We’ve all had a bad experience on a company’s career website. We’ve all seen them and suffered their faults. They seem to do everything they can to get you to give up the process and look elsewhere. This is a problem–for the companies that have them, because they turn potential candidates off. But for the really dedicated job seeker, they can be wonderful! Every time you get frustrated with one of these badly designed websites, remember: some of your competition just gave up applying, and you’re still there.

Five Annoying Career Website Design Mistakes That Actually Help

1. It’s impossible to get much information. If you’re struggling to learn anything at all about the position posted online beyond that it’s open (and you’re not even sure about that), so is everyone else. Do the best you can and apply anyway. What have you got to lose?
2. Navigation is a nightmare. If it takes you three hours of searching to find the positions that are actually open in your geographic area for your salary range and experience level, that’s more than dozens–or hundreds–of other people found, depending on the career. Website navigation has gotten so easy on much of the Internet that people just don’t have patience anymore for bad design.
3. You can’t even find the darn site. You had to call and talk to someone to find the career website, and then had to call again for the link to apply? Great! Sweet-talk the contact person while you’re at it, and impress him or her with your amazing patience and fortitude. Don’t be afraid to push for information. Even if you annoy someone, it probably won’t be the hiring manager anyway.
4. The job description is dull. The job description reads like an ingredients list and leaves you with lots of questions about the position. If nobody else wants it, that just leaves you to get the answers in person–during the interview. You’re just not risking that much by applying for a position that may or may not be as unorganized as it appears. Chances are that it will be better, and you can decline it if it’s worse.
5. The application process takes forever. Studies have shown that a lot of people, especially highly-qualified applicants, won’t apply at all if the application process is too difficult or lengthy. The stamina to hang in there will say a lot about you even if you’re not the only applicant who finally crosses the finish line.

A company’s career website is only as good as the effort and resources they put into designing it, and a bad one doesn’t always (or even often) indicate a bad employer. By not letting yourself get weeded out by roadblocks and annoyances, you will find yourself in a much smaller crowd of applicants. Keep going; you might find you’re the only qualified candidate who went to the trouble of dealing with a really, really bad career website.

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