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I would like to apply for a Mechanical Engineering job, which I believe I meet all of the skill/experience requirements for, except that they are asking for a PhD on the job description, which I don't have.

When I try to apply, I am sent to a web screening form, where I have to answer the question 'do you have a PhD?' (radio buttons). I have answered this honestly, but I am fairly sure the page is immediately binning my application, so it's not being sent to or seen by anybody.

The screening form looks relatively simple, so I'm fairly sure I could probably 'hack' the html/Javascript quite easily and get it to send the application through anyway (although obviously still with the honest answer 'no' to that PhD question). I'm not suggesting I would lie.

Would that be considered acceptable, or could it get me in hot water? Might they be impressed that I had the skills/ initiative to defeat their filter, or would they consider it as 'cheating' and be annoyed (possibly blacklist me)?

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  • @JoeStrazzere I don't, it's a suspicion. I could probably confirm it if I spent some time digging through the Javascript.
    – Time4Tea
    Commented Oct 6, 2018 at 23:28
  • I don't quite understand the negative voting response to the question. I am simply asking "is this acceptable?". If the answer turns out to be "no", why does that mean it's a bad question? Could it not still be useful to others in future?
    – Time4Tea
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 0:39
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    No offence, I think the downvotes are because playing javascript monkey games in this manner is obviously not acceptable which makes people question your motives for asking, potential as a large green unpleasant looking chap intimidating people into paying to cross a bridge, and/or sanity.... or maybe not
    – Kilisi ♦
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 4:20
  • @Kilisi not sure I agree it's obviously not acceptable. I'd liken it to someone putting a sign on their door saying 'no junk mail' and me putting a leaflet in their mailbox anyway. Per Joe's answer though, I accept it would probably just annoy them and get binned anyway.
    – Time4Tea
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 10:55
  • I'd liken it to some innocent merrily skipping like a carefree butterfly over a bridge and suddenly getting accosted by a corpulent green chap in need of a bath.
    – Kilisi ♦
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 13:15

2 Answers 2

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Would that be considered acceptable, or could it get me in hot water? Might they be impressed that I had the skills/ initiative to defeat their filter, or would they consider it as 'cheating' and be annoyed (possibly blacklist me)?

Bad idea. They set up their process for a reason.

Bypassing it isn't cute or showing initiative. More likely it will be viewed as thinking the rules don't apply to you. In general, that's not a good way to get hired.

I am fairly sure the page is immediately binning my application, so it's not being sent to or seen by anybody.

You don't know that, you are guessing. Having worked with HR systems, I suspect you are wrong. HR wants to keep a record of all applicants, even if they don't meet all the requirements. It wouldn't make any sense to bin an application via front-end scripts.

And even if true, it's evidence that they really don't want anyone without a PhD. Thus, they would simply bin your application since you don't have the required degree, no matter how you got it to them.

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I'm pretty sure, this could have considerable legal consequences for you.
This might be considered "interfering with" or "unauthorized access to" a secured computer system, which is illegal in many countries as far as I understand.

You could always send an oldschool letter and hope you get considered.

Some companies require their employee to have a certain education, others emphasize more on proficiency or experience.

Another thing you could try is if the company ever goes on recruitment drives or exhibitions, have a chat there and hand over your CV.

EDIT:
What you propose to do is unethical at best and potentially illegal at worst.

Without knowing where you or the company is, here is an example I found that might be dealing exactly with this sort of thing. They seem to be using a broad brush with their terminology as well.

I'm not a lawyer and this might not even be the correct piece of legislation to cite but hey, common sense should tell you that this is a bad idea.

Have a read through the California Penal Code Section 502

  1. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this section to expand the degree of protection afforded to individuals, businesses, and governmental agencies from tampering, interference, damage, and unauthorized access to lawfully created computer data and computer systems. [...] (1) Access means to gain entry to, instruct, cause input to, cause output from, cause data processing with, or communicate with, the logical, arithmetical, or memory function resources of a computer, computer system, or computer network.

Emphasis are mine and your actions may fall under these...

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    Thanks for your answer; however, I would not consider html/Javascript that is openly and publicly available on a web page to be a 'secured computer system'. True that it may be a grey area though.
    – Time4Tea
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 0:07
  • I'm not a lawyer and indeed the waters on the internet are murky but any server with password protection somewhere is a secured computer system. Even if that wouldn't stick, I'm sure there is other legalese that could be turned against you. Just don't do it, it's really not worth it.
    – DigitalBlade969
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 0:11
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    The web form is not password-protected. All it does is send a data file to a publicly-accessible address. So, I highly doubt it would be in any way illegal to simply 'construct' that form and send it myself.
    – Time4Tea
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 0:16
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    You don't send it to yourself, you circumvent or interfere with the website code to output an altered document that is sent to the web server or a company internal email address.Listen, I don't see the point in discussing legalities or ethics of hacking or if this even is hacking. You asked if it is acceptable, I answered with my opinion, gave you a recommendation I think would be a better course of action and hinted at possible legal ramifications.What you do with it is your decision dude.
    – DigitalBlade969
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 0:28

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