“When it comes to some big-name companies, Macintosh users may have a tough time landing a job,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “It’s not just that the business world is dominated by Windows-based computers. It’s because, at a number of large companies, Mac users literally can’t apply.”
Fried reports, “At American Express, for example, job seekers are greeted with this warning: ‘At this time, the system does not support Mac environments. If you don’t have access to a PC at home or work, please check out a local public library for Internet access, local Internet cafes, or the nearest government Work Force Center.'”
Fried reports, “The financial-services company, like a number of other well-known businesses, uses an outside talent management company, BrassRing, to manage its online job applications. However, the current generation of BrassRing’s software doesn’t support Mac browsers. A company representative said it hasn’t incorporated Mac support because clients haven’t been clamoring for it. ‘However, we are seeing a gradual increase in demand,’ said BrassRing spokesman Doug Jensen. ‘Therefore, BrassRing Enterprise 8, which is coming out in December, will be Firefox-compatible to support Mac users.’
“Although Windows-based computers dominate the markets for both business and consumer PCs, Apple has been steadily gaining share. The company saw its Mac unit shipments rise 48 percent in the third quarter. That gives the company a 4.3 percent share of the U.S. market, according to IDC, up a full percentage point from last year,” Fried reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those who surf the Web using a Mac tend to be better educated and make more money than their PC-using counterparts, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings. So, if you want less educated people who’ll work for less money, exclude Mac users from your online application process. By the way, Mac users are probably more likely to carry American Express cards in their wallets. Maybe we shouldn’t use them until Amex figures out a way to allow employee applications from everyone?
In related news: Want to apply to work for the British Civil Service? Mac users need not apply here either. The online tests that form part of the FastStream recruitment process only run on Windows. Having registered with the site http://www.faststream.gov.uk, applicants are given the following warning: “Please note that unfortunately on Apple Macs running Macromedia Flash, some of the graphics on the Numerical Reasoning tests are not correctly positioned and therefore a Microsoft Windows based PC must be used to ensure all questions are correctly displayed.” FastStream is a graduate entry route into senior British Civil Service careers. The kind of people who get to choose which computer systems government departments should use, who get to award government IT contracts, etc. Guess they won’t be recommending Macs or awarding contracts to Apple, huh? Ironically, the website states, “regardless of your gender, ethnic origin, disability, sexuality, age or marital status, if you have what it takes to join the FastStream, we look forward to your application.” [Thanks to MDN reader “brassbaby” for the heads up on the FastStream situation.]
Blind fools. Eliminate a class of applicants who probably are above average in skills, talent, and ability. Really bright move!
I think this method of screening out people who buck the herd mentality, make unpopular choices after evaluating things for themselves, and insist upon high standards of design and performance is very smart for corporate America.
MW=company. No, really!
No need to worry, usually mac users are the 5% who are hiring other people…..
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Well, since its a given that most Mac users are more intelligent and have higher average incomes, guess we already got jobs…….
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MDN MW: bad
Never had to apply online for a job – my personality and charm see me just fine
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I would not even apply for a company that did this. When I encounter a web site that excludes other browsers, usually only including IE, I like to send an email stating that HTML standards were created for a reason, and that their coders are not using HTML standards. Although most ignore me or send back a pat answer that they don’t support anything except IE, I’ve had a few responses that they are changing their sites to use standards and accept all browsers.
Makes me wish i had an AmEx card to cut up and send back to them.
Maybe I’ll get one just so i can do that.
So what? Going by MDN’s logic on music formats, Windows must be the “de facto standard.”
MW = huge
i feel discriminated against.
Here’s to the crazy ones
The same kind of thing happens with the format many companies expect resumes in.
Last year when I was planning on moving, I sent resumes out in .rtf and .pdf format figuring those would be the easiest for anyone to open. Well, a couple of firms replied “instructing” me to resend the documents in M$ Word format. I replied that I do not own a license for M$ Word and the .pdf format can be opened with a free reader from http://www.adobe.com/acrobat. When a couple of them still insisted I find a way to send the document in M$ Word format, I told them to remove my name from their list of candidates.
Of course I found a gig of my choosing anyway. When they try to herd you in the pen – push back!
After three year my very large and backwards company took my Mac off the network because they were afraid of the security risk. It was a blind policy decision that had no grounding in reality.
My Mac was likely the most secure computer in the thousands on the network. They didn’t even know it was there. A PC helpdesk flunkie saw it an told the desktop support manager.
After three year of proudly displaying my Mac. I wa the only one with more than one monitor. I had three. The other “professional programmers” didn’t understand why I needed all those screens. It was easy to demonstrate how I could do my job better and faster than they could hope with their enterprise-crippled version of windows and one monitor.
What a shock it’s been for me to be in a Microsoft-only world. I get no sympathy though. Noone else here sees what the big deal is. Sure they know they work in a crippled environment and struggle with their tools, but I should be content with it. Like hell.
Now my laptop is a giant iPod on my desk since our PCs aren’t allowed to play music or have any media player other than MWP and no browser other than IE. We write pubic web sites for a giant international corporation.
I can believe that Mac users are smarter.
“When a couple of them still insisted I find a way to send the document in M$ Word format, I told them to remove my name from their list of candidates.”
It is hard to soar with the eagles when your surrounded by turkeys.
My Quote of the day
To whom it may concern at American Express
I wish to return my card (pieces); no Mac support, no card support.
Canon (https://en.careers.canon-europe.com) and AOL-TimeWarner (http://www.timewarner.com/corp/careers/jobtools_uk/index.html) also have job sites which are not 100% compatible with Mac’s. They do run, but once you try to send your resume, the website just blocks or gives an error. It does work sometimes with Internet Explorer 5, but not with Safari, Firefox nor Opera.
“….Mac users tend to be better educated and make more money…”
That means we already have jobs, make money, support our communities, and have no need for an online employment service to help us out like our poor, uneducated PC conterparts. No wonder its a Windows only system
funny this should come up!!
I was searching for a job for my x last night on the uk dss site (government job centre) and it didn’t work on my mac!!!!!!!!!!!
disgusted!
“No need to worry, usually mac users are the 5% who are hiring other people…..”
BWAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Large corps can’t afford Mac users. Mac users actually get work done, are usually more intelligent than their managers, are more computer literate and are more deserving of RAISES. Thats why they look for PC users, they work cheap!
Mac Fanboys = Self-aggrandizing idiots. It’s only natural and sensible for successful corporations to concentrate on the operating system with over 95% market saturation than to pay attention to a cult of lonely fanatics and their pathetic, underpowered computers.
All these holdouts are gonna have to update their policies and software anyway, as OSX and Linux are making a big push
To Rocket Babe:
Geez, did you miss the point! The W3C set web standards years ago, and companies that don’t follow them are eventually hurting themselves, as IE falls out of favor for better, more secure browsers. If you pay attention, these problems occur on non-IE browsers on Windows machines as well. Companies who ignore W3C standards have well below the 95% success rate you have just suggested, a percentage that is falling daily. A company that ignores W3C standards is broadcasting to the world that it’s behind the times and too stupid to do anything about it, kind of like you, Rocket Babe.
Rocket Babe – the real issue is that companies are not paying for standards compliant websites – the very fact that they except shoddy web pages for their companies shows how much they think they can get away with.
If the web pages exclude anyone, anyone at all, then the net isn’t being cast as wide as it could be and the company loses out by potentially missing out on the best candidates. Macintosh or not, it shouldn’t matter how you connect to a companys web site. The information and functionality should be there for all, and if the web site is standards compliant – it would be.
To Rocket Babe:
You just got ROFLPWNED, you naïve Windows user.
“their pathetic, underpowered computers.” I assume you’re talking about the dual-dual-core-processor PowerMac G5. I guess that 16GB of RAM isn’t enough for you, is it?
MW: interest
u couldn´t buy it in a hundred years…
suggest u get a job at american express