| Pete Dashwood 2007-03-20, 7:55 am |
|
"Alistair" <alistair@ld50macca.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1174312430.472595.237730@n59g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On 19 Mar, 11:48, "Pete Dashwood" <dashw...@removethis.enternet.co.nz>
> wrote:
>
> Just to pour cold water on the project: that represents a 10% failure
> rate. In the UK, businesses are given a reduced bulk mail postal rate
> if they can achieve a high percentage of valid post codes (no, I don't
> know what rate is required). Of course, your system corrects 90% of
> invalid post codes but would it meet the requirements of the NZ postal
> service?
It is 100% when adress data is presented in fixed format. Addresses it
cannot assign a valid postcode are filtered to an Excel spreadsheet and
never reach the Post Office, which receives 100% valid addresses and post
codes.
>
>
> In an earlier post (IIRC) you suggested that agents receive 100
> applications for each job posted. I believe that the rate is nearer
> 400 in the UK. The last job I applied for with less than 100
> applicants was at Leicestershire police. The job was so poorly
> described that I realised, from a form that I had to fill out prior to
> the interview, that I was wasting my time (and that after a two hour
> journey to get to the interview). I was shouting abuse through the
> windscreen of my car for at least twenty miles before I calmed down on
> the return journey. Agents and employers may be competent
> professionals in NZ but the same can not be said of the UK. I have
> lost count of the number of times that I have had to tell agents why
> an applications programmer could not do a systems programming job or
> even what CICS is (and how to pronounce it!).
>
I have contracted in the UK for 3 decades and I agree it is pretty bad. It
is better now than it was in the 70s and the days of having to rely on pimps
are coming to a close due to direct advertising on the Internet. Companies
still get benefit by going through a pimp and there are still cowboy
agencies (and contractors) around. Most of the smaller agencies have been
swallowed by the bigger ones, but there are new ones all the time who see
pimping as a chance to get rich quick...
Pete.
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