding that online forms or tests are replacing r & eacute;sum & eacute;s.
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Remember eight-track tapes? Polyester leisure suits? Beer-can openers?
The printed r & eacute;sum & eacute; -- long the standard way to apply for a white-collar job -- may soon join those once-ubiquitous products in history's dustbin.
If you haven't applied for a job lately, you may be surprised. If you have applied for just about any position in a midsized or large company, you know what's happening.
Instead of reading your r & eacute;sum & eacute;, an employer may ask you to fill out an online form or take an online test that measures how well you "fit" the job, based on responses from successful workers.
Google, for example, uses a screening program to measure applicants' attitudes, behaviors, personality and biographical details. Answers are scrunched in a formula that creates a score, indicating how well the candidate is likely to fare on the job.
"It's getting harder to sell yourself for a job you think you're qualified for," said Steve Murphy, a 48-year-old job hunter from Lenexa, Kan, who's been surprised at all the electronic hoops he's had to jump through before nabbing interviews. In most cases, he said, "You're just able to post online."
"It's all electronic," agreed Michael Doyle, a 60-year-old job seeker from Prairie Village, Kan., who recently landed a job through personal contacts. In nine months, Doyle said, he'd spoken to exactly two interviewers as a result of online postings.
Here's the trend
Murphy, Doyle and applicants like them discovered that r & eacute;sum & eacute;s have gone digital. Forget worrying about what kind of paper stock to use. You probably won't need it.
In some cases, r & eacute;sum & eacute;s have disappeared from the hiring process completely. Some employers don't even want them in digitized format. They prefer customized online forms, tailor-made to cull the applicant field.
Some human-resource gurus suggest the personal interview could be next on the endangered-species list.
John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University, says most interviews are as valuable as Ouija boards in measuring whether a person will be good on the job.
Interviewers ask the wrong questions, and job candidates can lie, or simply not shine when on the job they'd do quite well, he says -- all the better for online assessments. Companies -- especially those that hire thousands of workers and have high turnover -- are turning to a range of computer-based filters to pare down candidates to a manageable number.
At AMC Entertainment, for example, the company is introducing questions about availability, work eligibility, desired pay, qualifications and pertinent awards in the online application process, said Keith Wiedenkeller, senior vice president-human resources.
Screening tools
'The new screening software allows an interview, when it's offered, "to be more streamlined and efficient," with just five or six basic questions needed, mostly of the "tell me about a time when you resolved a difficult customer service situation" variety, he said.
An increasingly popular screening tool uses a kind of standardized test. Applicants' answers to questions -- about such characteristics as their preferred noise level at work or the time of day they feel most energized -- are compared with answers from workers who already are successful in the jobs.
Many job hunters are frustrated at the digitized "depersonalization" of the hiring process. Few are as discontent, though, as Michael Rosenthal, an Overland Park, Kan., resident, who has waged an all-out campaign, contacting members of Congress, state legislators and others he thinks might stem the online filtering tide.
"I can spend three hours online, taking I.Q. tests, being categorized, taking personality tests, and never know if I'm a viable candidate," Rosenthal said.