Last may, I exited a 10 year career in retail banking to take a year to travel. All the stars aligned and presented an opportunity that I just couldn’t ignore. Now, a year later, I am preparing to transition back to a professional career. I was prepared to answer questions about the gap in my resume during interviews. However, I found a job posting on indeed that I only only meet the qualifications, I exceed them. It’s in the correct pay scale and even WFH as I now live in a remote area.
Indeed brings me to the application on their site and the first question is “are you currently employed and have you been in the same role for 12 months?” As a hiring manager, that was a question that I always asked internal hires, but never external hires. I answer the question honestly and clicked “no” and “continue” at this point the application changes to a message that says “thank you for your interest” and nothing else. I said to myself “there is no way that question disqualified me, there must be a glitch or something” I start the application over and change my answer as an experiment. The application immediacy continues.
This seems wild to me. They hadn’t even asked my name yet. I had entered 0 information other than “no, I am not employed and have not retained the same role for 12 months” they decided they wanted to know I was “loyal” before knowing anything else about me. What if I was a disabled person? I’m not, but it has me wondering how many other people were denied. This feels potentially discriminatory, no? Their website trouts all these employment awards and states it’s EEO but how is that possible when you decline applications prior to any other voluntary disclosures? Am I being I early sensitive or is this as wild as it appears?
I did attempt to locate HR contact information but all I can find is a customer service contact form that is only for their customer’s use. The job market is hellscape.