Job update 2

One of the things that makes applying for jobs tedious is that you have to fill out each potential employer’s application, which can run to 12 pages, if it’s a document, or seven sections, if it’s an online system. You have to write essays about how your skills and experience map to the essential job criteria--of which there can be dozens.

What is most surprising is the monitoring form, which collects lots of personal information. For example, there are 16 categories for race. There’s White-British, White-Irish, White-Other. I put White-Irish, even though I’m a U.S. citizen and live in a British jurisdiction. I’m of Irish descent, so that’s where I see myself, given the available choices. Other choices are Asian-Indian, Asian-Pakistani, Asian-Bangladeshi, Asian-Other. Then there’s Black-Caribbean, Black-African, and Black-Other. And there’s Mixed-White and Black Caribbean; Mixed-White and Black African; Mixed-Other. There’s also Chinese and prefer not to disclose.

For religion, another tough category for me, choices are: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Atheist, Prefer not to say, Other religion or belief. I’m offered that list for jobs posted in London; for jobs posted in Ulster, the list is: Catholic; Protestant; Other. This is all bizarre to me because I don’t think employers ask any of this stuff in the U.S.--although it’s been 17 years since I applied for a U.S. job. For gender, my choices are male, female, Transexual Male, Transexual Female, Intersex, Prefer not to say. For sexuality, I’m offered heterosexual, gay/lesbian, bisexual, prefer not to say.

When I googled to find out what this info is used for, I found this:

"Giving job applicants a monitoring form will help you to see who has applied for the job and who has been selected, in terms of their protected characteristics. You could then compare who has applied for jobs against the profile of jobseekers in the local community, nationally, in your sector and the profile of employees already in the organisation. This highlights any groups who are not applying or not getting further on in the recruitment. If this is happening, then look again at your assessment processes: are you excluding good applicants unnecessarily?”

"You must not base decisions about who to take further into the application process on the information people give on the monitoring form."

11-28