Why drop-down menus kill

Who does not like drop down menus? Creating them or using them…all – users seem to love them alike. It is just something simple, easy to use, easy to come up with, and easy to create from a technical standpoint. The drop down menu is the way to go.

Internationally, the drop down menu enters a new dimension.

There are many recruiters and human resources generalists that take care of hunting down the right candidate for an open position.

They write a job description, the specifics and details of the hire, try to put some behind the scene hints in there and post it on all applicable job boards. It will be shared with colleagues and they network it in groups they belong to hoping that one of them will present the right candidate to them on a silver plate.

That would be the easy way.

Most likely this is what is going to happen…

The job post has a link that takes the candidate to the ‘online application process’. Sometimes it gives the candidate the choice to apply through the company website and at other times the candidate application process starts with the registration on the job board’s own website.

The candidate has to go through the drop down menu screening… nothing major you would think, but after reading this article, dropdown menus will never be the same for you again. Promise!

There is no such thing as a universal drop down menu either. Most every site, Stepstone.de, monster.com, indeed.com to name a few have their own. Not to talk about all other databases and email platforms with databases attached and of course corporate sites.

You are here because you are interested in International business, correct?

Well, let me tell you there is a world out there that is not America or Europe or the Middle East and none of these countries have the exact same educational system and/or graduation degree titles etc.; an imperative factor on job application databases.

What do you do, if your school is not listed? What do you do if there is no official ‘translation’ for the education/graduation level that you have mastered in your home country? You have not even gotten to the point to express and explain your nationality or educational home base.

That question they all keep to the very last… at least in the United States of America. In Europe, nobody truly cares as except for the new situation that Brexit creates. Before Brexit, all EU-citizens were eligible to live and work in all EU- countries, which is the majority of countries in Europe. So prepare yourself and do not wonder. That question won’t come up. Not that they are ignorant, it simply does not have priority.

Well, that for sure is not the case in the United States and many other countries such as Australia to again, just name a few.

After you’ve pulled out your hair in an attempt not to lie but also not having a clue of what your degree or diploma compares to with the ones listed… post graduate or graduate degree, associate degree … and so on and so forth. What does that compare to in Europe? Asia? India or Mexico? Again, just to name a few.

Just because nobody talks about it, does not mean this misleading database mishap does not exist.

The limitation of human capital reaches new heights due to this as if the hiring manager or assistant (would that be a post grad, associate grad, no grad?) did not check mark the ‘other’ candidates from the education dropdown menu, the candidate never gets to go on the ‘to be considered’ pile.

Not because he would not fulfill the requirements, simply because he had no clue of what to chose from the drop down menu.

Silly right?!?

Same with the school name not listed. The moment one cannot chose one of the schools listed in there, one gets to the ‘other’. With the exception of some super smart international databases where you can actually type in your ‘own school’ name, but does that get you on the ‘to be considered pile’? Probably not as you could not overcome the first ‘highest degree of education’ drop down.

By now the drop down became already engraved in your brain and it should be like this as:

Simply because his education is not listed. The school he attended is not listed. There is no official equivalent for the highest degree earned in the language he is trying to apply and last but not least, the visa status he owns which grants him/her permission to work in the target country, is not listed in the drop down menu does not mean he is not perfectly qualified for this position. Especially when the company is seeking someone to work in another country for them. This person might be the absolute perfect fit ever imaginable, but he/she won’t get considered because of the above.

But the candidate does not know yet. All the candidate has, is this silent voice telling him or her that this part was not good, after he has worked his way through writing a CV streamlined to the job description, spent 2 hours on researching the company and writing a compelling cover letter (that now get limited to 799 characters, but that’s another topic in international job hunting) just to get to the point after typing in all his qualifications, interests, answering all the equality questions just to get to the point that he does not equal to any local applicant!

There is no translation for his school degree and people are wondering why they cannot find the right candidate for the open position that lasts longer than a few months!?!

Are we pulling from the right pool?