Posted By Paul T9 How many find this annoying applying for a new position that is filled by an internal appointment but has to be advertised (I believe that this is a mandatory requirement). I recently saw an advertisement for a Health and Safety Advisor and decided to apply. I did not really plan to do this as I am in full time employment on a decent wage but it was an area that I had a lot of experience and knowledge in. Unfortunately it was an application form so I had to take the time and effort to fill this out (i.e. neat handwriting and no mistakes). I reviewed the requirements and thought I had more then covered all the requirements and nailed most which is unusual for a job vacancy. Didn’t get a look in, so called them and asked what it was that I had failed to put on my application as a big believer in correcting any errors. First person’s response was ‘please hold sir and I transfer you to the person who is dealing with this’, then the click of the receiver being replaced. Still must give her marks out of ten here as it was very polite. Now unfortunately being in health and safety and used to being brushed off I called again. This time got a different operator and again I explained the situation and asked for guidance and was told ‘it was not the policy as they received many requests for such information but it takes so much time that they do not do this anymore!’ Now call me naive but I kind of guessed that it had been filled internally and talking to some others in this area they were not surprised. Now we all know this goes on but it was the comment that alarmed me by one of the persons I talked to saying that the persons ‘they’ normally take on from the staff have no idea what they are talking about. So now the real issue that I want to discuss, please do not comment on my job application as it is only the background that generated my discussion, and this is a health and safety forum, is networking a positive or negative thing?

Posted By Safe System Paul, Before i joined the family of Health & Safety i was a successful recruitment consultant in the city for a number of years... what you have experienced there is very common.. those rather unscrupulous agents may post a non existent job or one that has been filled.. for one reason... to obtain your CV and details.. all of this information is very valuable especially if it is good. It's illegal but extremely difficult to prove. But take my word .. it happens more than you would like to think.. i would go as far as to say 20%+ of all advertised jobs do not actually exist... If this was a direct employer.. then pfft to them.. why would you want to work for someone who treats potential candidates like that anyway ;)