I’m unemployed. A few years ago, the Finnish government introduced a requirement that all job seekers must submit up to 4 applications per month. (This was stupid from both the applicant and recruitment perspective. They did this anyway. Oh, companies just get swamped by applications? :surprised_pikachu:)
Then I started hearing news that major companies are screening applications based on AI analysis. And then I attended one job applicant event where one of the sessions was literally “using ChatGPT to write a cover letter”.
I’m in software development. I don’t expect to be employed again anytime soon. (Unless I bullshit my way to some AI job using ChatGPT, but hey, I have a few vestiges of morality left.)
Yup. In theory, it’s a program to gently kick the job applicants to apply for more jobs, which sounds like a good thing. In practice, it’s yet another way for the authorities to breathe down the neck of job applicants to document the busywork they’re already doing, and make sure they’re doing nothing productive besides sitting by their phones and waiting for calls (that probably never come because you just annoyed every potential employer by spamming them with applications).
Several years ago, Finnish authorities did another experiment. Universal basic income for a few lucky recipients! People who participated in this couldn’t believe how awesome it was to freely engage in a bunch of modern freelancing options that the unemployment benefits program just straight up banned. I hear it was awesome while it lasted. Now, they decided to do this mandatory application bullshit for the rest of the unemployed populace. I’m hoping they got all of the data on which of the options was more productive, because from my point of view, this hasn’t been it!
UK here and I was unemployed/irregularly employed back around 2012-2014. The requirement was like 10 applications a week.
I used a web plugin that automated it. Just one click applies. You also need to log each thing you do to search for a job. It is trivial to lie. Honestly the system is so awful I think it actually makes it harder to find a job than having zero requirements beyond being unemployed. Not like it’s enough money to live off anyway, it would comfortably cover food and water, but that is all.
Then they made me work full time at Argos (retail) to continue getting welfare payments which works out to less than a quarter of minimum wage.
Now its iirc 5 hours of jobhunting and applying every single day? You exhaust every opening within 50 miles in the first week. Though less so these days because every job demands you spend 90 minutes filling out a survey no one will look at.
I’m unemployed. A few years ago, the Finnish government introduced a requirement that all job seekers must submit up to 4 applications per month. (This was stupid from both the applicant and recruitment perspective. They did this anyway. Oh, companies just get swamped by applications? :surprised_pikachu:)
Then I started hearing news that major companies are screening applications based on AI analysis. And then I attended one job applicant event where one of the sessions was literally “using ChatGPT to write a cover letter”.
I’m in software development. I don’t expect to be employed again anytime soon. (Unless I bullshit my way to some AI job using ChatGPT, but hey, I have a few vestiges of morality left.)
Why is the government mandating how many applications you submit? Was this in order to be eligible for unemployment pay?
Yup. In theory, it’s a program to gently kick the job applicants to apply for more jobs, which sounds like a good thing. In practice, it’s yet another way for the authorities to breathe down the neck of job applicants to document the busywork they’re already doing, and make sure they’re doing nothing productive besides sitting by their phones and waiting for calls (that probably never come because you just annoyed every potential employer by spamming them with applications).
Several years ago, Finnish authorities did another experiment. Universal basic income for a few lucky recipients! People who participated in this couldn’t believe how awesome it was to freely engage in a bunch of modern freelancing options that the unemployment benefits program just straight up banned. I hear it was awesome while it lasted. Now, they decided to do this mandatory application bullshit for the rest of the unemployed populace. I’m hoping they got all of the data on which of the options was more productive, because from my point of view, this hasn’t been it!
Damn. In the US it’s totally normalized now to just spam hundreds of job applications per month to hopefully hear back from maybe one of them
I’d struggle to name one single thing I envy Americans for. It seems like the US is exactly what I don’t want mine to become.
UK here and I was unemployed/irregularly employed back around 2012-2014. The requirement was like 10 applications a week.
I used a web plugin that automated it. Just one click applies. You also need to log each thing you do to search for a job. It is trivial to lie. Honestly the system is so awful I think it actually makes it harder to find a job than having zero requirements beyond being unemployed. Not like it’s enough money to live off anyway, it would comfortably cover food and water, but that is all.
Then they made me work full time at Argos (retail) to continue getting welfare payments which works out to less than a quarter of minimum wage.
Now its iirc 5 hours of jobhunting and applying every single day? You exhaust every opening within 50 miles in the first week. Though less so these days because every job demands you spend 90 minutes filling out a survey no one will look at.
I want a special place in hell for people who made these laws and/or cheering on them…
My little protest was that I would occasionally move items in their stock room at random so it didn’t match the database.
You dont like the extra steps we added to slavery? Oh I bet you want us to make an app for slavery to innovate and disrupt the labor market!
One more step should make this daily coercion okay… right? /$